Jottage from Cambridge - Curried Fish Pie p 176

There were few things I dreaded more when I was growing up than having to eat soggy Weetabix. However there were a couple of other dishes which competed for the accolade. One was semolina (a staple pudding at my primary school), and the other was fish pie. The thing about fish pie which I loathed the most were the hard-boiled eggs which my mother always added to what I think would otherwise have been quite an acceptable meal. But I happen to love fish, and I always seem to have lots of potatoes in the house that need eating up so, when I finally moved in with my husband and had to start cooking proper meals (the pans and cooking pots which were bought for us from our John Lewis Wedding List provided another incentive) a fish pie seemed like an obvious thing to make.

Fish Pie (without boiled eggs)

Before I acquired Hugh’s Everyday book I found a couple of fish pie recipes which, although listing hard-boiled eggs, had that golden word for lazy cooks, ‘optional’, written by the side. I discovered that, without the egg, fish pie was indeed delicious so I was excited to make the recipe on page 176. I used pouted fillet and trout and, instead of curry powder, I put in a couple of teaspoons of cumin. The end result I considered to be something of a triumph – see photo. 

Heather with the Fish Pie

I served it up with mashed potato and peas, and for pudding we had the Apple and Walnut Crumble (p.378) which my mother had made and brought up from Lancaster. (My mother can’t come to Cambridge empty-handed, and I anticipate what she’ll decide to take out of her fridge that needs using up, and the bits of food that she’ll inevitably buy for me when they have a motorway stop. This time – and clearly now in a meaningful relationship with Hugh – she bought a packet of chorizo and a couple of packets of spelt.) I put all the leftover vegetables (which had been used to flavour the milk) in the blender, along with a few pieces of fish, and served up to Tristan the next day. He had no complaints.

Apple and Walnut crumble