An Asian spin on a winter Kiwi classic from Japanese-born cooking tutor Sachie Noumura.

My first experience of Fish Pie was just after I arrived in New Zealand 18 years ago, when my home-stay grandmother made it for me one day. It was quite an unique experience as I had never seen this dish, or anything similar, in my life before!

I have created this Fish Pie with the combination of the fish pie that I had 18 years ago with inspiratio nfrom a dish called Tom Ka Gai (Coconut Chicken soup) that I had in Thailand. This is gluten free as I am not using flour to make the white sauce. You can also use your pre-ferred seafood rather than sticking to the ones that I mention!

Happy cooking!

Sachie Nomura’s Thai Fish Pie

Serve:3-4

Preparation & cooking time: 1 hr

INGREDIENTS

Sauce:
1/2 shallots, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 tbsp oil
1 tin of coconut milk (425ml)
1/2 stalk of lemongrass (white part)
2 x kaffir lime leaves
20g fresh coriander, chopped
1/2 red chilli, chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp of corn flour mixed with 2 tsp of water

Mashed potato
800g Agria potato, peeled and cut into big cubes
20g butter, unsalted
60ml milk
1/8 tsp white pepper
1 tsp salt
1 lime zest

Seafood
10 scallops, halved
200g salmon, cut into cubes
200g monk fish / blue cod, cut into cubes
Green salad and lime

METHOD

Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees.

Put potatoes into a large pot and cover with water. Bring water to boil, reduce heat to medium high, cook for 15 minutes or until fully cooked. Drain, add butter, milk, lime zest, white pepper and salt. Mash and mix until smooth. Set aside.

While you are cooking the potatoes, let’s make the sauce. Add oil in a medium size pot and place it over medium high heat. Add garlic and shallots and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir lime and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-high and infuse for 4 minutes.

Add all the seafood ingredients, coriander, chilli, corn flour and cook for 1-2 mins. Season with fish sauce and remove from heat. Don’t worry if all the seafood is not cooked though. We will finish off in an oven.

Remove lemongrass and kaffirlime from the pot and scoop out all the seafood into an oven tin. Pour the sauce to cover the ingredients – reserve the rest of the sauce for later use!

Cover with mashed potato, flatten with back of spoon and draw lines with a fork. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with green salad and lime wedges. Drizzle the sauce on the top if you want some more sauce.

---

Sachie teaches cooking classes at her cooking school Sachie’s Kitchen.