GLUTEN-FREE SEA PIE
When I was a child my mother cooked. My father only ever did so when, decked out in one of Mum’s floral aprons and with tongs in hand, he’d hover over the barbecue blackening sausages and chops. They were the days.
Despite this evidence to the contrary, Dad claimed to be a cook of quite some accomplishment, and he was always just on the cusp of creating for us his most famous dish – a Sea Pie.
This Sea Pie, we were told, was a taste sensation, a treat like no other.
What was in it, we would ask. How do you make it? Such secrets could not be divulged.
And did we enjoy it? Sadly, we never did see the legendary Sea Pie.
Perhaps that was just as well because, as I discovered much later, an old English Sea Pie was mariners’ rations. Made of salt beef or pork, probably with a suet crust, it was standard fare through long voyages at sea.
Safe to say our recipe for Sea Pie is a far cry from these origins. Our Gluten-free Sea Pie has loads of fresh seafood in a light sauce, fragrant with herbs and capers, and it’s topped with our delicious Cream Cheese Pastry.
We’ve all enjoyed it enormously. Although who knows what Dad might have thought. His standards were pretty high.
Jan
SEA PIE
The pastry for the pie can be made a few days ahead of time and refrigerated or can be frozen for up to one month.
Serves 6
1 recipe Revenge Gluten-Free Cream Cheese Pastry, chilled,
(the amount of pastry required will depend upon the surface area of the pie dish)
750 gm trimmed, skinless, thick snapper fillets or similar
12 medium green prawns
12 scallops
1 tablespoon olive oil
75 gm butter
2 leeks, trimmed and sliced
1 white onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lemon, zest only
1½ tablespoons finely chopped dill
1½ tablespoons finely chopped parsley
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
350 ml crème fraîche
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed if necessary
Sea salt and ground pepper
1 tablespoon corn flour or Revenge Gluten-Free Plain Flour
1 egg, beaten with a teaspoon water, for brushing pastry shapes
Milk for brushing the pie
Preheat oven to 220°C. Grease a wide 1.5 litre capacity, ceramic ovenproof dish.
Remove the pastry from the fridge to soften a little.
Cut the fish into 3-4cm pieces. Remove the head, shell and intestinal tract from the prawns and discard (or use to make stock for another recipe). Place the fish, prawn flesh and scallops in a wide bowl.
Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan, add the leek and onion then fry on low heat for 10 minutes or until soft but not browning.
Add the garlic, lemon zest, dill, parsley and paprika to the pan then continue cooking for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the crème fraîche, capers and seasoning to taste.
Toss the fish, prawns and scallops in the flour and place in the prepared dish. Spoon over the crème fraîche mixture and set side.
Roll out the pastry to 6mm thickness, in two pieces if necessary for ease of handling. Leave the pastry in sheets or cut out wave-like strips as in the photo and lay over the seafood and cream mixture. Trim to the edge of the dish. Cut “sea-themed” shapes with remaining pastry – starfish, fish, octopus, seaweed etc. Place some of them on the pie and others on an oven tray lined with baking paper.
The pie can be made up to this stage and refrigerated. Be sure to take it out of the fridge at least an hour before cooking.
Brush the pie lightly with milk. Brush the shapes on the pie and on the tray with egg wash, resulting in a more golden finish to highlight the shapes.
Put the tray with the shapes on the bottom shelf of the oven and the pie on the top shelf. Bake the shapes for about 10 minutes until golden.
Cook the pie for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the inner temperature is hot to the touch when tested with a metal skewer. If the pastry is browning too much cover it loosely with foil.
Remove from the oven and set aside for a few minutes.
Serve at the table with the pastry shapes, some roasted sweet potato chips and a salad, such as the Green Sea Salad below.
GREEN SEA SALAD
Serves 6
10 gm dried seaweed (often referred to on the pack as sea vegetable), available from many
grocers and Asian food stores
2 cups water
75 gm baby spinach leaves, washed and dried
3 small Lebanese cucumbers, washed
4 red radishes, washed and trimmed
Rehydrate the sea vegetable in the water and set aside for 10 minutes. Drain and squeeze out excess water. Discard the water.
Slice the cucumbers into thin strips and the radishes into thin rounds.
Gently toss the seaweed, spinach, cucumber and radish with the dressing.
Dressing
50 ml extra virgin olive oil
20 ml white wine vinegar
20 ml gluten-free ponzu sauce (or half lemon juice, half gluten-free soy)
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 garlic clove, crushed
Place all ingredients in a jar and shake well. Remove the garlic clove before tossing with the salad.
TIP:
Children usually like cutting out pastry shapes so get them involved and they’ll be more likely to eat their dinner!