This pretty pie with the light crunchy puff pastry will delight young and old. The recipe works very well with salmon too!
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1 packet ready rolled puff pastry
- 1 egg, beaten
For the trout
- 200g trout fillets, cut in bitesize chunks
- 2 celery sticks, finely sliced
- 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced and finely chopped
- 5 chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced
- 3 spring onions, finely sliced
- 5 cornichons, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp capers, drained and roughly chopped
- ½ lemon, zest only
For the crushed potato
- 3 medium sized potatoes
- 1 tbsp mustard with seeds
- 1 knob of butter
- 50ml milk
For the white wine sauce
- 25g butter
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder
- 1 tbsp flour
- 50ml dry white wine
- 100ml milk
Method
Peel and chop the potatoes in cubes approx. 2cm square. Put the potatoes in a pan and cover with cold water. Add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and cook till the potato is soft. Drain the water and return the potatoes to the pan. Add the butter, milk and mustard and mash. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Keep to the side.
To cook the trout, bring a sauté pan with the oil to a medium heat. Add the celery and fennel and sweat for a few minutes till translucent. Add the mushrooms and spring onions and cook for a couple of minutes further. Finely, add the trout and cook for 3 minutes further stirring to cook all over. Add the cornichons, capers, lemon zest and season with salt and pepper.
To make the white wine sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the shallot and sweat over low heat till translucent. Add the flour and cook for a couple of minutes stirring constantly and add the wine. Sprinkle the vegetable bouillon and stir to incorporate. Finely add the milk and cook stirring all the time till the sauce thickens. Leave to cool and add to the trout mix.
To assemble the pie, preheat the oven to 200 0C.
Place the pastry onto a baking tray lined with a silicone mat or baking paper. Make two gentle markings so that you have three sections to the pastry, the middle one slightly larger than the two sides. Using a knife, make 1cm wide cuts all along the two outer sections of the pie. You will use those to cover the filling in the middle section.
Spread the potato mix over the middle section leaving 1cm clear pastry either end. Top it with the fish mixture. Bring all the pastry ribbons over the filling taking one from the left side and one from the right, ensuring that the two meet in the middle and slightly overlap. Do this till all the pastry is finished. Bring over the edges of the middle section that you left clear of filling. Brush the pastry with egg and bake in the oven till brown and crispy, approx. 35 minutes.
Leave to cool a little and slice. Serve with a green leaf salad. 