Saffron fish pie

It seems odd, when I've hardly written any entries at all, to start revising past recipes already. But that's the way I cook - I change old recipes because I fancy something different this time, or because I've yet to get to perfection.

And there is something quite fitting about returning to fish pie over a year after I first blogged about it, and especially on the first Friday of Lent. I no longer go to church but a childhood in the Church of England never leaves you and a fish pie on Good Friday was the only concession my parents ever made to fasting, although the pies were always so rich and filling and full of butter and milk that it was about as far from a fast as possible.

My little brother (I say little. Six food and 27 years old) also cooks a mean fish pie, also loosely based on my mother's but tweaked. He'd had the idea of not poaching fish in milk and using the milk to make the bechemel sauce, but cooking it from raw or frozen in the pie. As this would save time and hassle, I wanted to give it a go. I also decided to try a supermarket frozen fish pie mix - Waitrose's was 400g, contained cod, smoked haddock and salmon, and only used sustainably sourced fish. The reduced quantity was fine, especially as I put a large helping of peas in the pie to save cooking them separately!

And it worked! I added a large pinch of saffron to the bechemel before pouring it over the frozen fish and adding the mash on top, and I'm glad I did - the tastes were more subtle without the fish-poaching liquid, and the saffron helped to keep it special, and gave it a fabulous colour.

The pie. Notice escaped dribble of saffron sauce.

And a helping of pie, slightly collapsed

To make your own version, go to my previous fish pie recipe but skip step 1, use a pint of fresh milk in step 4 and chuck in pinch of saffron with the parsley in step 5, and cook for about 45 minutes to make sure the fish is cooked.