Anyone have any cheap fish recipes?

[Lottie4]

Our food bill has been slowly increasing (likes everyones!), but want to cut back. One thing food we all really like is fish and so just wondering if anyone has any cheap fish recipes (or perhaps can suggest cheaper ways of eating fish).

Puttanesca sauce is made using anchovies, you can't taste the fishyness and they're cheap as well as really yummy.
Fish pie you can use practically anything.

We love a good prawn curry so I stock up on frozen prawns when I go to the cash and carry.

Frozen fish from aldi is by far the cheapest way of buying it.

We like pesto crust fish - mix pesto and breadcrumbs, smear on fish and bake. Works for white fish or salmon.

Smoked salmon and broccoli pasta.
Smoked salmon trimmings, about £1.50 in sainsburys. Fry lightly stir into cooked pasta with broccoli and a tub of cream cheese and a splash of milk.

Tinned tuna for tuna salad?

Fish cakes: Put a pack of thawed white fish fillets (like Sainsburys budget range) - make sure to squeeze out liquid - in the blender with 1 egg, 1 onion, 1 fish stock cube, salt + pepper and possibly a dollop of cream. Shape into balls with a spoon and fry in butter like meat balls. Frozen samon works well too, or a mix.

I second frozen fish from aldi.

You can make a kind of fish pie insides as a pasta sauce. Big favourite here. Put in loads of peas, leeks, or whatever veg is on special offer. Poach it all together in milk, add creme fraich at the end and pour over your pasta. Much less bother than mashing potatoes and putting on the oven and all that.

I make fish soup with frozen fish fillets or fish pie mix. I cook onion, fennel or carrot and celery in oil until soft. Then, depending on which kind I'm cooking, I either:

(i) add a little veg or fish stock plus dicde potato if wanted, simmer until the potato is cooked. Then add the fish, turn heat down and cook for a further few minutes until the fish is cooked, finishing with a dollop of creme fraiche; or

(ii) add passata and diced potato or courgette, simmer until cooked. Then add the fish, turn heat down and cook for a further few minutes until the fish is cooked.

So either creamy fish soup or tomato-y fish soup.

In both cases, I flavour it with black pepper and fennel seed and saffron if I've got any. Tarragon is nice in both, too.

Thai-style fishcakes I make by blitzing chopped salmon (can use frozen for this too, and you don't need to thaw it before blending) with lemongrass paste, chopped spring onion, grated ginger, white pepper, a splash of fish sauce and an egg. Fry.

Kedgeree is always great, and you don't really need to use loads of fish.

Don't forget smoked mackerel pate: blend skinned smoked mackerel fillets (preferably peppered ones) with lemon juice, powdered mace, paprika, cream cheese and a dollop of mayonnaise.

All these need herbs and spices which aren't cheap, but I find they do really help jazz up cheap ingredients.

I forgot, we often have a smoked mackerel salad which is delicious - cooked new potatoes, a bag of watercress, and some shredded mackerel, and then a dressing of creme fraiche, lemon juice and horseradish.

himself's not-too-spicy fish stir fry.

frozen fish fillets (the cheapies), veg, maybe a few chilli flakes, thai fish sauce, rice. Stir fry the veg and chili, chuck in the fish, stir fry until cooked, add the sauce, mix up, serve with rice.

yum. Or is that tom yum? :-)

Fish cakes. Either using fresh, white fish or salmon. Or canned tuna/salmon. anything really.

I just boil up some potatoes, mash a bit, add to some fish, salt and pepper, bit of chopped parsley if I have any.

I don't fry them, just put on a lined baking tray. I use a cookie cutter to keep the neat round shape. Bake.

They are winners in this house!

My tip is to go with the less popular fish, such as mackerel & herring. Both have lots of good oils & both are very tasty, especially baked in a tomato & herb sauce or grilled, perhaps on a barbecue.

Also, for white fish, use coley, pollack or river cobbler. These are more sustainably fished, so a lot cheaper & just as tasty, if not tastier (in a blind test here, we all preferred river cobbler to haddock).

If you have a pet, buy whole fish & let them eat the guts (I cook lightly first, don't know if you need to), my cat thought he was in heaven when I did this

Fish pie using frozen fish pieces. Like a Shepherd's pie - a fluffy (and for me buttery) thick mashed potato topping and underneath, fish pieces in a white sauce with some seasoning to taste. Very simple to make and oven cooks (for thawed or raw fish) in about 40 minutes. Vegetables to accompany as desired.

Yummy on a winter's evening. If you keep a bag of frozen fish in the freezer, it's a great user-upper as well.

Thanks for your replies (so far!). Have made notes and will see what works for us.

Make a savoury white sauce using a chopped onion, flour, butter and a pint of milk, Mix in a tin of tuna and some frozen peas. Heat through. Serve with rice.

Soften an onion in some oil with a little garlic. Add a tin of cream of celery soup (if condensed, add 1/2 a can of milk.) Mix until smooth and hot, add a tin of tuna and some frozen peas. heat through, serve on toast or mash.

Fish chowder - cook a couple of diced potatoes, carrots and onions in enough veg/fish stock to cover and a pinch of chili flakes. add a couple of frozen fish fillets and some sweetcorn. Simmer until fish is cooked. Chop up the fish and top up with milk until you get the consistency you want. heat through. Season well.

Kedgeree is great and you can pad it out with other stuff if you're low on fish