Seafood Pies
My husband flicked through my delicious magazine the other day and knowing that I am blogging what I cook from the magazine this month, suggested that I make the seafood pies for dinner.
The original recipe looked so easy, however it uses sour cream which is pretty high in fat.
Given that my husband has (had) high cholesterol, I didn’t fancy feeding him sour cream
Or light sour cream which is still at least one quarter fat
So I set about making a sour-cream-free, healthier version.
To start off I made a basic white sauce using milk
I thickened it with cornflour and for flavour added vegetables, wine (of course) and fresh chives.
The original topping suggested to use Sebago potatoes, a good all-rounder potato that make a lovely mash.
I used a mixture of sweet potatoes and Sebago potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are low GI, (approx. 44) compared to Sebago potatoes that are high GI (with a GI of 87).
The sweet potatoes not only lowered the GI of the topping, they also added a lovely flavour and golden colour.
Okay so these little pies aren’t as quick as the original recipe, however they are much healthier as they have 80% less total fat and more than 90% less saturated fat!
As I mentioned above they have a lower GI topping than the original recipe and they also include more vegetables.
Most importantly though, they were scrumptious!
Individual seafood pies
Definitely one to make again, and again, and again, and….
- 300g Nicola potatoes, scrubbed well, skin left on and diced
- 400g sweet potato, peeled and diced
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 medium brown onion, diced
- 1 stick celery, diced (1 cup)
- 1 medium carrot, finely diced
- 1 small fennel, tops removed, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons cornflour (I used gluten free cornflour)
- 1½ cups milk of your choice (I used soy milky lite), plus 4 tablespoons, extra
- ⅓ cup dry white wine
- 400g skinless, boneless firm white fish fillet (such as ling), cut into 3cm pieces
- 200g peeled, deveined green prawns (400g unpeeled prawns approx. = 200g peeled prawns), cut in half if large
- 1 bunch chives
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- pepper
- Boil the kettle. Place the potatoes in a saucepan and when the kettle has boiled, pour water over the potatoes to just cover them.
- Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 12-15 minutes until tender.
- Meanwhile, heat a frypan over medium-high heat. When hot add oil and onion and sautee for 2-3 minutes until onion softens and starts to brown. If onion starts to stick, add a little water.
- Add celery and carrot and cook, adding water if they start to stick.
- Add fennel and sautee for 2-3 minutes.
- Place cornflour in a jug or bowl and pour in about 2 tablespoons of milk. Stir until smooth, then add remaining milk.
- Pour milk mixture into pan, add wine and stir constantly until it incorporates the vegetables and the mixture has thickened.
- Remove from heat, stir in prawns, fish, chives and 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Divide seafood mixture between two 1L (4-cup) ovenproof dishes. (I only had one dish this size so I used 2 individual dishes for the remainder)
- Drain potato and return to the pan. Add the 4 tablespoons of extra milk and ½ teaspoon of salt, then mash until smooth and creamy.
- Spoon mash over the filling, even out with a fork and sprinkle with grated cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes until the potato is golden and crisp.
- Rest for 5 minutes before serving.
- Serve with steamed broccoli and a rocket and avocado salad
Ready for the oven!
