Seafood Pie With Leek, Garlic And Chives

[mrmoshe]

SEAFOOD PIE WITH LEEK, GARLIC AND CHIVES

Serves 4

You need:

1/2 cup dry white wine

6 mussels

8 vongole, surf clams or pipis

1 small leek

40g butter

1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped

200g firm fish fillets, chopped into bite-size pieces

8 green medium prawns, shelled, deveined and chopped

8 scallops

1 bunch chives, chopped

1 cup bechamel sauce (see separate recipe)

40g grated gruyere cheese

juice of 1 lemon, or to taste

salt and pepper, to taste

2 sheets ready rolled butter puff pastry

Method:

Heat half the wine in moderately hot pan. Add mussels and vongole, cover and cook until shells open. Remove as soon as they open.

Remove mussels and vongoles from shells.

Drain any remaining liquid from the pan and reserve.

Rinse leek thoroughly, discard green part and chop white.

Heat pan, add butter, heat and sweat leeks and garlic.

Remove garlic and leeks from pan and set aside.

Add remaining wine and heat to deglaze pan. Pour into a bowl and add

the vegetables, all the seafood, reserved mussel liquid and chives.

Stir in the bechamel sauce, cheese and lemon juice.

Taste and season well (it will need quite a bit of salt).

Leave mixture to cool to room temperature.

Spoon mixture into 4 individual heatproof dishes.

Cut pastry sheet into 4 quarters. Place each square over the dish, gently pushing the pastry hanging over the side into the dish. It doesn’t seal but is like a cover. It’s easier and more rustic.

Cook pies in a hot oven (220°C) for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden.

Notes: Other seafood could be added or substituted in this recipe, such as crab or lobster meat. If using a pie maker, fry the fish, prawns and scallops quickly until half cooked.

Make 1 large pie in a casserole dish. Cover dish with puff pastry, overlapping 2 sheets if required, or top with mashed potato, sprinkled with sesame seeds. Make individual pies in muffin tins by gently pressing pastry into greased tin, filling with seafood mixture and sealing with pastry top.

Wine Suggestion: A nice Hunter Valley Semillon