Recipe#11011

Title: Fish En Croute

Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes 
 From: gisselbr@husc8.harvard.edu (Stephen Gisselbrecht) 
 Subject: Fish Baked in Pastry 
 Message-ID: <1993Sep2.110444.28038@husc14.harvard.edu> 
 Organization: Harvard University Science Center 
 References: RT5UYQM@taronga.com 
 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)
 2 C flour
 2/3 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.
                                         steve gisselbrecht