I love a seafood pot pie as there’s no pastry base to fiddle around blind baking, just a flaky golden pastry lid. You can bake pot pies in a ramekin, ovenproof bowl or soufflé dish and fill them with virtually anything you like. So, with a roll of shortcrust pastry in the freezer, they’re a quick way to use up leftovers too. This seafood pot pie recipe is super versatile. Use any firm fish or a mixture – ling and salmon work well as does prawn meat; add some smoked fish too if you like. I sometimes make a chicken pot pie with the same base. I use buttermilk for a little extra tang, but substitute regular milk if that’s what you have, or replace some or all of it with fish stock or vegetable stock. As for veggies and herbs, use my recipe as a starting point and add whatever you have on hand. Go retro and serve a simple iceberg salad on the side (see video below). For a wine match I love an Aussie chardonnay with a bit of body. Piggs Peake Hogshead chardonnay walks the line rather nicely – it’s a bigger style and the oak is definitely there but beautifully integrated. It marries deliciously with the richness of the buttery white sauce and pastry.
Serves 4
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In the USA, ‘pot pie’ usually refers to a fully encased pie with both a pastry base and a lid.
In Britain and Australia, however, a pot pie has a pastry lid only — baked and served in its dish, which does the containing that the pastry base would do in a fully enclosed pie.
This makes them much quicker to prepare as there’s no pastry base to blind bake.
The name comes from medieval times, when pastry was literally baked into a “pot” shape with a removable top crust.
Any firm-fleshed fish works well in a seafood pot pie — in Australia, blue-eye trevalla, ling and salmon all hold their shape during baking without falling apart.
Avoid very delicate fish like whiting as it tends to break down too much.
Green prawn meat is a great addition, and smoked fish adds a lovely depth of flavour. For a more luxurious version, scallops or crab meat work beautifully.
The key is to add the fresh seafood to the filling raw — it will cook through in the oven — and not overcook that way, as seafood turns rubbery if cooked for too long.
