So as the clock ticks down till I leave for Europe (in 2 days), it has come time to start to get my apartment in order... This means wash the last weeks clothes, change my linens (so I come home to a nice clean bed), finish packing my suitcase, clean the apartment and most importantly emptying the fridge/freezer/pantry of perishables... So after laying all the food out on the counter and a quick search in google to try and find any recipe that included dome of the key items, I found I had (almost) the right ingredients to make a Fish and Vegetable Pie!
What you need:
40g (2 tablespoons) butter or olive oil spray
2 cups of chopped mixed vegetables, I used 1 bag of steam fresh veggies, 1 fresh carrot and half fresh broccoli.
26g (2 tablespoons) plain flour
40ml (2 tablespoons) white wine
40ml (2 tablespoons) lemon juice
167ml (2/3 cup) thickened cream, I used evaporated milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
700g white fish fillets (without skin or bones) cut into bite-sized pieces, I used barramundi!
30g (1/3 cup) grated parmesan cheese, I used light tasty cheese.
1-2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley or mixed herbs
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed.
What to do:
Preheat oven to 210 degrees Celsius (190 degrees Celsius fan-forced).
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat, or simply spray pan with olive oil spray! Add vegetables and cook for a few minutes until softened, stirring occasionally. If the vegetables start to brown before they have softened, reduce the heat to low.
Add flour to pan and cook over medium heat, stirring, for about one minute.
Stir in white wine and lemon juice. Add cream and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce simmers and thickens. Season with salt and pepper.
Add fish pieces, parmesan cheese and parsley/herbs and stir gently until just combined. Remove from heat. The filling may seem a little dry at this stage, but the fish will release a lot of moisture as it cooks in the oven.
I used two 2 cup (500ml) capacity ramekins (small ovenproof dishes) for the pies. Using an upturned ramekin as a guide, cut two pie lids from the pastry sheets, cutting about 1cm larger than the ramekin.
Cut 2cm wide strips of pastry to form borders around the ramekins. Brush the edges of the ramekins with water and press the pastry strips around the rims of the ramekins.
Divide filling mixture evenly among the dishes.
Brush pastry borders with water and place lids on top of pies. Cut away excess pastry using a sharp knife.
Firm down edges of pastry with fingers or a fork. Cut a 2cm cross in the pastry lids with a sharp knife.
Place ramekins on an oven tray to catch any sauce that might overflow when the pies are cooking. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until pastry is golden and fish is cooked.
To make a single large pie: Follow the above directions but use a casserole dish instead of the ramekins, and increase the baking time. You may need to join two sheets of pastry to cover the dish. Overlap the two sheets of pastry about 1.5cm and press together to join. We used a 1.25 litre (5 cup) capacity oval casserole dish and baked the pie for about 40 minutes.
Makes two individual-serve pies or one large pie.
Enjoy!
