I wanted to cook a dish which was a bit of a traditional nod towards the jubilee. A classic dish written by my food hero and took me back to Cornwall. The recipe was taken from Rick Steins – Fish & Shellfish cook book.

Having met Rick a few years ago in Padstow the book was a nice throwback to great Cornish memories, this dish is a lovely way to celebrate the Jubilee weekend, traditional fish dish with a difference. This fish pie contains no potatoes, no mash topping! It’s all about the sauce.

The dish had a few steps which challenged me. Simple basic methods which added to the enjoyment.

Ingredients- 1 onion finely diced, 60g of butter, homemade veloutè ( 600ml of stock, 300ml of milk, 50g of butter & 50g of flour then add towards the end 2 bay leaves, 1 crushed clove & a pinch of nutmeg) 30g of grated parmesan, 50ml double cream, juice of 1/2 a lemon, salt, 500g of fish – I used cod loin and haddock as they were on offer plus prawns, 50g flour, 30ml of vegetable oil, 10g of butter, 100g of mushrooms finely diced, 1 tsp of French mustard then for the topping 50g of Japanese panko breadcrumbs & 30g of melted butter.

Start by making the veloutè.

Bring to the boil the stock and the milk and set aside. Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour constantly stirring so it doesn’t catch in the pan, do this for two minutes.

As the rue comes together add a 1/3 of the stock / milk mixture constantly stirring and the veloutè will thicken and come together.

Add the next 1/3 and repeat the process.

As this becomes smooth add the next 1/3. And simmer the sauce for a few moments adding the bay leaves, crush clove and nutmeg, give I good stir then remove from the heat.

Heat the butter in a frying pan and slow cook the diced onion for 10 minutes until they are cooked down. Add the onions to the veloutè along with the grated parmesan cheese, double cream and lemon juice with a pinch of salt.

Mix salt with the flour. Cut the fish into chunks then coat the fish chunks and gently fry in the butter and vegetable oil. Add the cooked fish to your pie dish.

Using the same pan, fry off your mushrooms until nicely cooked, add the French mustard coating the mushrooms.

Layer the mushrooms onto of the fish in the pie dish.

Add your raw prawns.

Pour over your veloutè.

Melt the leftover butter in a sauce pan. Add the panko breadcrumbs and coat the breadcrumbs with the melted butter. This will give you and nice crust when cooking the pie in the oven. Evenly spread the breadcrumbs over the pie mixture.

Place the dish in a preheated oven at 180 degrees. Place inside the oven and cook for 20 minutes. I served mine with green beans and asparagus.

Simple beautiful home cooking at its best.

Thanks for reading!