Pieminister Pietanic Fish Pie

Description: Smoked Haddock, Salmon, Pollock & Prawns in a creamy sauce.

Cost: £3.49 a individual 270g pie.

Cooking: 25 minutes number 4 from fresh

Verdict: If you look back through my blog you will see I have tried other Pieminister pies in the past and not at all been impressed with them. For me, they certainly didnt live up to the hype with their extremely sparce fillings. However, I thought id give them another go, and not having had a fish pie for a while I was really looking forward to this Pietanic Pie.

In the oven it goes whilst I prepare my potatoes and this time carrots rather than the normal peas I have.

25 minutes later and the pie is ready, certainly smelt lovely. Cutting it open I had my first surprise. This pie is crammed full of lovely filling. Nice chunks of fish and I even spotted a couple of small prawns. The sauce oosted out and the lovely fishy smell soon had my cats running over to investigate what delights I was having for tea!

On the downside the pie was very fishy and soon stunk the entire house out much to Mrs Piereviews annoyance. But, how did the pie taste?

The filling was lovely. Really tasty. The chunks of fish had good texture and were lovely & meaty. The sauce went perfectly with the fish and there was just the right amount. The pie crust I found was a bit too crispy, but there was just the right ratio of pastry to filling. I even gave my cat a bit of the pollock and he made all the right positive noises about it! All in all I was very impressed, especially compared to the other Pieminister pies id previously tested. Maybe they had read my blog and decided to increase the amount of their fillings?

Id definitely recommend this pie to fishy pie lovers! (and cats)

Calorie wise its 686 calories per pie which is pretty hefty but that's more than likely down to the sauce & pastry.

Rating? 8 out of 10.

Tesco Fish Pie

Description: Flakes of gently steamed Pollock blanketed in a creamy west country farmhouse cheddar sauce under cheese topped fluffy mash.

Cost: Normally £2.10 per pie, this was reduced 3 times and was down to 31p about 5 Min's before the store closed!
Cooking: Microwave, 3mins, 1min rest, 3mins then 1min rest.

Verdict: Got this from Tescos in the week, happened to be popping in for some milk and checked out their reduced shelf, managed to grab this great bargain, it had been reduced 3 times already and was now at 31p. That's right. 31p. WTF can you buy for 31p? a mars bar costs more than that. So in the trolley it went and bunged it in the freezer when I got home.

Anyway tried it out today. I haven't had a fish pie for ages so was looking well forward to it. OMG. What a tasty pie. It says 24% Pollock and that was the only fish in it, so i wasn't best looking forward to this. I normally like a mixture of fish, but have to say, WOW. I was surprised with this pie. The fish & sauce was very tasty and full of flavour. The fish was meaty and felt substantial. The sauce was creamy and fishy, not too rich. Mash was smooth and creamy, not stodgy at all or dry. All in all, it was a very good balance of flavours, textures and very rewarding pie. One pie is 445 calories, so this fishy special is about typical calorie wise for a pie.

And all through the eating experience I'm thinking that this thing only cost me 31p!! So, my verdict. Well. Totally awesome. Thinking about it, if there had been other fish in this pie, I'm not sure it would have tasted as good. I cant imaging prawns (normally a dead cert in a fish pie) would have added anything to the Pollock in this pie. In fact they may have ruined it. To be honest, if id seen this for £2.10 on the shelf i would have walked by. But now, I would probably seriously think about paying that for this pie. It may be a bit too much still, but if this was £1.50 id definitely have at least 1 a week! All in all, good result!

Rating? 8 out of 10 for this surprising pie!