Ingredients
Method
1.Grease a 22cm pie dish. Put the kūmara in a saucepan, cover with water and boil until soft, then drain.
2.Add 30g of the butter and the 4 Tbsp of milk to the kūmara and blend with a stick blender until smooth. Season to taste with sea salt and set aside.
3.Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan over a medium-high heat and fry the onion and garlic until soft and translucent. Set aside.
4.Preheat the oven to 180°C.
5.Heat second measure of milk in a saucepan. When it’s almost boiling, reduce heat to low, add the fresh fish and poach for 3 minutes. Remove fish with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. Reserve milk for next step.
6.Melt remaining butter in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat then add flour and whisk for about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and slowly pour in the milk used to poach the fish, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Once all the milk is incorporated into the white sauce, return to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thick. Set aside.
7.Into a medium bowl, gently flake the poached fish and smoked fish – don’t make the pieces too small; a bit of texture is good. Add the zest, dill, parsley, capers and the cooked onion and garlic. Mix gently before pouring in the white sauce and stirring gently again. Season to taste and set aside.
8.Line the pie dish with the pastry and cut the base with a knife quite a few times then bake until golden (about 12 minutes). Remove from the oven and place 4 egg halves on the pastry then fill with half the fish mixture. Add remaining egg halves and then the remaining fish mixture. Top with mashed kūmara and sprinkle with the cheese. Return to oven and bake for 20 minutes or until top is golden brown.
If you don’t have golden kūmara, use whatever variety you have. However, you may find that you need to adjust the quantity of milk you use when puréeing it as kūmara can vary a lot in water content. And if you don’t like kūmara then just use potato!
Note
