I love fish pie. It’s such a comforting dish and when made from scratch tastes completely delicious. The Boy (unsurprisingly) is not a huge fish fan. His fish repertoire extends to tuna sandwiches and, like every other 7 year old in the world, processed fish fingers. So when I decided to make fish pie for him and his fish loving sister I didn’t have the patience or time to make it properly from scratch, just in case he refused it and I had wasted hours slaving over a hot stove! So I came up with a speedy version that can be eaten with a spoon or, with the addition of egg, made into fishcakes. Mr MyMiniMeals (believing himself to be a Michelin food critic) describes this as  “Deconstructed Fish Pies” but I just like to call it “Fish Pie-ish – Two Ways”.

I buy packets of fish pie mix in the supermarket which contain smoked haddock, cod and salmon. You can obviously make your own with these or different fish or just use one fish for this recipe but I like the fact that it contains a variety of different flavoured and coloured fish and the smoked haddock really gives a strong flavour.

2 large baking potatos

1 pack fish pie mix (mine was a 340g pack) or same amount of your chosen fish

100g grated cheese

Handful of frozen peas

Handful of frozen / fresh sweetcorn

100ml milk

FOR FISHCAKES ONLY 

1 egg

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Cook the fish in a bowl with the milk in the microwave for 4 minutes.

Flake the fish. Cook the potatoes in the microwave with skin on until they are soft OR peel, cut into chunks and cook in a pan of water until soft. Mash the potato (scoop it out of its skin if using the microwave method) and mix with the fish and some of the milk until you get a nice creamy mash. (It won’t be smooth though because of the texture of the fish.) Cook the peas and sweetcorn and mix with the mash then add the cheese and mix all together. This is now ready to serve for spoon fed babies or kids who can feed themselves. You can even puree this down for babies who aren’t yet used to lumps. .

For the fishcakes add in the egg and mix everything together. With wet hands pick up small portions and make into small balls then place on a well greased baking tray or non stick baking sheet and flatten so they are burger / cake like.

Cook in the oven on 190 degrees C for 30-35 minutes turning half way.

This recipe makes about 20 mini fishcakes or about 12-15 small portions of mash or 8-10 larger portions of mash. Obviously you can halve the quantities if you want to make less.

The fishcakes can be served warm and I also freeze them individually in clingfilm so they can be easily defrosted as and when you need them. The mash can also be frozen in individual portions / pots.