How to Make Fisherman's Pie
This recipe is for fisherman’s pie, it’s a family favorites and I deliberately chose the ingredients that are great for a really young child as well as toddler and yourself. And first of all, let’s talk about the fish we’re gonna use in it. The recipe work with white fishes as well as oily fish but because oily fishes are really great for omega 3, I’m choosing salmon, salmon’s also quite a sweet fish and a lot of children find that a lot easier to cope with, than the stronger tasting fish. So, on my raw fish chopping board, I’ve got four pieces of salmon they’ll all farmed salmon, and on the right here, I’ve got conventional farmed salmon, where is this paler pieces, this are organic salmon. And you may see organic salmon, and think, ooh, it’s not quite so attractive, but actually, it’s quite common and convention to fish farming to give the fish food to make it look pinker, because we think it’s how salmon should look, although really this is a really natural color. Occasionally with wild salmon, you get red salmon and they do have a really strong color, but don’t worry, if you’re going for organic salmon, don’t be surprise if this got a little bit paler. Well, let’s get on with the recipe. I’m going to take one of the pieces of the organic salmon and I’m just gonna check it for bones. Oh, I ask my fish man to make sure this doesn’t have bones in it. and it’s also taken from a cut towards the tail, which is fewer in bones, and so, that’s completely fine, can’t find any bits in there, just great. Now, I’m gonna chop it into, 2, 1 or 2 centimeter chunks. So, that’s the fish ready to go, but let’s have a look at the other ingredients that we need. So, I’ll gonna put the raw fish on to one side, wash my hands, and let’s get on with the, the a, the other bits. So, every good fisherman’s pie should be top of with a mash, so we wash, peeled and boiled some potatoes here ready to go. I’m gonna use white potatoes for this topping, but it also worked really over this sweet potato mashes for just a little bit of variety. But because the salmon’s pink, decided to go for white potatoes. So that’s ready to go, really be mashed in a few minutes but we need to do the base, where the fish is gonna be, so I’ve got a little frying pan here, a non stick frying pan, we need a bit of olive oil, let’s bring that up to heat, now, we need some chop, finely chop onions or leek. This is actually onions, but, leek brings quite a sweetness to it as well, so you can always vary it with some leek instead of onion. I’m gonna sauté or just gently fry the onion, what are you trying to do is not brown the onion but the should start to go slightly see through, which it is softening but not browning. Ones you got that bubbling a little bit, I’m gonna add the fish now, and I’m gonna start cooking the fish through. The fish pie I’m gonna show you today is just the pan method, we’re not actually going to bake it. So, everything is going to be thoroughly cook before we put it into our little serving dishes. There is no alternative method where you don’t need to cook things completely through in the pan, just cook it for about 3 minutes, so the fishes sealed and all the vegetables are nicely mixed in, and then you bake in oven about 200 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes so it’s really, all the flavors are nicely sweet enough and the top goes nicely golden brown. But this one I’m showing you today is just the pan method. So, I’m just gonna bring the heat down so the onion don’t burn, and then I’ m gonna add in the fish. What I want to see is that the fish goes from slightly transparent look to all sides started to go opaque or you know, sort of white or pink. So keep it moving quite quickly around, and if you’re gonna oven bake your fisherman’s pie, you can add the other ingredients in straight away, but I want to make sure that the fish is thoroughly cook. So, I’m gonna keep the fish moving and cooking for a good five minutes, and if you’re not very confident with cooking with fish, then choose one of the larger pieces off about five minutes and just make sure you’re getting some cook through. If you chop the pieces smaller, obviously that cook a lot quicker. Okay, so wanna just check that we’re now the fish is getting nicely cook through, so if you just want to check yourself, grab your self a little knife and fork and just choose one the larger pieces, just cut to open it, and it should flake, there’s no sign of it pink and through. Even if there is, don’t worry because you’re gonna add some more vegetables and give it a little bit more too cook. So, you can just keep it moving around. So, here I’ve got some chopped carrots, and chopped sweet corns, baby corn, and some peas, we’ll gonna add them all in. I used frozen peas here, but you can also finely chop some ones too instead. Now, this is sizzling away, and what I wanted to see is, is that the fish is nicely cook through, before I add anything else. To make sure it’s moving around so that each the side hit the base of the pan they cook through. Because this is suitable for a child who’s as young as ten months, there is no added salt to this dish at all, remember, you shouldn’t add salt to food for child that’s less than 12 months. So, now the, the salmon’s nicely cooked, the vegetables are really starting to soften, I’m gonna add some crème fresh. The crème fresh adds a creaminess to the base, but it also, obviously because it’s dairy, is a great source of calcium, and vitamins D, and vitamins A, and so on. If you haven’t got any crème fresh, you can always add whole milk, makes it a little bit runnier, but we are gonna add, because we are using crème fresh, we’ll gonna add a little bit of water to, to, to make this a little bit wetter. We should take that off the heat completely, coz I don’t want the crème fresh to burn. We add ‘bout half a table spoon of water. You can always add a little bit more if you feel you need it. but, I’m gonna set that aside for a minute and just finish off the mash, and so I’ve got white potatoes here, I’m gonna mash those down, and I’m gonna add in a good tables spoon of whole milk, just give it a bit of creaminess, now, I adore fisherman’s pie with a nice cheesy tough on it. If you’re going to use this recipe without the baking, then, you wanna add the cheese into the hot mashed potatoes, that melts very, if you’ll gonna do the baking method, then, do the mash and then you’ll gonna sprinkle the cheese on top and then so you can get that nice bubbly grilled on top. So I’ll just sprinkle some mild cheddar into the, into the mash. Now, because this is a little individual servings and because your child is really kin to be feeding themselves, then find yourself a, a little ramikin, if you are planning to use the, use the oven to bake them off, then choose an oven proof ramekin, otherwise, you might find it, doesn’t cope with the heat. A good spoon full of the fish and vegetable mix, in the base. And then, we’ll gonna top off with the cheesy mashed. So just, finish it off with a fork to get a nice top, allow it to cool, just the right temperature for your baby, and then you have a lovely fisherman’s pie. So this is ready to serve, if you decide to do the oven baked method. Put the base as you did before, so if he hasn’t had quite so long to cook because the vegetable will be able to soften in the oven, top of this mashed, sprinkle with some cheese for that extra cheesy topping and then bake, on a flat baking sheet, 200 degrees for 20 minutes. So, there’s individual fisherman’s pies