Monday, March 28, 2011

Low-Carb Fisherman's Pie


I am so impressed with this dish I ingeniously created. (Actually, it's not that ingenius.) But when you taste it, it'll blow your socks off (if you're a fan of fish pie) when you realize it almost has no refined carbs - mostly complex carbs .
4 servings, 6 PlusPoints

5-7 fillets of white fish (500-700g)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour (read below for a low-carb substitute)
1 cup skim milk
1/2 small onion
4 whole cloves
1 cup peas (or a mild green vegetable like chopped green beans, snow peas or even tiny broccoli florets)
3-4 cups of cauliflower
20-30g shredded mozzarella cheese
salt
pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp dry/quarter cup fresh parsley
nutmeg (fresh)

Preheat oven to 350deg F.
1. Boil the fish in the milk, onion and cloves. Remove the fish fillets and discard the onions and cloves. Reserve all the milk.
2. Boil the cauliflower in water. Drain. Mash and try to remove as much water as you can. (I cooked it briefly on the stove to get rid of some of the water.) Salt to taste. Mix in the fresh grated nutmeg.
3. On medium low heat, cook the roux of butter and flour till it isn't raw anymore. I like it till it's a very light brown.
4. Add the boiled flavoured milk to the roux and whisk to make a smooth sauce. Add salt, pepper, garlic and parsley. Boil for 3-5 minutes.
5. Add the fish. Mix thoroughly without breaking the fish too much.
6. Take a 9x9 baking dish. Pour the fish mixture evenly. Top with the mashed cauliflower. Smooth out the top. Sprinkle with the shredded cheese.
7. Bake in oven for 15 minutes and set under broil for about 5 minutes (until cheese melts and browns on top.)

Enjoy with a salad. This tastes even better the next day! Deeelish!

Tip: If you want to cheat a little and save some time, skip the white sauce cooking part and use bottled low fat Alfredo sauce instead. It'll save you some time and it tastes very very good. And because it's 50% of the original fat, it's very close to the caloric content of this recipe.

Tip#2: As a helpful reader suggested, use full-fat cream or fat free cream instead of the roux if you want to do away with the flour. Substitute the high sugar peas with a lower sugar green vegetable roughly the same size. I haven't tried these substitutes yet, will let you know after I do.

2 comments:

  1. Flour is high in carbohydrates and peas are also pretty sweet. Just use cream instead for the sauce.

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    1. ...hmmm, that's a great point. Didn't think of that before. Fat free cream would also be a good substitute if you wanted to substitute with healthy fats like nuts or avocado in a side salad. Thanks!

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