Cider-Spiked Fish Pie

Cider-Spiked Fish Pie
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
4(225)
Notes
Read community notes

This recipe for a smoky fish pie comes from the British food writer Ruby Tandoh. The filling is a simple mix of peas, cod and smoked haddock, gently poached in milk, thickened with roux and spiked with dry cider. Don't worry if the fish isn't completely cooked when you're putting together the pie; it will finish up in the oven, where it bubbles under a thick layer of mashed potato and grated cheese. The result is tender and luxuriously creamy comfort food. —Tejal Rao

Featured in: Ruby Tandoh Just Wants You to Eat What You Love

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

    For the Potato Topping

    • 1⅔pounds/750 grams russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
    • tablespoons/50 grams salted butter
    • ¼cup/50 milliliters whole milk
    • Salt and pepper, to taste

    For the Fish Filling

    • cups/350 milliliters whole milk
    • 9ounces/250 grams cod fillet, cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces
    • 9ounces/250 grams smoked haddock, cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces
    • 2tablespoons/28 grams salted butter
    • 2tablespoons flour
    • cup/150 milliliters dry cider
    • ounces/125 grams mild Cheddar, grated
    • 1⅓cups/150 grams frozen peas
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

672 calories; 31 grams fat; 18 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 54 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 12 grams sugars; 45 grams protein; 1287 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Prepare the topping: Place potatoes in a pot of water and boil until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, then mash or push through a ricer. Mix in butter and milk, and season generously with salt and pepper. Set aside.

  2. Step 2

    Make the filling: Heat milk until it's steaming, then add fish and poach on low heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Strain the parcooked fish, saving the milk, and set aside.

  3. Step 3

    Melt butter over low heat, then add flour and whisk until smooth. Sizzle for a couple of minutes, until golden brown, then slowly whisk in the cider until it's a smooth paste. Allow to bubble for a minute, then gradually whisk in the fish-poaching milk. Turn off heat and gently add fish, half the Cheddar and the peas.

  4. Step 4

    Heat oven to 400 degrees. Pour the filling into an ovenproof dish set on a foil-lined baking sheet (it may bubble over the edges a bit in the oven). Top evenly with mashed potato, spreading it out to the edges of the dish, and sprinkle over remaining cheese. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is golden. Allow to cool just slightly before serving.

Ratings

4 out of 5
225 user ratings
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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Smoked Haddock is cheaper in the U.K. And easier to find . What other firm inexpensive fish would work ?

I used smoked trout (from Trader Joe's) in place of the smoked haddock. It was superb! The perfect comfort food.

The next time I make this, I will make the mashed potatoes last. It was a bit difficult to spread them on top after they had been set aside and gotten rather concrete-like. I ended up kind of slicing and chipping the potatoes and laying them on top. It's no problem letting the fix mixture sit in the baking dish while preparing the potatoes - then they will be soft and easy to spread.

In lieu of smoked fish, I seem to recall last time I made fish pie I threw in some sweet Spanish pimenton, it really added to the dish. Will try that again. Many of the better stores in NYC carry both sweet and bittersweet 'Pimenton'...I love it....use it on many savory dishes. The smoke flavor really does come through.

Hard to find a smoked fish in California that isn't sweet and sweet isn't what you want in this dish. In England I always buy smoked haddock and cod to add to my fish pie, but it still needs cooking. It's not a dry smoke. I generally use the Maldon's smoked sea salt to add a smoky direction to my fish pie and always grate some nutmeg into the creamy sauce.

Absolutely delicious. I would recommend only adding half the poaching milk back to the filling -- it was too much liquid.

I substituted smoked salmon trimmings ($9 per pound) for the smoked haddock ($30 per pound) and reduced the amount of liquid added to filling by half (if you add the entire amount, you wind up with a lovely fish soup rather than a fish pie. Tasted delicious either way!

Here's a tip-let it sit for at least 20 minutes and everything firms up nicely. I know it says to serve right away but I found by waiting the liquids came together nice and creamy and it wasn't soupy at all.

So, for what it's worth, I thought this sounded great but am trying to avoid dairy, so I subbed ghee for butter, added extra ghee for mashed potatoes in place of milk, and poached the fish in beef stock (just what I had in the house, would have used fish stock or chicken if I had it); then used the stock in place of the milk for the filling as well. And I eliminated the cheese completely. It was totally delicious.

