Sumptuous Waitangi Seafood Blue Cod Pie with Rosti Top
Layers of flavour elevate this pie from family meal to one you can proudly serve guests. A simple green leaf salad eaten before the pie is all you need. ‘Pimp[ the pie with a few uncooked raw prawn cutlets and local scallops, in this case you can reduce the amount of blue cod.
Serves 4-5
Ingredients
300ml fish stock
150ml dry white wine, I used Leefield Chardonnay
1 fresh bay leaf
700-750g, Waitangi Seafood Blue Cod Fillets, thawed and fillets cut in half
50g butter
3 tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons crème fraiche or sour cream
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat leaf parsley, plus a few leaves roughly chopped for topping pie
½ tablespoon finely chopped feathery fennel fronds, optional
lime or lemon wedges, for serving
Rosti Top Ingredients
800g Oakleys potatoes, boiled in their skin and dried off over low heat
1 tablespoon finely chopped preserved lemon, see tip or use capers, rinsed and drained
50g butter, melted
3 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan
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Method
Grease an ovenproof baking dish, 5cm deep and with about a 1.5 litre capacity.
Make the rosti top, as soon as the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel off the skins. Grate potatoes on a coarse grater, putting in a large bowl as you go. Add the preserved lemon (or capers), and melted butter and toss well using two forks.
Pour the fish stock and wine into a pot, add the bay leaf and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, put in the blue cod fillets and put on the lid. Leave the fish to poach in the hot stock for two minutes. They will just begin to cook here.
Remove the fish and set aside. Strain the stock into a heatproof jug. Rinse out the pot.
Heat the oven to 200°C.
Melt the butter over low heat then stir in the flour. Cook for about two minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon until a straw colour then gradually stir in the strained stock. Cook until the sauce thickens to a coating sauce consistency and has a gorgeous glossy look.
Remove from the heat and stir or whisk in the crème fraiche or sour cream, parsley and fennel, if using. Taste for seasoning, adding a little salt if needed. Some freshly ground white pepper is delicious if you have some.
Cut the blue cod into large chunks and add to the sauce. Put in the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle rosti on top, spreading as evenly as possible then top with the Parmesan.
Sit baking dish in a shallow oven tray, in case of spillage, and put in the oven and cook for 35-40 minutes until golden and the blue cod is cooked through.
Cooks Tips
· To prepare the lemon, remove all the pith from two preserved lemon quarters and discard so you are left with lemon skin only. Wash and dry well before finely chopping.
· No blue cod? Use other firm white fish fillets, such as larger Gurnard, Hoki or Tarakihi.
· Add 150g wilted spinach to the pie – scatter over the fish and sauce before topping with the rosti.
