Scottish Fish Pie

Well, yes Cristina and I are Italians, but we have been living in Scotland for over ten years now. Scottish food offers many  delicious dishes, and Fish Pie is certainly a family favorite.

I went to MacCallums Of Troon this morning, bright and early on my bike, and bough some seriously good smoked haddock and some haddock fillets ( any white flesh fish will do, just ask your fishmonger, I used tillapia before and it was excellent)  and now I am ready to go.

To serve about 4 to 5 people you will need:

450 g of haddock or cod fillet
225 g smoked haddock
150g milk
150 g water
1 slice of lemon
1 bay leaf
a few parsley stalks

and for the sauce:
25 g butter
25g plain flour
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp chopped parsley
ground pepper

for the topping:
450 g potatoe, boiled and mashed
25g butter


rinse and cut the fish into manageable pieces then put it in a pan with milk, water, lemon, bay leaf and parsley stalks. Bring slowly to the boil then simmer for about 15 minutes.
Strain and reserve 300g of the cooking liquid. Leave the fish to cool and make a besciamel sauce out of the cooking liquid, flour and butter. Once ready add the lemon juice and the chopped parsley.

Add the fish back into the besciamel sauce and then turn it into a buttered  pie dish or a shallow casserole.
Cover with the mashed potatoes and dot with butter

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 C for about 20 minutes.