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Smoked Haddock & Spinach Pie

This pie makes a great light lunch or first course. Make it in advance and keep it chilled until your ready to bake it

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and haddock work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 41 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6 - 8
Prep40 min
Cook50 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, 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 400°F (200°C). Put the smoked haddock in a wide pan with the milk and onion halves. Bring to a gentle simmer and poach for 5 to 6 minutes, until the fish is opaque and flakes at 145°F (63°C).

  2. Lift out the haddock, flake it into large pieces and set aside. Strain the poaching milk into a jug and keep it. Finely chop the onion.

  3. Melt 15g of the butter in a pan, add the chopped onion and cook gently for 5 minutes until soft. Set aside.

  4. Melt another portion of the butter in a large pan and fry the sliced mushrooms over medium-high heat for 5 minutes until golden. Set aside.

  5. Put the spinach in a pan with a splash of water and wilt it over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes. Drain, squeeze out the excess water and chop roughly.

  6. Melt the remaining butter in a clean pan, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the reserved milk and simmer for 3 minutes until thickened.

  7. Off the heat, stir in the crème fraîche and half the grated Gruyère. Gently fold in the flaked haddock, spinach, mushrooms and onion, then spoon into a pie dish and let cool for 10 minutes.

  8. Roll out the puff pastry to fit over the dish, lay it on top and trim the edges. Brush with the beaten egg yolk and water, scatter over the remaining Gruyère and cut a small vent in the top.

  9. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the pastry is deep golden and the filling is hot and bubbling in the centre. Rest for 5 minutes before serving.

By bbcgoodfood. 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. Spinach + haddocktop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together12,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Spinach + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together778 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, butter, haddock, milk, flour, mushroom, cheese):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, butter, haddock, milk, flour, mushroom, cheese. 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).