A mid-week smoked fish pillow pie
A fish pie is a labour of love—the filling, the cooling, the pastry—it’s a lot and not something I’d tackle midweek. I once heard Nigel Slater on his Christmas chronical podcast (my go-to for calming listening) describe a “pillow pie”—a shortcut he took to comforting spiced pumpkin pie he craved—and it stuck with me. This is my version: the fish pie flavours I love, but simplified for when time and energy are short. It’s lovely with a crisp fennel slaw
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Ingredients
2 sheets of all butter puff pastry, roughly 27x 20cm
350g smoked trout (the fillets you can flake)
150g crème fraiche
½ bunch dill, finely chopped
Handful of rocket in a bunch, chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 lemon zest
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt to your liking
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 egg, whisked
Serve with lemon wedges.
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Method
Preheat oven to 200C (180FF).
Pending on the brand of all butter puff pastry you
have, either cut the sheet in half so you have 2 rectangles, then roll or stretch one out so it is slightly bigger than the other (this will be our lid). Or if you have two sheets of puff pastry squares, roll them out
slightly to form two rectangles, making sure one is slightly bigger than the other. Prick the smaller rectangle all over with a fork, then place on
a baking paper lined tray. This will be the base of our pie. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until starting to golden and puff. Remove from oven, lay a tea towel over it and press down so the flattens the base.Meanwhile, combine the smoked trout, 150g crème fraiche, dill, rocket, spring onions, 1 teaspoon mustard, zest of 1 lemon. Season with salt and pepper to your liking.
Place filling over the base of the cooked pastry, leaving a 1cm border. Stretch your uncooked pastry
rectangle over the top and seal edges using a fork
dusted in flour (to avoid the fork sticking to
pastry). Brush pie with beaten egg. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden. Sit for a few minutes
before slicing. Nice severed at room temp too.
if you’d rather not have the smoky flavour or can’t find smoked fillets, poach some raw ocean trout (or salmon) fillets instead. Just a little water in a
pan—about 1cm deep—then cover and steam gently for 8 minutes until just cooked. Let it cool, then combine with the other ingredients.
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