Nature’s Feast: Seafood Dinner Pie

It’s summer, and trips to the coast can mean bringing home a lot of good seafood. This is a favored recipe for when you have a mixture of seafood on hand. You can use a single kind of seafood, such as crab, but combinations are more fun. However, it is best if you use some crab or shrimp in the mix. If you use fish, make sure to use a firm-fleshed fish that will hold up well. Good examples include sturgeon, cod, sea bass, or halibut.

Ingredients:

Pastry for a 9-inch two-crust pie

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour

1/8 cup decorative salt

1 tsp table salt

1/8 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp garlic powder

3/4 cup crab, shrimp, or lobster broth

3/4 cup light cream

2 cups chopped, cooked seafood, any combination of crab, shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops, fish, or lobster.

1/2 cup cooked peas

3/4 cup cooked carrots

3/4 cup cooked onions

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly coat a 9-inch pie plate with spray oil. Fit half the pie crust into plate.

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour, salt, pepper, thyme, and garlic powder. Stir until mixture is smooth and bubbles well. Add broth and cream and cook until mixture starts to thicken.

Remove from heat and stir in seafood and vegetables. Pour mixture into prepared pie plate. Use remaining pastry for top, seal and flute. Cut a few slits into top of pastry to allow venting. Sprinkle decorative salt over the top.

Use foil or a pie crust ring to prevent excess browning, and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Remove foil or ring for the last fifteen minutes of cooking. Let stand for fifteen minutes before serving.

Serves 6.