Fish Baked in Pastry

From: gisselbr@husc8.harvard.edu (Stephen Gisselbrecht)

Date: 2 Sep 93 11:04:43 EDT

My favorite fish preparation is to brush it down thoroughly with

olive oil, sprinkle with dried herbs and/or finely chopped garlic, and

wrap it up in pie crust dough. I use steaks for this, with all skin and

bones carefully removed. You bake them until the crust is golden, and the

baking temperature you use will determine the doneness of the fish. In

your case, I would try temperatures between 450 and 475 degrees F. (The

hotter the oven, the *less* done the fish will be when the crust is

ready.) The pastry shell keeps the meat nice and moist, and it's

impressive as hell.

For the dough, I've always just used the "Basic Pie Crust" from

the Joy of Cooking--I use it for lots of things, sweet and savory--with

maybe a little rosemary, thyme, basil, or dill stirred in with the flour

and salt. Just in case you don't have the JOC:

Basic Pie Crust Dough:

(all honor and credit to the Joy of Cooking)

C flour

/3 C shortening (can be all butter, half butter/half lard, Crisco, etc.)

1/2 tsp. salt

3 T water

Stir together flour and salt with a fork. Use more salt if the

filling will be savory and/or if your shortening is unsalted. You can add

a little sugar if the filling will be sweet (a couple of tablespoons).

Cut half the shortening into the flour, then rub in between your

fingers until the mixture has about the texture of cornmeal. Then cut in

the remaining shortening, leaving it in roughly pea-sized lumps. (These

form the "flakes" when rolled out.) Add just enough cold water to make

the dough come together, chill until somewhat stiff, then roll out on a

liberally floured board.

This makes enough for a 2-crust 9 inch pie, or two single crust

pies, or six entree turnovers, or twelve dessert turnovers.

amyl

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/seafood/fish/fish-pastry.html [12/17/1999 11:54:18 AM]

Seafood Recipes