Seafood Potpie To Die For

Chicken pot pie was always a once-in -a-blue-moon indulgence that I ravished. When I gave up consuming poultry, I was so thrilled to find this masterpiece from Ina Garten. This is, for the most part, the Barefoot Contessa seafood pot pie recipe.  It features a wonderful combination of seafood with a hint of licorice coming from the fennel and Pernod. Costco is an excellent resource for seafood and your local bakery can be a good resource for fresh pastry dough for people like me who chafe at the thought of making dough at home.

Seafood Potpie

1/4 pound European butter
1 1/2 c chopped yellow onion

1 c chopped fennel bulb
1/2 c all-purpose flour
4 c clam juice or fresh fish stock
1/2 lb raw large shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed and cut in half width wise for large bite size pieces
1/2 lb raw jumbo sea scallops, cut in halves or quarters for large bite size pieces
1 T Pernod
1 1/2 t kosher salt
1 1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
3 T heavy cream
3/4 lb cooked lobster meat, cut into bite size cubes
1 1/2 c frozen peas (not baby)
1 1/2 c frozen whole onions (do not thaw)
1/2 c minced Italian flat leaf parsley (do not thaw)
1 fresh ball of pie dough (or the best packaged ready-made pie dough to which you have access)
1 egg, beaten with 1 T water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add the chopped onion and fennel and cook for 10 minutes until onions are translucent.

Meanwhile, bring the clam juice to a boil in a saucepan and add the shrimp and scallops.  Cook for 2 minutes until just firm and move to a large bowl with a slotted spoon.  Reserve 3 cups of the clam juice or fish stock and discard any remaining.

Add flour to onion and fennel mixture and and stir until incorporated.  Slowly add in the 3 cups of clam juice, the Pernod, salt and pepper and simmer for 3 minutes.  Stir in the heavy cream. Remove from heat.

To the bowl of seafood, add the lobster, frozen peas, frozen onions and parsley. Stir to combine. Then pour the sauce on top. Spoon the pot pie filling into a 9x13x2 baking dish.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie dough to a 9x13 rectangle. 

With a pastry brush, use the egg wash to paint the edges of the baking dish. Add pasty dough to the baking dish wrapping around the edges the dish if large enough.  Brush the dough with egg wash and make 4 or 5 slashes in the dough to let steam escape.

Bake for approximately 1 hour, until dough is golden brown.



Source:  This is Ina Garten's recipe with a few modifications (salt reduction, substituting ready- made dough, reducing cooking time).