Happy Pi Day! 3.1415

Happy Pi Day! In honor, I decided we would have pie for dinner and dessert. I cheated for dessert, and bought an apple pie from my grocery bakery. But for dinner, I wanted something different. And since St. Patrick's Day in next week, I looked in my Irish cookbooks and found two similar pies, which I combined into my own. In The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors (one of my favorite cookbooks in college) I found scallop and mushroom pie. Basically a seafood shepherds pie. In In An Irish Country Kitchen by Clare Connery, I found fisherman's pie. Hers is made with white fish (with the option of smoked fish) and mushrooms.

So I mashed the two up in my head and came up with this:

Fisherman's Pie

3/4 lb cod cut into bite size pieces

1/4 lb each sea scallops and baby/salad shrimp

Pepper

Parsley

Nutmeg to taste

Bay leaf

1.5 c milk

3 T butter, divided

4 oz mushrooms, sliced

Salt and pepper

2 T flour

2 T chives

4-5 c prepared mashed potatoes

Melted butter or oil, to brush on top

In a small pot, bring milk, pepper, parsley, nutmeg, and bay leaf barely to a simmer. Add scallops and poach until just done. Remove to a large bowl. Add cod and poach until just done (I did that in two batches as my pot was quite small). Remove to bowl with scallops. Set milk aside. 

In a medium pot, melt 1 T butter. Add mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Cook mushrooms until tender and golden. Remove to bowl with seafood. 

Melt remaining butter in pot. Whisk in flour to make a roux. Cook a couple minutes, then whisk in hot milk. Bring to a bubble and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in shrimp, and cooked seafood. Set aside. 

Preheat broiler (mine uses temperature, so was set at 425*. Choose your temp accordingly)

In 2qt broiler safe dish, spoon seafood mixture. Make sure seafood is evenly distributed. Carefully spoon mashed potatoes around the top in small spoonfuls. Carefully spread into an even layer, completely covering the seafood. Smooth the top, then make ridges with a fork. Brush melted butter or oil on the top to help browning. 

Place in broiler and cook until brown and bubbly. Watch carefully to prevent burning!

Cool for 10 minutes and serve.