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Fish Pie with Broccoli and Hazelnut Crust

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sweet potato and hazelnut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 9 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, tree nuts, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Put the sweet potato in a pan of boiling water and simmer for about 12 minutes until tender. Drain, mash well and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Put the milk, bay leaf, peppercorns, onion half and garlic clove in a saucepan and warm gently over low heat for 5 minutes. Take off the heat, cover and leave to infuse for 10 minutes, then strain, keeping the milk.

  3. Return the strained milk to a shallow pan over low heat. Add the smoked haddock and poach gently for 5 to 8 minutes until opaque and it flakes, reaching 145°F (63°C). Lift out, flake, and reserve the milk.

  4. Melt the butter in a clean saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the reserved poaching milk and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring, until thick. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Cut the broccoli into small florets and boil in a pan of water for about 3 minutes until just tender. Drain well.

  6. Spread the broccoli in a small ovenproof dish, scatter the flaked haddock over it and pour the sauce on top.

  7. Spread the mashed sweet potato over the fish and sauce. Coarsely crush the hazelnuts and scatter them over the top. Bake for 20 minutes until golden and bubbling.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sweet potato + hazelnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Garlic + broccolitop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Broccoli + sweet potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together86 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, onion, garlic, haddock, butter, flour, broccoli):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Chivebetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Sweet potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, onion, garlic, haddock, butter, flour, broccoli. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).