Austria is beautiful: I love my new home country and I never regret moving here long time ago. The quality of life is gorgeous and the quality of food too: a high variety of regional veggies, game meat, poultry, fantastic dairy products… But there is one thing that Austria lacks: fish. Well, you can get it, but you have to pay quite a lot for decent quality. No wonder that every time Stefan and I are travelling somewhere, we crave for fish like mad: seafood, sushi, salmon, smoked fish, it doesn’t matter, we eat it all. Having a fishmonger near to our Airbnb during our last summer escape in Edinburgh was a blessing though. I always wanted to do a fish pie and finally got the chance to create this simple yet comforting dish.
Of course, the star of the dish is the fish: it does not matter which one you choose but it should have a firmer flesh and, of course, the best quality you can afford. But feel free to experiment with seafood and fish that you like: smoked makarel, shrimps, mussels, crab flesh … everything finds a home here.
Our veggie-choice should also be just an inspiration: we kept it pretty simple with carrots, some mixed greens (broccoli stems, asparagus) and button mushrooms. I can imagine squash and chesnut for an autumn touch or maybe spinach with cheese? Or why not try zucchini, basil, dried tomatoes for a more mediterranean twist?
We made our own bechamelle sauce, because it is so incredibly easy and you can adjust the thickness to your needs and taste by adding more or less flour and milk. Using a good mustard and a full-fat milk upgrades the sauce to the next level.
Very unusual for us, but we did not use a lot of spices: salt, pepper, Dijon mustard and nutmeg. The smoked haddock gives a lot of flavour by itself and we did not want to overpower our precious Scottish fish. Again, it is up to you to chose your flavouring weapons. In my case, I would like to try adding some miso instead of the mustard next time
Ingredients
- 660g Mixed fish chopped: we used a mixture of smoked haddock, cod and salmon
- 240g Mixed veggies chopped
- 200g Button mushrooms chopped
- Sauce: 20g butter, 20g plain flour, 200 ml full-fat milk, 20g Dijon mustard
- Pie crust: 1o0g plain flour, 50g butter, splash of water
- Salt, pepper, nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C.
- Make the pie dough by quickly mixing the plain flour and the butter, adding a splash of cold water to make a smooth dough. Set aside.
- For the sauce melt the butter at low heat and stir in the flour. Add the milk bit by bit and stirr until you have a smooth, silky sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until thickened. Stir in the mustard and add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Let it cool down slightly.
- Now stir in all the fish, veggies and the button mushrooms and -if needed- transfer the mixture in a baking dish (sorry, I can not remember the exact measurements). If you have an oven-proof pan, you can bake it directly there.
- Roll out the pie crust to roughly fit the baking dish and put it on top of it. Be sure to prick some holes with a fork to let the steam out. If you are fancy, you can even make a glaze with some egg yolk.
- Bake for 25 min at 200C.
- Let it cool at least 10 minutes before serving.
- We ate it with some more veggies and a slice of haggis 😉 .
macros
Our recipe makes four portions, each portion having the following macros:
- 468kcal
- 41,1g Protein
- 27,8g Carbs
- 20,5g Fat
The recipe is super-macro friendly and very protein dense. If you are not a 50kg tiny goat like me, it will fit even during a fat-loss phase. Isn’t it gorgeous? But to be honest, if you have calories left or are not counting calories at all, I would make a bit more pie crust because everyone loves crust. At least I do 😉
Beary Strong 