Looking back, now it seems unreal how we lived in those days. In our free-standing metal garage outside the apartment building we used to store a sack of frozen fish, a barrel of sauerkraut made in our kitchen, a bucket of northern cranberries, and other food that could stand the frost and retain its taste. We also stored meat and poultry in netted bags hanging outside the kitchen window, because our three fridges didn't have enough space to hold everything we needed to live through the winter. To survive nicely we had to stock up. And nice it was - I remember my childhood winters as full of delectable viands.
Now back to fish. Since we had plenty of fabulous fish of different kinds (pike, sturgeon, sterlet to name a few), mama made various fish dishes - ukha (fish soup), fish jelly, and certainly fish pies. The fish pie was the winner among all. After eagerly waiting as the wonderful aroma of the baking pie spread from the kitchen, - what joy it was to finally land at the table and indulge in this winter treat!
Classic fish pie is a closed kind of pie, where dough laid on top covers the filling. Today's fish pie recipe was actually the result of a mistake that often leads to a discovery. The plan was to make a traditional closed pie, but I suddenly realized that there was not enough dough (I used store bought dough). I thought what the heck, and made an open pie variation. Surprisingly, it turned out very tasty: not too much dough, with juicy delicate filling. Mama would approve. :)
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