Seafood pie with a golden potato crust

Served with a fennel, carrot and apple salsa and an apple juice and maple syrup dressing or pickled beetroot.

Serves 4

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This dish is even more tasty the next day, just reheat it in a very hot oven for 8 minutes.  If there is any leftover pie, be adventurous and convert it into a soup by liquidizing it and adding more fish- or chicken stock and cream.

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The seafood:
300 g/10.5 oz three different types of firm white fish, cut into bite-size pieces
100 g/3.5 oz prawns, shelled, shells reserved for the stock
100 g/3.5 oz king crab legs, shelled, shells reserved for the stock
juice of ½ lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

The stock:
25 g/0.8 oz butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed
reserved prawn and crab shells
1 cup fish stock

The onion and mushroom mix:
6 cippolini onions, quartered (if cippolini onions are not available, use
shallots)
10 small button mushrooms
juice of 1 lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoons Noili Prat
dash of Tabasco (pepper sauce)

The potatoes:
300 g/10.5 oz potatoes, peeled and sliced with a mandolin to 2 mm thick slices
25 g/0.8 oz clarified butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper

The white sauce:
1 medium sized onion, studded with 10 whole cloves
¾ cup milk
¾ cup full cream
25 g butter
20 g flour
2 tablespoons spring onions, chopped
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

• Preheat the oven to 200°C/392°F.
• For the stock, in a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the garlic. Fry for about 1 minute, taking care not to burn the garlic.
• Add the reserved prawn and crab shells and cook gently whilst stirring – for about 5 minutes.
• Add the fish stock and bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes then turn off the heat and let the stock infuse for about half an hour. Strain and discard the solids.

• For the onion and mushroom mix, bring the strained stock back to a boil, add the onions, mushrooms and lemon juice and season to taste.
• When the mushrooms are tender, remove from the heat and add the Noily Prat and Tabasco. Put aside to cool.

• For the white sauce, bring the milk and cream to the boil in a saucepan and add the onion studded with cloves. Pour it in a bowl and leave to infuse.
• In the same saucepan, melt the butter then stir in the flour and over low heat cook whilst stirring for about 5 minutes.
• Strain the infused milk, discard the onion and cloves, and slowly pour the hot milk into the butter and flour mixture, whisking constantly until it reaches the desired consistency.
• Add seasoning to taste and cook for a further 5 minutes. Strain the sauce, then add the chopped spring onions and parsley and put to one side.
• Dot the surface with flakes of butter to prevent a skin from forming.

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The onion can be reused (without the cloves) to make a sauce for another dish or for soup.

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• For the potatoes, blanch the potato slices in salted boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drain, plunge in iced water and set aside.

Assemble the dish:

• Season the fish, prawns and crab meat and gently mix with the onion/mushroom mixture and the white sauce.
• Spoon into a buttered ovenproof dish and smooth out with a spatula.
• Carefully place the blanched potato slices like scales over the top and brush with the clarified butter.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven. If the potatoes are not golden brown at the end of the cooking time, turn on the grill and brown them directly.
• When the dish is cooked, remove from the oven and let it rest for 15-20 minutes in a warm place before serving.
• Serve with the Salad of fennel, apple and carrot salad (recipe follows).
  

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Beetroot is also delicious with Seafood pie.  See Pickled beetroot salad with onions.

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For the salad:
3 small heads of fennel, jullienned
2 Granny Smith apples, cored and jullienned
2 carrots, jullienned
½ red onion, finely diced
½ cup toasted slithered almonds, and 2 cups mixed baby salad leaves. 

For the dressing:

• Bring ¼ cup apple juice, 1 tablespoon maple syrup and 1 teaspoonl balsamic vinegar to a boil in a saucepan and reduce down to about half.
• Remove from the heat and add the salt and pepper. Leave to cool, then whisk in 1 cup avocado oil.
• Just before serving, gently mix all the salad ingredients and drizzle the dressing.
• Serve immediately with the Fish pie.