Stargazy Pie Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line a pie dish with thinly rolled pie dough. Remove fins from fish and wipe off scales. Slit and gut them and fill the cavities with chopped onion and herbs. Arrange round the dish with heads to the rim. Cover with pie dough, and make a slit by each head. Pull the heads through the dough. Dissolve the saffron in the milk. Brush the pie dough with the saffron milk, and bake for about 35 minutes.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange one pastry round in a shallow pie plate or on a baking sheet. Butterfly 4 of the sardines. Brush cut sides of all sardines with some mustard and sprinkle with chopped herbs, grated lemon rind, salt and pepper. Arrange sardines on pastry round or baking sheet equidistant from one another with filleted side down and heads resting on edge of pastry. Fold up and arrange remaining sardines among the butterflied sardines, heads resting on edge of pastry. Scatter bacon and eggs. Sprinkle lemon juice over sardines, bacon and eggs.
• Trim about 1/4 inch from edge of second round of pastry and place over sardines. Brush bottom pastry at edges with egg wash and press top pastry onto bottom pastry between sardines, arranging a pastry edge around each sardine neck so that just the heads peek out. Gently press pastry around the bodies of the sardines to make a wavy surface. Cut a small vent hole in the center of the top crust. Brush top with remaining egg wash.
• Bake pie for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake 15 to 25 more minutes, until top of pie is a golden brown. Before serving, tuck a sprig of parsley in each sardine mouth.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Cook 2 of the eggs in boiling water for 8 mins. Drain and cool under cold water, then peel and roughly chop. Heat a frying pan until hot and sizzle the bacon until crisp. Mix the eggs and bacon together in a bowl with the parsley and seasoning.
• Dust your work surface with a little flour, divide the pastry into 6 and roll out circles just a little shorter than each sardine fillet. Brush the sardines with a little mustard and stuff with some of the egg-and-bacon mix. Lay each fillet on a circle of pastry. Beat the remaining egg and brush a little over the edges of the pastry. Bring the 2 sides together firmly to encase the sardines, leaving the heads and tails poking out - tilt the head a little so that's it's pointing upwards. Pinch the edges to look like a Cornish pasty and place on a baking tray. Brush all over with beaten egg and bake for 25-30 mins until golden. Cool slightly before serving.