Marco Pierre White's Fish Pie

This recipe for Marco Pierre White's Fish Pie from Hell's Kitchen is not his actual recipe but I was so impressed with the simplicity of how he made it that I decided to create my own.

Watching Marco Pierre White conduct his master classes on Hell's Kitchen one thing was very obvious . . . keep it simple, let the food speak for itself. I have therefore made this recipe very simple and one that even the most inexperienced can make successfully. The taste is just fantastic and will impress friends or family.

The great thing about creating dishes like this is that you don't have to stick to exact quantities or exact ingredients. You can apply your own twist . . . or in this case use fish that you like and is available to you.

. . . and remember "fingers are for burning!"

Ingredients for Marco Pierre White's Fish Pie

For sauce: 750 ml dry white wine 600 ml water 500 ml double cream 2 x Knorr Fish stock cubes 1 x Knorr Chicken stock cube For pie: 1 salmon fillet 1 cod fillet 1 smoked haddock fillet 4 scallops 1 small leek Chopped parsley Mashed potato

How to make Marco Pierre White's Fish Pie

To make the sauce:

• Put wine, water and stock cubes in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Once it comes to the boil and the stock cubes have dissolved continue to boil in order to reduce your stock until there is only about a centimetre left in the pan.

• Strain the stock through a fine sieve into a clean pan and then add the cream. Put back on the heat and simmer gently until cream and stock are well blended . Taste to test. (If sauce is too thick simmer to reduce further).

To make mashed potato:

• Make sufficient mashed potato to cover two gratin dishes. Remember you will be putting your potato in a piping bag so it needs to be very smooth and fairly wet.

• Make sure your potato are seasoned and then blend with either cream or milk until silky smooth, making sure there are no lumps.

Make a little more than you will need. Better to have too much than too little.

To make the pie:

• You will need two gratin dishes (approximately 23 cm long) and deep enough for your fish and the mash on top.

• Remove any skin from you fish fillets and the cut into cubes. Cut scallops in half.

• Finely chop parsley.

• Very thinly slice the white of the leek so that when you break it into rings you have enough to loosely cover the gratin dish. You only want a mild hint of leek.

• Use two small saucepans and put half the sauce in each. Gently warm the sauce and when simmering add the fish. Simmer for two to three minutes. Remove from heat.

• With a slotted spoon put the fish in your gratin dish. Add five to six tablespoons of sauce to cover the fish but not so they are swimming in it.

• Arrange leek rings over the top and then scatter parsley over the top, again in moderation.

• Then using a piping bag cover with swirls of mashed potato (if you wish you could add some grated gruyere on top of the mash).

• Place in the top half of preheated oven on Gas Mark 7 / 220°C for twenty minutes. Remove and serve.