Springy, Herby Fish Pot Pie

Plus, I’m un-paywalling my rough puff pastry recipe

One of my favorite things to do is pick one of the hottest days of the year, walk into my lightly air-conditioned kitchen, and attempt to make puff-pastry while my oven is blasting at 400°F. Because of this, working ahead (or using store-bought put pastry) will work to your advantage. I recommend making the puff pastry the day before, or even the morning of. You can roll it out, cut it to the size of your baking dish, place it on a parchment lined tray, arrange any decorations on top, cover, and keep in the fridge or freezer until ready to use. Just don’t let cold pastry sit on top of warm filling for longer than a minute or so without it going directly into the oven, otherwise the butter layers in the pastry will melt and not puff up like we want. Alternatively, you can cool the filling down to room temperature before topping with the pastry, covering, and keeping in the fridge until ready to bake.

Here I'm doing two "letter" folds — folding the pastry into thirds like a letter. Then I do one "book fold" — folding one quarter of the pastry over, then folding the other three quarters up to meet it, then folding the pastry in half so both raw edges are encased.

One more book fold and chill, then I roll it out, cut out enough pastry to cover the top and cut out a fish decoration. Don't get too hung up on measurements, just try to keep the pastry in a long-ish rectangle when rolling it out and make sure you're folding along a different axis after each fold/turn.

Thank you to Seremoni for sponsoring this recipe and post! When they reached out and asked if I’d make something using their Black Cod, I knew this was my chance to recreate a dish from a certain animation about a young witch who… brings people things… that I can’t name for legal reasons. Instead of herring and pumpkin, we’re making a very spring forward, herby cream filling with potatoes, leeks, spinach and peas and their Seremoni Grade Black Cod. There are plenty of reasons to support this brand if you love eating fish: they work with independent American fishermen. They are humanely harvested to reduce suffering using a centuries-old Japanese method called ike jime, which you can read more about here. And because of that, shelf-life is improved meaning more of the harvest is usable and doesn’t go to waste — big for sustainability.

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

Rough Puff Pastry (see note)

• 18 tablespoons cold, salted butter cut into 1/2-inch cubes (255 grams)

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (324 grams)

• 1/2 cup ice-cold water (113 grams)

• 1 1/2 teaspoons white distilled vinegar

• 1 egg, whisked (for egg-wash)

Filling

• 4 tablespoons salted butter

• 1 pound potatoes, peeled and chopped into half-inch pieces

• 1 leek, washed well and chopped (only the white part)

• Salt

• Pepper

• 1 tablespoon minced thyme

• 1 tablespoon chopped dill

• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup white wine or chicken, vegetable or seafood stock

• 1/2 tablespoon whole grain mustard

• 3/4 cup whole milk

• 3/4 cup heavy cream

• 18 ounces Seremoni Grade Black Cod, skinned, deboned and cut into one-inch pieces

• 3/4 cup frozen peas

• 4 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and strained
  

Directions

1. Make the rough puff pastry (if not using store-bought). Add the flour to a food processor with the blade attachment then add in the butter cubes and pulse just until the butter pieces are broken up a bit but are still about the size of hazelnuts. You can also do this in a bowl with a pastry cutter or two knives.

2. Transfer the flour and butter mixture to a medium-size bowl. Whisk together the salt, water and vinegar until the salt has dissolved. Slowly drizzle half the liquid all over the flour and butter and fluff the mixture with a fork until combined. Repeat with about half the remaining liquid. Drizzle in the remaining water, focusing on just the dry areas, and fluff one more time. (You may need 1 tablespoon more or less depending on humidity, flour brand and how incorporated the butter is.) You should end up with a shaggy dough with very little unincorporated flour.

3. If at any time the butter becomes too warm, slack or greasy, stick the bowl in the fridge to cool off. Dump the dough onto a clean work surface and press into a rectangle about an inch thick. Pick up any unincorporated butter/flour pieces and press them into the top (a bench scraper helps here). Wrap the dough in a piece of plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours, however long it takes for the dough to get cold and firm.

4. Remove the pastry from the fridge and dust your work surface with flour. Complete a letter fold: Using a lightly floured pin, roll out the pastry into a long rectangle, about 4 by 12 inches. Using your hands or the bench scraper, pick up the top third of the pastry and fold it over towards you. Then take the bottom third and fold that over the top third. Pause to chill the pastry again, if necessary.

5. If the pastry is still cool, rotate the pastry 90 degrees so the seams are facing your left and right. Complete another letter fold. Press down the top of the dough gently, re-wrap in plastic, and return to the fridge to chill for another 30 minutes or so.

6. Once the pastry is chilled, rotate the dough 90 degrees again. Complete a book fold: Roll out the dough to a rectangle about 10 by 16 inches. Fold one quarter of the pastry over on the short side, then fold the other three quarters up to meet it. Fold the pastry in half like a book so both raw edges are encased. Chill for 30 minutes. (If at any point the dough tightens up and is resistant to rolling, return to the fridge to chill for another hour.)

7. Optionally, repeat Step 6.

8. Make the filling. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the potatoes and leeks to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the leaks are translucent and the potatoes are softening up.

9. Add the fresh herbs and cook for one minute, then stir in the flour until all the ingredients are well coated. Continue cooking and stirring, scraping up the bottom of the pan, for another minute or so to cook off the raw flour. While stirring, pour in the stock/wine and mustard to deglaze and continue stirring until the mixture looks saucy and creamy.

10. While stirring, slowly stream in the milk and cream into the mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil then immediately turn down to simmer until very, very thick — even thicker than a thick shower; it’ll loosen up in the oven.

11. Fold the pieces of the Seremoni Black Cod into the cream and cook on a gentle simmer for 4 to 6 minutes, then remove from heat and stir in the peas and the spinach.

12. Roll out your pastry to a thickness of ⅛-¼ an inch. Use the top of your 2-quart baking dish to cut out a topper of pastry (it will shrink slightly in the oven). Use the remaining pastry to cut out decorations (like a fish!) and affix them to the top using egg wash.

13. Transfer the filling to the baking dish.

14. You can either wait for the filling to cool down to room temperature in the fridge, then top it with the pastry and allow to chill in the fridge before you’re ready to bake. Alternatively, you can add the still-warm filling to the baking dish, and assemble the pastry top on a parchment-lined half-sheet tray, freezing it before you top the warm filling, and then immediately baking.

15. About 15 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 400. Brush the pastry all over with egg wash. Bake the pie on the middle rack until the pastry is puffed and deep golden brown all over, about 35 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Note:

• If you just want a pastry topping with no decorations, you can halve the rough puff pastry recipe, noting that the size of the rolled-out rectangles will decrease. If you make no decoration, you’ll have a lot of leftover pastry, which is awesome! Roll out the pastry and use what you need. Then wrap what’s left well with plastic wrap, place in a freezer bag and store in the freezer to use for more pot pies, pastries, tarts, homemade pop-tarts, etc.

• To save some time, you can prep make the filling in between your folds of rough puff pastry. Once cools down to warm, stick it in the fridge until ready to assemble.