Recipe: Seafood pie with silver fish
Ingredients
- 300g firm white fish like carpenter, hake or monkfish, filleted and cut into chunks
- 150g fresh squid, cleaned and sliced
- 150g fresh mussels, cleaned, steamed and shells discarded
- 150g haddock (smoked hake), boned and flaked
- Butter, for frying
- 1 small brown onion, peeled and finely diced
- 4 leeks, rinsed and thinly sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 90g plain flour
- 300ml homemade fish stock
- 250ml fresh cream (or leftover mussel sauce)
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 4 sprigs of fresh dill
- 400g ready-rolled puff pastry, defrosted
- Plain flour, for dusting
- 1 egg, beaten
- Coarse ground sea salt and black pepper
Method
Heat the olive oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and fry the onion and leeks until soft and translucent. Stir through the crushed garlic and plain flour to create a thickened paste. Cook for a minute then pour in the fish stock, whisking the mixture until smooth. Slowly add in the cream and lemon juice, stirring to combine. The sauce needs to evenly coat the back of a spoon. When thickened to the right consistency, remove the sauce from the heat.
Stir through the white fish, sliced squid, mussel meat and haddock then add in the dill, discarding the stalks. Season the mixture to taste and transfer into a large ovenproof dish.
Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface to fit the pie dish. Gently cover the pie mixture with the pastry, pressing the edges down to seal in the filling. Use a pie bird or alternatively poke a few holes in the pastry to let steam escape. Brush the pastry all over with beaten eggs.
Serve the pie with a side of your choice, extra lemon wedges, and a bottle of Vriesenhof Pinot Noir.