CookEat Recipe
Fish, Rice and Vegetable Pie
A closed savoury pastry pie with rice layers enclosing fish, mushrooms, peas and artichokes in a toasted pine-nut sauce.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 1 whole grey mullet, about 350 g before cleaning, professionally scaled, gutted and with gills removed; 200 g rice; 150 g fresh cultivated mushrooms, sliced; 300 g shelled green peas; 50 g pine nuts; 6 small artichokes, trimmed to their edible hearts and tender leaves; 150 g butter: 80 g pastry, 40 g rice, 25 g vegetables and 5 g mould; 80 g grated Parmesan: 30 g rice and 50 g vegetables; 4 eggs: 2 for the rice and 2 for the pastry; 150 g onion: about 40 g for the rice and 110 g for the vegetables, finely chopped; 40 g celery, finely chopped; 60 g carrot, finely chopped; 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley: 2 for vegetables and 1 for fish; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 garlic clove, finely chopped; 150 ml plain tomato purée; 400 g plain flour, plus a little for rolling; 2 tablespoons white wine; Salt and black pepper; Water as needed for the rice, vegetables, fish, artichokes and pastry.
Step 2
Make the pastry with the flour, 80 g butter, 2 eggs, white wine and a pinch of salt. Rub the butter into the flour, add the eggs and wine, then work briefly into a firm dough. If it will not bind, add cold water a tablespoon at a time, roughly 30–60 ml only as needed. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes while preparing the fillings.
Step 3
Cut the trimmed artichokes into wedges and boil in water for about 5–8 minutes, until partly tender, then drain. Melt 25 g butter in a wide pan and soften 110 g onion with the celery, carrot and 2 tablespoons parsley for about 8 minutes. Add the mushrooms, peas and artichokes. Season with salt and pepper and cook gently for 15–20 minutes, adding hot water a few tablespoons at a time until tender with little free liquid. Take off the heat and mix in 50 g Parmesan.
Step 4
Warm the olive oil in a snug fish pan and gently cook the garlic and remaining parsley for 30–60 seconds. Add the whole prepared fish, tomato purée, salt, pepper and about 100 ml water. Cover and simmer for roughly 10–15 minutes, turning once, until the flesh reaches at least 70°C. Lift out the fish and strain its cooking sauce into a clean pan.
Step 5
Lightly toast the pine nuts in a dry pan, cool briefly and pound to a fine paste. Stir them into the strained fish sauce. Remove the fish head, backbone and every small bone, break the flesh into pieces and return it to the sauce. Combine this fish mixture with the cooked vegetables, keeping the rice separate.
Step 6
Melt 40 g butter in a saucepan, soften the remaining 40 g onion, then add the rice and a little salt. Cook with hot water added gradually, starting with about 500 ml and adding more as needed, for about 18–22 minutes until tender with no loose liquid. Remove from the heat, let the strongest heat subside for a few minutes and mix in the remaining 2 eggs and 30 g Parmesan. Assemble the pie promptly.
Step 7
Heat the oven to 180°C. Butter a deep round mould of about 3 litres capacity, approximately 24 cm across and 7 cm deep, with the last 5 g butter. Roll about two-thirds of the pastry and line the base and sides. Add half the rice, all the fish-vegetable filling and then the remaining rice. Roll the reserved pastry for a lid, close the pie, seal the edge and make a small steam hole.
Step 8
Bake for about 50–65 minutes until the pastry is golden and cooked through and the filling reaches at least 74°C at the centre. If the top colours too quickly, cover loosely with foil. Rest for 20–30 minutes, unmould carefully and serve warm in twelve portions.
Step 9
To serve cold, unmould once stable, cut into portions and refrigerate promptly in shallow containers within 2 hours of leaving the oven. Keep at 4°C or colder and eat within 2–3 days. Do not leave the intact rice-and-fish pie cooling on the counter for hours.
Step 10
Sea bass may replace the grey mullet at the same whole weight, or use about 180 g boneless fish pieces as an estimated edible equivalent; simmer pieces more briefly until 70°C. Marsala may replace the white wine in the pastry. For tomato paste, replace the 150 ml purée and 100 ml fish water with 1 tablespoon paste mixed into about 230 ml water.
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