Rick Stein’s Cornwall: Stargazey Pie Recipe

As seen in series two episode five of Rick’s Stein’s Cornwall on BBC2 – Stargazey pie is a famous Cornish recipe that we know you’ll enjoy cooking at home for your friends and family. Recreate it with the freshest Cornish mackerel from our online fishmongers.

Serves 4

Ingredients

200g puff pastry 
30g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
3 rashers streaky bacon, finely chopped
20g plain flour
3 Tbsp dry white wine
250ml fish stock
300ml double cream
Pinch saffron strands
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
6 small mackerel, butterflied with the heads on (backbone and tail removed)
Small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 egg beaten, for glazing pastry

Method

Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan.

Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat and add the onion and leek and bacon and allow to sweat over a low heat until very soft but not browned.  Stir in the flour to make a roux, cook for a minute and then add the white wine and fish stock stir well to remove any lumps, bring up to a boil and turn down to a simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes until the sauce has thickened, add the cream and bring up to a boil and stir until you have a thick sauce, add the saffron strands, salt and pepper stir in the parsley and fold in the chopped boiled egg.

Brush the edge of the pie dish with a little water  Line the edge of the dish with a strip of pastry. Pour a little of the sauce into a pie dish and arrange the fish on top with their heads on the edges of the dish. Pour over the remaining sauce. Roll out the pastry to a little bigger than the size of the dish, cut slits in the pastry large enough to poke the mackerel heads through. Working around the dish one fish at a time, poke the fish heads through the pastry. Brush the top of the pastry with beaten egg and bake for 40-45 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp.  

Serve with green vegetables and new potatoes.