I suspect dry cider is unsweetened hard cider. See Asimov's review, although the ones he tested are likely too pricey. My grown children like the Strongbow brand which is reasonably priced.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/dining/reviews/dry-cider-an-american-f...

I think dry cider is the alcohol version as opposed to the sweet cider or apple juice. Smoke haddock is impossible to find around here. Would smoked trout or salmon be a substitute?

Haddock is traditional in Britain for fish pie. I'm sure you could use something else. Trader Joes does an inexpensive smoked trout and smoked mackerel. Salmon might be nice too.

Here in France, cider is a slightly alcoholic drink (1-3%) made from apples, and we have the choice between "doux", which is sweet, and "brut" which is not. I guess the recipe calls for the latter.

There's a canned smoked herring under the label Deckhand's Daughter, sold at specialty stores. Finalist for the Good Food Awards coming up Friday January 20 in SF.

I did not use smoked fish but l lb of cod and regular cider, not hard. BUT, there is too much milk in the recipe; the sauce was much too soupy. Except for that it was amazingly tasty. Worth doing again with less milk.

Missed the word “smoked” in the Haddock, my store didn’t have regular haddock either so I used Rockfish. Turned out fine, if a bit bland. As others have remarked, there was too much milk. Couldn’t taste the cider at all. Applying mashed potatoes to the soup was difficult, and cutting sections for serving made a big mess. Still, I’ll make this again, with some tweaks. It would’ve been very helpful if the recipe had added “(also known as Finan Haddie)” after the haddock line item.

Made with smoked salmon - Delicious! Ran it under the broiler for a couple minutes to brown the topping.

A great recipe. Followed the recipe as written. Easy, quick, delicious.

Put a bay leaf and some mustard though my filling , really dry cider is also a good tip , as the flavour didn’t massively come through for me.

Quick to put together. Very tasty and comforting. Followed the recipe exactly.

I love reading the notes in the recipes. I usually learn something. Tonight it was Finnan Haddie. Which I only knew as a phrase from the song, and misheard as fin and haddie. Thanks again to all the cooks!

This thread about smoked haddock is nearly as good as the long thread about marmite (and marmite subs) in the vegetarian bolognaise recipe a while back. :)

I love recipes that include weights in grams, making it easy to halve ingredients. In New England, local fish markets often sell large pieces of haddock that have been smoked and frozen with no vacuum packing. There are also commercial suppliers of Finnan Haddie, frozen and vacuum packed, like the 340 g. piece I bought for $ 16.75 in Portland ME.

I used smoked mackerel and haddock from our fish store, white wine because no cider at the grocery store, edamame, and a squash topping as someone here suggested. As a meal it was very good, but not great. Want to try the cider, and next time I’ll halve the amount of smoked fish as the flavor was a bit too strong for my taste. Also I liked the cheese - even over the winter squash which was surprising to me.

Great recipe, we altered with butternut squash instead of potato, corn instead of peas and feta cheese instead of cheddar! We also used fresh haddock and cod, no smoked fish. It was fabulous.

Made it tonight and very pleased. Similar to others, I had to substitute another smoked fish and went with smoked trout. Because if can be very salty and smoky, I used 1/3 smoked trout and 2/3 fresh cod. This was a delightful, comfort food supper. Would definitely make it again.

I am not sure why, but mine was overly liquid, yet the mashed potatoes were too dry to spread out. Instead of dry cider, I used 1/2 cup of white wine and 1/4 cup apple vinaigre, and the taste came out delicious. I would recommend using less milk in the filling and add more of it to the topping.

This was really wonderful. We followed the suggestion of another reviewer and made the mashed potatoes as the final step. I was worried there was too much liquid but it ended up fine as the mashed potato absorbed some and any leftover on the plate worked in a mouthful with the potato. Would definitely make again. We're in Denver and used Stem Ciders Real Dry Apple Cider, it's perfect for this recipe.

Substituted smoked trout and went with a full pound of cod, otherwise followed the recipe exactly. The dish was flavorful and hearty! I let it sit for 30 minutes before serving and did not find it to be watery in the least.

Has anyone substituted wine and or sherry for the cider?

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Credits

Adapted from "Flavour: Eat What You Love,” by Ruby Tandoh (Chatto & Windus, 2016)

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