Giffords fish pie

A nostalgic memory is scraping the innards of a foil tray after finishing a fish pie. What could be better – except maybe adding more shellfish… And just like a Stargazy, we pop something in there that peeks out. We use the ‘catch of the day’ wherever we happen to be.

PREPARATION TIME 40 minutes, plus chilling

COOKING TIME 1 hour 10 minutes

SERVES 6

200g mussels, clams or razor clams, cleaned and bearded

500g salmon, cod and smoked haddock, diced

6-12 raw tiger prawns or langoustines

100ml white wine

500ml double cream

1tbsp Dijon mustard

2 bay leaves

50g butter

2 banana shallots, thinly sliced 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

Sea salt and white pepper

50g plain flour

3 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and chopped

Juice and zest of 1 lemon Buttered samphire, to serve

FOR THE MASH TOPPING

1kg floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

50g unsalted butter, cubed 100ml double cream

2 egg yolks

FOR THE BREADCRUMB TOPPING 250g fresh breadcrumbs

Small handful of dill and tarragon, chopped

50g unsalted butter

1 Put a saucepan over a high heat until extremely hot. Throw in all the seafood and the white wine and bring to a frantic boil, then lower the heat slightly, cover with a lid and simmer for 3-4min. Remove the lid, take the seafood out with a slotted spoon and put into a bowl.

2 Keep the cooking liquor over low heat and add the cream, mustard and bay leaves and simmer for a few min. Reserve for later. Pick the meat from the shellfish and put all the prepared seafood in the fridge.

3 Melt the butter in a deep saucepan over medium heat, then add the shallots and fennel with a pinch of salt and cook for about 5min, stirring often, until softened. Add the flour while still stirring and cook for a further 5min. Now gradually ladle in the reserved cream mixture and stir until thick.

4 Season well with salt and pepper and pick out the bay leaves. Leave to cool in a bowl in the fridge, with clingfilm pressed on to the surface of the sauce, for 2hr until cool.

5 For the mash topping, boil the potatoes until you can stick a knife through them, then drain in a colander and give them a few min back in the pan over low heat to steam dry.

6 Pass them through a ricer, moulis or just bash with a masher until smooth. Heat the butter and cream in a small pan over low heat until piping hot, then stir into the mash with the egg yolks and season well with salt and pepper. If you want to pipe it on to the pie, use a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.

7 For the breadcrumb topping, blend the ingredients together with a good pinch of salt and a turn of white pepper until the colour of the herbs comes through.

8 Preheat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan) gas mark 5. Add all the seafood to the cooled sauce with the chopped eggs and lemon juice and zest, and mix well.

9 Spoon into a large pie dish, pipe or spoon over the mash, then scatter with the green breadcrumbs. Bake for 30min until the crumbs start to get crispy! Serve with buttered samphire.