Stargazy pie debrief
Thank you all for your assistance with the stargazy pie. It was splendid to behold and, apart from a few construction flaws easily fixed next time, thoroughly delicious. It held together adequately when sliced, provided the slice wasn't too narrow.
I used Nigella Lawson's Cornish pasty crust, which is a shortcrust made with self-rising flour. It was exactly right on top but (construction flaw #1) should have been rolled thinner for the bottom since it came out a bit damp. I went with the bare-bones filling--no cream sauce, just sardines, cooked egg, onion, herbs and "bacon". Due to the number of non-pork-eating people attending, I used the meat from smoked keta salmon collars as a bacon stand-in. The keta (aka chum) salmon tends to be drier than the other Pacific salmons, making it a closer match to bacon; the collar meat even more so. A half pound of collars gave me about a cup of salmon-bacon.
I was unable to find a fishmonger with fresh sardines so had to go with frozen, doing the cleaning and deboning myself. Construction flaw #2: I'm not very good at deboning. Any future pies will use professionally dissected fish, even if it means no heads.
Construction flaw #3 was that when arranging the fish in the pastry, I should have sprinkled the chopped mixture between the layers. The layers of sardine packed together while baking which was not as pleasant as a more even distribution.
Those adjustments aside, this is something I can easily see making again and would recommend to anyone who thinks a fish pie could be tasty. I could see it (sans heads) as a good brunch dish.
I used Nigella Lawson's Cornish pasty crust, which is a shortcrust made with self-rising flour. It was exactly right on top but (construction flaw #1) should have been rolled thinner for the bottom since it came out a bit damp. I went with the bare-bones filling--no cream sauce, just sardines, cooked egg, onion, herbs and "bacon". Due to the number of non-pork-eating people attending, I used the meat from smoked keta salmon collars as a bacon stand-in. The keta (aka chum) salmon tends to be drier than the other Pacific salmons, making it a closer match to bacon; the collar meat even more so. A half pound of collars gave me about a cup of salmon-bacon.
I was unable to find a fishmonger with fresh sardines so had to go with frozen, doing the cleaning and deboning myself. Construction flaw #2: I'm not very good at deboning. Any future pies will use professionally dissected fish, even if it means no heads.
Construction flaw #3 was that when arranging the fish in the pastry, I should have sprinkled the chopped mixture between the layers. The layers of sardine packed together while baking which was not as pleasant as a more even distribution.
Those adjustments aside, this is something I can easily see making again and would recommend to anyone who thinks a fish pie could be tasty. I could see it (sans heads) as a good brunch dish.