Lampuki pie

Ingredients

• Dorado or sea bream — in steaks1.2 kg
• Shortcrust pastry800 g
• Spinach500 g
• Cauliflower400 g
• Onions2
• Olives120 g
• Capers50 g
• Tomato paste2 tbsp
• Sultanas60 g
• Walnuts60 g
• Olive oil80 ml
• Egg — to glaze1
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Fry the fish steaks three minutes a side and let them cool.

   20 min

2. 2

   Lift the flesh off the bones, picking out every small bone.

   25 min

3. 3

   Fry the onion, add the cauliflower florets and stew them ten minutes.

   15 min

4. 4

   Add the spinach, tomato paste, olives, capers, sultanas and walnuts and cook it dry.

   15 min

5. 5

   Cool the filling completely and fold the fish into it in pieces.

   30 min

6. 6

   Line a tin with pastry, add the filling and cover it with a second sheet, crimping the edge.

   20 min

7. 7

   Glaze it with egg, cut vents and bake at 190 °C for forty-five minutes, to a golden crust.

   50 min

About the dish

The lampuka — dorado — is fried before it goes in the pie and lifted off the bones. Raw fish in a closed pie gives off water and the base stays soggy.

The filling is cooled completely before the lid goes on. Warm, it melts the fat in the pastry and the layering is lost.

The lampuka season on Malta runs from August to December, and the pie is baked then. Out of season it is made with other fish, and that is worth calling a substitution.

Worth knowing

• — Cook the filling dry. Any liquid left turns the bottom sheet of pastry into a sodden layer.
• — Vents in the lid are obligatory. Without them the steam lifts the top and tears the crimped edge.
• — The small bones of dorado are easy to miss. Pick the fish over in good light and by touch rather than by eye.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

680 kcal

Protein

36 g

Fat

38 g

Carbs

48 g

More from Malta

• Maltese rabbit stew — Rabbit stewed in red wine with garlic and bay. The national dish of Malta.
• Pastizzi — Flaky pastries filled with ricotta or mushy peas. Maltese street food on every corner.
• Imqaret — Maltese pastry diamonds with an aniseed date filling, deep-fried.