Step-by-step seafood pies

Fresh seafood, a flavoursome sauce and lids of golden puff pastry make for simply delicious seafood pies. Dixie Elliott has a simple recipe that’s sure to become a family favourite.

You will need
Serves 6

60g butter, chopped
1 large leek, white part only, thinly sliced
1/4 cup (35g) plain flour
11/2 cups (375ml) milk
2 tbs lemon juice
600g ocean trout, skinned, cut into 4cm cubes
500g thick white boneless fish fillets, cut into 3cm cubes
700g medium green prawns, peeled, deveined
3 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
6 sheets puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over low-medium heat. Add leek and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes or until very soft. Add flour and stir until well combined and bubbling. Remove pan from heat and slowly add milk, stirring continuously. Return pan to heat and stir continuously until sauce boils and thickens. Remove from heat and
   stir in lemon juice. Cool.
2. Preheat oven to 200˚C. Add seafood, egg and parsley to sauce then season to taste with salt and white pepper. Spoon 11/2 cups seafood mixture into each of 6, 2-cup-capacity ovenproof bowls. 
3. Using a small plate as a guide, cut a 16cm round from each sheet of pastry. Place a pastry round over each bowl then press edges to sides of bowls to secure. Brush with beaten egg then place bowls on 2 oven trays. Bake pies for 20 minutes, swapping trays halfway through cooking, or until pastry is golden. Serve.

Tips & Tricks

• Make sure all your seafood is cut to the specified size, to prevent overcooking.
• It is important to remove all bones from your fish. Fish tweezers are available from good kitchen shops and make this job very easy.
• Your fishmonger will be able to advise you on the most suitable fish to use for seafood pies.
• Try varying the flavour of your pie by adding capers and dill or replacing the leek with fennel. Or make an Asian-style pie by adding a little chilli, coriander and light coconut milk.
• Use the pastry off-cuts to decorate your pies.

 

Recipe: Dixie Elliott. Photography: Andrew Lehmann. Styling: Amber Keller. Food preparation: Lisa Featherby.