Fish pie

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1. Heat the milk in a sauce pan on medium-low. Once simmering, poach your fresh fish in batches – only for 1-2 minutes, then remove the fish with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl.
2. Flake the smoked fish over the fresh, poached fish.
3. Keep the milk on a low heat and add a halved white onion (the fish and onion infused milk makes for an amazing white sauce).
4. In another sauce pan heat the butter and flour, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon for approximately 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to low.
5. Ladle by ladle, add the warm milk into the flour and butter mixture, whisking continuously to avoid lumps. Do this until all the milk is combined and the mixture is smooth. Keep on a low heat, stirring occasionally in order to make sure this sauce does not burn.

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6. Turn your oven to 160ºC on Bake.
7. Fill a sauce pan with water, add a generous pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Add the kumara and boil until cooked through, strain in a colander.
8. Place the kumara on a baking sheet and into the oven for approximately 10 minutes to dry out.
9. Once dry, place the kumara into a large bowl and mash with salt, pepper and milk. Set aside.

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10. Turn up the oven to 190ºC on Fan Bake (or 200ºC on Bake).
11. In a bowl combine the fresh poached fish with the smoked fish, peas, capers, lemon zest and dill. Pour over the white sauce and stir a couple of times to combine (don’t over-mix as you want the keep the fish in chunks).

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12. Spray muffin tins with oil. Cut the pastry into rounds and line your muffin tins.
13. Spoon some of the fix mixture into each shell, then top with a spoonful of kumara mash. Top with a sprinkle of grated cheese and then bake until the top is golden brown and the pastry is cooked (check the base). Using the mini muffin tins, my pies took approximately 10 minutes to cook through.
14. Take the pies out and cool on a wire rack.