Creamy Seafood Pie For Cure Cancer World’s Biggest Dinner

If you use cornflour in this recipe, rather than plain flour, and use mash for the top of the pie, it is gluten-free.

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

60g butter
2 small or 1 large leek, sliced thickly
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
¼ cup (35g) corn flour
2 teaspoons mild English mustard
1 cup (250ml) milk
½ cup (125ml) sour cream
500g good quality marinara mix or 250g each boneless white fish & salmon fillets, skinned &
chopped coarsely
200g boneless smoked cod or other smoked fish, skinned and chopped coarsely
100g silverbeet leaves only, shredded or baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, roughly crushed

Mashed potato
950g evenly sized floury medium potatoes, such as pontiac, sebago or king Edward, washed
1 ½ teaspoons salt
125 g butter, diced, at room temperature
180 ml (3/4 cup) milk, warmed

Method:

For the mashed potatoes, place potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water and add salt. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until very soft. Drain and return to the saucepan. Shake the pan over low heat for 15–30 seconds to remove remaining moisture. Remove saucepan from the heat and cover with a clean tea towel and leave for 5 minutes. Peel the skins. Mash the potatoes with a potato ricer, mouli grater or hand masher, with the diced butter, salt and pepper, until smooth. Add half the warm milk to the pan, beat in with a fork, metal whisk or wooden spoon, then slowly add the remaining milk and beat again until well incorporated. Set aside and keep warm.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Grease an ovenproof dish (6-8 cup capacity) or four individual dishes.
Melt 60g butter in a large deep sided frying pan over moderate heat, add leeks and carrots and cook for 5 minutes or until soft but not coloured. Combine flour and mustard, “dissolve” in some of the milk, add to pan, mix well and cook for 2 minutes. Gradually pour in remaining milk and cream and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Cook for at least 1 minute.
Add seafood and silverbeet leaves and return just to the boil. Spoon mixture into prepared dish immediately. Top with the mash, fork over and sprinkle with fennel seeds and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Place pie on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes only. Serve immediately with a green salad.

Lyndey’s Note: You can also use 4 sheets filo pastry instead of the mash. Melt 20g butter. Place 2 sheets of filo on the bench and brush with butter. Top with remaining sheets. Cut in half into two squares. Place one square on top of seafood mixture and brush with butter, top with remaining pastry square, brush with butter and sprinkle with fennel seeds. Tuck in the excess pastry.