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Cornish Fish Pie
All sorts of fish go into the Cornwall pie. They are first dusted with flour and seasoned with onion, parsley, salt and pepper. Then put in a baking dish and covered with meat broth. A crust goes over the top, with a hole in the center, through which cream is poured just before serving.
The original gives a method rather than a formula, so quantities, oven heat and timing are all left to the cook. The following fills in what a modern kitchen needs to build the dish.
- ProportionsNothing is measured here. For a 9-inch deep dish, figure about 2 lb of skinned fish, one small onion and a handful of chopped parsley, with broth to cover the fish as the original directs.
- "Meat broth"The wording points to a light beef or veal stock rather than fish stock, though the recipe says no more than "meat broth." A mild unsalted beef stock works.
- Choice of fish"All sorts" reads as an invitation to use whatever is to hand. Stick to firm white fish -- cod, haddock, pollock, monkfish -- cut in large chunks. Oily fish and delicate flatfish either overpower the broth or collapse into it.
- Oven heatBake at 400F until the crust is set and coloured, roughly 35 to 45 minutes for a deep dish. A hotter oven crisps the pastry before the fish is done; a slower one leaves the underside pale.
- The crust and the holeA plain shortcrust or a suet crust both suit it. Cut the vent hole before baking and keep it open with a small roll of foil or a pie funnel, or the pastry will close over it as it rises.
- The creamThis is the hinge of the dish. The cream goes in through the vent after the pie leaves the oven, not before, and warming it first keeps it from chilling the filling. Heavy cream, about half a cup, tilted gently so it works through the fish.
- DonenessFish is cooked at 145F internal, and chunks this size reach that well before the crust is ready. Judge by the pastry and accept that the fish will be fully set rather than just-flaking.
- YieldA dish of this size serves four to six as a main course, with bread and a green vegetable. It does not reheat well; the cream and the crust both suffer.