Stargazy Pie

Ingredients

• 6 to 8 small whole sardines or pilchards, scaled and gutted, heads and tails left on
• salt and black pepper, to season the fish
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 rashers smoked bacon, chopped
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, boiled and sliced
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream or crème fraîche
• 1 tbsp English mustard
• 1/2 cup (120ml) fish or vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1 lb (450g) shortcrust pastry (or 250g flour, 125g cold butter, a pinch of salt, and ice water, homemade)
• 1 egg, beaten, for glazing

Before you cook

• If making pastry from scratch, rub the cold butter into the flour and salt until it looks like coarse crumbs, then bind with ice water into a dough, wrap it, and chill for 30 minutes
• Scale and gut the sardines, leaving the heads and tails intact, then pat them dry
• Season the inside of each sardine with salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice
• Boil the potatoes until just tender, then slice them
• Boil, peel, and chop the hard-boiled eggs
• Finely chop the onion, bacon, and parsley
• Whisk the custard: combine the 3 eggs, cream, mustard, stock, and parsley in a bowl and set it aside

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C)
2. Fry the chopped bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 5 minutes, then transfer it to a paper towel
3. Melt the butter in the same skillet and cook the onion until soft and golden, about 6 minutes
4. Roll out two-thirds of the pastry and use it to line a deep 9-inch pie dish, leaving the edges overhanging the rim
5. Layer the sliced potatoes over the base of the pastry
6. Scatter the cooked bacon and chopped hard-boiled egg over the potatoes
7. Arrange the sardines on top like spokes of a wheel, tails toward the center and heads pointing out toward the rim
8. Pour the mustard custard over the filling, keeping the fish heads clear of the liquid
9. Roll out the remaining pastry and lay it over the top, pressing it gently around the neck of each fish so the heads still poke through
10. Where the pastry covers a head, cut a small slit and gently pull the head through so it sits proudly above the crust
11. Trim the overhanging edges and crimp the pastry to seal the pie
12. Brush the visible pastry with the beaten egg
13. Bake the pie for 35 to 40 minutes, until the pastry is deep golden and the custard shows only a slight wobble in the center
14. Rest the pie for 10 minutes before slicing so the custard finishes setting