Puff pastry fish pie

Good-quality fish stock is a must for this pie. So, grab some fish bones from your local fishmonger (flat fish bones make the best stock) and make a batch and freeze the excess for future recipes.

Puff pastry fish pie

SERVES

4

PEOPLE

PREP TIME

20

MINUTES

COOKING TIME

80

MINUTES

Ingredients

  • Fish stock:

  • 275g fish bones (stomachs and heads removed)

  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil

  • 1 onion sliced

  • 1 stick of celery sliced

  • 1 small leek sliced

  • 4 cloves garlic

  • ½ tsp whole black peppercorns

  • 3.5 litre water

  • Fabulous Fish Pie:

  • 400ml milk

  • 300g fresh fish, diced into bite-sized chunks (such as hake, monkfish, pollock, cod)

  • 200g smoked fish, diced into bite-sized chunks (such as haddock, coley or pollock)

  • 70g butter

  • 1 leek diced

  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced

  • 70g plain flour

  • 350ml warm fish stock

  • 1tb Dijon mustard

  • 1 tb chopped parsley

  • 1tb chopped dill

  • 1 lemon zested

  • For the topping:

  • 1 x 320g sheet puff pastry

  • 2 egg yolks beaten

  • Sea salt flakes

Method

  1. Fish stock:

  2. To make the fish stock heat a medium sized pot on moderate heat. Sweat the chopped leek, onion, celery, garlic, black peppercorns and fish bones in the rapeseed oil for 5 minutes.

  3. Add 3.5 litres of cold water and simmer. Cook for 30 minutes, being careful to not allow the stock to come to the boil. Using a ladle, skim the surface of the stock to remove any impurities and produce a clear stock.

  4. After 30 minutes, strain the stock and discard the vegetables and bones. Set aside to cool. 

  5. Fabulous Fish Pie:

  6. Place the milk in a medium sized wide based saucepan on a moderate heat. Once warm add the diced and smoked fish to poach.  Cook for 3-4 minutes until the fish is just cooked.

  7. Carefully remove the fish from the milk using a slotted spoon and set aside.  In a separate medium-sized saucepan, cook the leek and garlic in butter. Stir occasionally and cook without colour until the leeks are softened. This will take approximately 4 minutes.

  8. Add the plain flour and mix well using a wooden spoon. Next, slowly add the still-warm milk to the pot mixing all the time to prevent lumps from forming.

  9. Add the fish stock and cook for 8 minutes to thicken. Stirring regularly to prevent the base of the pan from catching.

  10. Remove from the heat and add the chopped herbs, mustard and lemon zest, season to taste. Gently fold through the poached fish and place in a 30cm-wide pie dish.

  11. For the pie topping, cut the puff pastry into long 1 cm-wide strips.

  12. Arrange half of the strips of puff pastry in one direction across the pie filling. With the remaining strips, interweave under and over with the remaining strips of pastry to create a lattice pattern.

  13. Trim the excess pastry at the sides of the dish. Brush the pastry with the beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with sea salt flakes.

  14. Bake in a preheated oven at 190°Celsius / gas mark 4 for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.

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