Cornish Recipes - Stargazy Pie
Stargazy pie is a cornish dish made of baked pilchards and/or many other kinds of seafish, covered with a pastry crust. The pilchards are arranged with their tails toward the centre of the pie and their heads poking up through the crust around the edge, so that they appear to be gazing skyward. It is traditionally served with Cornish clotted cream.
The dish originates from the village of Mousehole in Cornwall, and is traditionally eaten during the holiday of Tom Bawcock's Eve.
Ingredients:
25g Butter
1 Onion, finely chopped
3 rashers rindless streaky Bacon, chopped into rough 5mm dice
1/2 tbsp Flour, plus more for dusting
3 tbsp dry white wine
250ml fish stock, (or a corner of a good-quality fish stock cube dissolved in 250ml hot water)
300ml Double Cream
2 tbsp chopped Parsley
2 hard-boiled Eggs, shelled and chopped
6 Pilchards, herrings, or small mackerel, filleted, any residual bones removed and heads reserved.
200g Puff pastry, rolled out to a thickness of about 3mm
1 Egg, beaten
Method:
1. Heat the butter in a medium pan and gently cook the onion and bacon until soft. Add the flour and stir well, then slowly add the wine and fish stock, stirring well to prevent lumps forming. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add the cream, bring back to the boil and simmer until reduced by half and thickened. Remove from the heat; add the parsley and chopped egg, season with salt and pepper and leave to cool.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6.
4. Cut the fillets of fish in half and lay them in a shallow pie or flan dish, then lightly season with salt and pepper.
5. Pour the sauce over the fish. Lay the pastry over the dish and trim it to size. Make 6 small slits in the pastry and push the reserved fish heads through them. Brush the top with the beaten egg. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the pastry is golden and risen.
6. Serve with greens in autumn and winter, or with a selection of spring vegetables.
From UKTV FOOD's Mark Hix.
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Pilchards at Newlyn's Fish Festival