Celebrity square meals #37: John Pawson's Normandy fish pie

Serves 6

Of all the recipes Annie Bell and I put together for Living and Eating, this is my favourite. First, you can eat it with a single implement. Second, you can appreciate the individual ingredients even as you enjoy their combination. Third, it's excellent for swabbing up alcohol. Which leads to number four: this is excellent dinner-party food. Finally, leftovers are great served cold for lunch the next day.

Of all the recipes Annie Bell and I put together for Living and Eating, this is my favourite. First, you can eat it with a single implement. Second, you can appreciate the individual ingredients even as you enjoy their combination. Third, it's excellent for swabbing up alcohol. Which leads to number four: this is excellent dinner-party food. Finally, leftovers are great served cold for lunch the next day.

800g haddock fillets
250ml milk
1 bay leaf
Sea salt, black pepper
250g scallops
60g unsalted butter
50g plain flour
150ml dry cider
150g crème fraîche
1tsp Dijon mustard
200g shelled raw prawns
1 tablespoon small capers, rinsed
 
For the mash
1.5kg potatoes, peeled
100g crème fraîche
50g unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks

Make the mash (you don't need me to tell you how to do that). Place the haddock in a large pan. Add milk, bay leaf, seasoning and simmer. Cover and cook on a low heat for 4 minutes. Let the fish cool enough to handle. Strain the cooking liquor into a bowl. Flake the fish coarsely, discarding the skin.

Pull off the white gristle at the side of the scallops and remove surrounding skirt. Cut off and reserve the corals. Slice each scallop into 2 discs. Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour and let it seethe for a minute. Work in the cider, followed by the liquor, crème fraîche and mustard. Bring to the boil, stirring, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring. Fold in the fish and capers, turn into a dish, let it cool then spoon on the mash. Bake at 190°C for 40 minutes until golden.

'Living and Eating' (£17.50, Ebury)