Name: Individual fish pies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 500g pack puff pastry; 50g plain flour, plus extra for dusting; 1½ tbsp olive oil; ½ small onion, finely chopped; ½ celery stick, finely chopped; 1 small carrot (or ½ larger carrot), finely chopped; 50g butter; 500ml whole milk, plus extra for brushing; 2 tbsp pastis (such as Pernod) or dry (white) vermouth such as Noilly Prat, or dry white wine; 100g crème fraîche; Grated zest and juice ½ lemon; 4 tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley; ¼ nutmeg; 400g sustainable white fish, skinned and cut into chunks; 2 lightly smoked salmon fillets, skinned and cut into bite-size chunks; 18 sustainable raw king prawns, defrosted if need be – or 300g North Atlantic prawns; Peas and/or steamed greens to serve; 6 individual skillet pans or pie dishes, roughly 12cm in diameter

Individual fish pies

Prefer pastry to mash? You’ll love these individual fish pies topped with golden puff pastry. The creamy filling is crammed with white fish, smoked salmon and prawns. Serve as part of a gastropub-style dinner for 6, with a beetroot and goat’s cheese terrine to start and classic treacle tart for pud.

Serves6

Hands-on30 min

Oven25 min

DifficultyEasy

Ingredients

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Method

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle roughly 1 cm thick. Cut out 6 discs slightly larger than your dishes/pans, re-rolling as necessary. Keep the trimmings to help secure the pastry lids in place. Dust lightly with flour and chill, covered, until needed.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan (with a lid), then add the chopped onion, celery, carrot and some seasoning. Fry over a low-medium heat with the lid on for 10 minutes, stirring once or twice.
Meanwhile, add the butter, flour and milk to a separate saucepan and heat over a medium heat whisking until the butter has melted and you have a smooth, thick white sauce – it needs to be thick to allow the fish juices to loosen it during baking. Add the softened vegetables, pernod, crème fraiche, lemon zest and juice and parsley, then season to taste with nutmeg, salt and black pepper and more lemon/pernod, if you like.
Heat the oven to 180°C fan/ gas 6. Divide the fish and prawns among the dishes/pans, then spoon over the sauce to cover. Leave to cool, then stick the trimmings to the pie rims and brush with milk before adding the pastry discs and pressing to seal. Score the pastry, if you like, and make a hole in the middle for steam to escape. Brush with milk, then bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry has risen, the filling is cooked through and the sauce is starting to bubble through the hole. Serve with peas and/or greens – whatever you prefer.