Genius freefrom (gluten, wheat, dairy) fish pie – tested

One the meals you can adapt quite easily for a freefrom diet is a fish pie. You can actually make one without the white sauce if you use baked beans, or just have a slightly drier pie. Husband-who-can-eat-anything has mastered the technique of making a roux with dairy free milk and it works rather well.

I’m always on the look out for healthier and different recipes and recently discovered that Genius’ founder, Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne, has revealed a cookery SOS YouTube video to show people how easy it is to cook delicious gluten free food.

The video shows Lucinda instructing a mum and daughter how to cook a gorgeous gluten free fish pie using every day ingredients so that they can enjoy a gluten free meal together with their family. The little girl in the video is a newly diagnosed coeliac and the food she most misses is chocolate doughnuts; she didn’t seem too disappointed that no doughnuts were made and wolfed down the fish pie, announcing “This is the best meal I’ve ever eaten.”

The video is intended as a how-to-guide and inspiration and reassures cooks that they don’t need to be a Michelin-starred chef (like Lucinda!), in order to cook gluten free recipes tasty enough to have family and friends clearing their plates and asking for seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGqrWzGgLOU

If you fancy having a go at this delicious recipe, here’s the list of ingredients and how to make it. Scroll down for a picture of my attempt…

Fish pie with a Cheesy Crumble topping – tested and approved

(Serves 6)

• 450g salmon fillet
• 450g haddock fillet
• 425g whole milk or dairy free milk
• Half a large onion sliced
• 4 grinds black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• Large pinch of salt
• 4 hardboiled eggs quartered
• 1 tbs finely chopped parsley
• 30g butter or dairy free margarine
• 30g cornflour
• 700g seasoned mashed potato

For the crumble

• 6 slices Genius white bread, whizzed to breadcrumbs (I don’t have a whizzer and it took a while to crumb it but it’s possible to do this by hand, if the bread is a bit stale, all the better!
• 2tbs grated parmesan or mature cheddar cheese. (Leave this out if you’re allergic to dairy, or use a dairy free alternative to parmesan, there a few on the market now)
• 3 grinds of black pepper
• 2 tbs olive oil

How to make Luucinda’s fish pie…

1. Preheat the oven to 180’C
2. Arrange the fillets of fish in the base of large ovenproof dish
3. Cover the fish with the milk, sprinkle over the sliced onion, add the bay leaf and lightly season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover the dish with foil and bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes or until the fish is just cooked through.
4. Strain off the milk and reserve for making the sauce
5. Break the fish into bite size pieces and arrange in the base of a clean and deep oven proof serving dish
6. Add the eggs and sprinkle over the chopped parsley
7. To make the sauce, in a small pan, melt the butter, stir in the corn flour and remove from the heat. Gradually stir in the milk being careful to mix out the lumps before adding each splash of milk. In the video Lucinda uses olive oil instead of butter or dairy free spread which works just as well and avoids using a processed freefrom spread.
8. Return the sauce to a medium heat and stir until the sauce thickens and begins to boil. Taste and season as necessary.
9. Pour over the fish and eggs
10. Spoon the mashed potato over the fish mixture and spread with a fork until all the fish is covered.
11. Mix the breadcrumbs, grated and Parmesan and black pepper together and sprinkle evenly over the mashed potato. Drizzle olive oil all over the pie.
12. Bake the pie for 20 minutes on a baking tray or until the potato and crumble is golden brown and crisp.

I loved Lucinda’s idea of baking the fish in the oven, this is much easier than how I’ve been cooking fish pie, in milk in a pan. I also love the use of olive oil with the corn flour to make a roux. You could use arrowroot to do this if you also avoid corn. Also, adding prawns was a nice touch and adds colour and texture.

Finally the topping of breadcrumbs adds a lovely crunch but if you prefer, you could leave this off and instead just grind some salt and pepper over the layer of mash and add a dab or two of your preferred spread to help it brown.

I also sometimes add some fried bacon, if you fry the onions and bacon while the fish is baking you can mix this in with the fish.

We enjoyed ours with some delicious spring greens, what a treat! I’ll definitley be adapting my fish pie recipe in the future and cooking this recipe again. Thanks Genius and Lucinda 🙂

Has anyone else tried this? How do you make your fish pie?

Happy cooking freefromers.