There is something both decadent and comforting about pie. In this fish pie recipe, scallops, white fish, and hot smoked salmon are encased in crisp, flaky pastry and topped with fish roe—a deeply satisfying seafood pie experience.
I have had many attempts at making seafood pie. My earlier efforts were overly complex. I have concluded that as far as pies are concerned, simple is better. This fish pie recipe keeps it simple.
This seafood pie uses three types of seafood, selected because they complement each other. The seafood is suspended in a vegetable stock-based sauce. The sauce is tasty yet sufficiently subtle to not overpower the seafood. The fish roe on top not only adds visual interest but brings a saltiness that reminds us of the sea.
One of the best things about pie is the pastry. For this reason, rather than making one big pie, I made four small pies using a jumbo muffin tin. The jumbo muffin size was perfect for one serving.
Serve these pies with a seaweed salad, reinforcing the connection to the ocean. A great option is this wakame tomato salad. Alternatively, the Japanese food sections in many supermarkets often have a ready to eat seaweed sesame salad. It will look something like this and is really delicious.
Seafood pie with scallops and fish roe
Ingredients
- 150 g hot smoked salmon
- 200 g white fish I used Vietnamese basa
- 150 g scallops about 4 large scallops
- 1 medium onion
- 1 medium fennel bulb
- 4 cloves garlic
- 30 g butter for the roux
- 1 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 50 ml dry white wine or sake
- 200 ml vegetable stock
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp chilli jam
- 1 tsp ground freshly ground white pepper
- 10 g butter for the jumbo muffin tin
- 4 flaky pastry pieces about 15cm round
- 8 tsp black fish eggs for garnish
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 200 degC
- Add the sake and stock to a saucepan, bring to a boil and reduce by half.
- Finely dice the onion and fennel and sauté in the butter until starting to brown.
- Add the finely chopped garlic and continue to sauté for a few more minutes, but don’t let the garlic brown as it becomes bitter.
- To prepare the roux, sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir in to get a paste consistency. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until the roux starts to brown.
- Slowly add the sake and stock mixture, stirring all the time.
- Once combined and thickened, remove the sauce from the heat and set aside to cool.
- In a non-stick 6 cup jumbo muffin pan (such as this one) smear butter around 4 of the cups.
- Mould a pastry piece into each cup.
- Bake the pastry for 10 minutes, or until it has contracted and started to become crisp.
- Dice the smoked salmon, white fish, and scallops into bite sized pieces.
- Once the sauce has cooled, stir in the egg yolks, chilli jam, fish sauce and pepper.
- Carefully fold in the fish pieces.
- Spoon some fish mixture into each pastry cup.
- Put back in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Garnish with fish eggs before serving.
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