Good Friday Fish Pie

The story

For centuries the Irish Lent was a hard fast in which meat, dairy and eggs were forbidden, and salted, dried herring carried households through the six weeks. Kieran Wyse of Cork County Libraries calls herring the most widely eaten meat substitute of the season. By Holy Saturday people had had enough of it: in Cork city and other southern towns, butchers led a mock funeral in which a herring was whipped through the streets and thrown into the river, and a spring lamb decked with flowers and ribbons was carried back. Good Friday itself was a black fast, but as the rules eased, Catholics were allowed one meatless meal, and fish became the meal of the day. Many Irish households still eat fish on Good Friday, now more as a family dinner than a penance. Darina Allen of Ballymaloe gives the classic plan: white fish poached in milk with a bay leaf, the milk thickened into a sauce with herbs and peas, a lid of mashed potato, and hard-boiled eggs to stretch the fish. Good Friday falls on March 26 in 2027. The pie can be assembled the day before and baked when needed; serve it with buttered peas or a green salad.