Help me with my fish pie please

[catin8oots]

I'm making a fish pie today for the first time - trying to break my boring rut of meals.

I have Tesco fish pie mix and a packet of prawns. I was planning on making a white sauce or should it be a cheese sauce? Then topping with mash.

Do I need to cook the fish first? Or can I just make the sauce, bung it on the fish, top with the mash and cook in the airfryer.

I don't want to poison my children but I'm worried if I cook the fish first will it go all weird?

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish/best-fish-pie/

this is the Jamie Oliver recipe: no white sauce, no pre cooking, tastes a treat .

I use this recipe. It's dead easy with no faffing about poaching first

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/family-meals-easy-fish-pie-recipe

I pour this over the poached fish in the oven dish before adding the mashed potato. It makes it so lovely and creamy!

PS. This is in place of the white sauce.

White sauce with a few leeks in it.. mash on top with grated cheese ..no need to cook fish first it will be fine after 30 mins in oven

I always find fish pie a bit rich and sometimes stodgy, what with the white sauce and mash. A friend recommended this recipe years ago, and it’s now my go-to for fish pie.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/filo-topped-fish-pie

I used to poach the fish in the milk and make the sauce with that, but some years ago decided that life is way too short for that (for a standard midweek dinner).

I make a fairly thick sauce (no cheese, but plenty of pepper and maybe a tiny bit of mustard or paprika), and also add peas (frozen) to the fish. As the peas and fish cook they slacken the sauce off a bit.

I include a bit of cheese in the mash, and a sprinkle on top.

I poach the fish in milk and use that milk to make a béchamel sauce. It's important to use a bay leaf and peppercorns for the sauce. I also add fennel, parsley and peas. When I assemble the pie I add some finely grated lemon zest before putting the potato on.

You are all a bunch of Philistines- it's parsley sauce for a fish pie, none of.your white or cheese!

I'm another poach fish in milk. Then make a white sauce with the milk brigade.

Heavy on the smoked fish. Yes to peas. Hard no to hard boiled egg.

if in season I put leeks in with the mash.

Parsley sauce is just a white sauce with Parsley in it though? So essentially the same sauce, but with green bits in.

Not a massive fan of Parsley though, so will carry on with good old white sauce here.

I came on to say this - no white sauce making and very tasty!

Just how I do it - I don't cook the fish mix or prawns first, just mix them with the hot white sauce. I use raw prawns but chop them up mainly because my kids probably wouldn't eat a whole prawn.

I add cheese to the white sauce. Might be blasphemous but we like it like that. I also add finely chopped cooked brocolli to the sauce for some extra veg, sometimes some frozen chopped spinach.

I bung in some frozen peas and corn too.

As others said I make sure the sauce is thick because the fish and frozen stuff will release some water.

Top with mash and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes.