Baked Haddock in a Pate Brisee Crust with Mushrooms, Red Pepper, & Asparagus Stuffing

Crust - Pate Brisee without sugar in a Food Processor
3/4 stick unsalted butter
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup plus a few spinkles if needed very cold water

Cut butter into small pieces and put in food processor with flour and salt - pulse several times until the flour adn butter are blened and it looks like small pea size or smaller nuggets, sort of like a coarse meal (but not too small). Please do not over pulse because one of the tricks with Pate Brisee is not to over handle it too much. Next ad water to the food processor whizzing away steadily (not pulsing) until a ball mass is formed in the processor itself. If you do not get this quickly ad a few more sprinkles of water. This comes together very quickly. Wrap the dough up in plastic wrap and put into the freezer for 10 minutes or in the refrigerator for 2+ hours. Then roll out with a little flour into an oblongish shape

Filling:
olive oil
1 small chopped onion
1/4 red or green pepper (red looks very pretty)
6-7 button mushrooms sliced
10 asparagus spears cut into small pieces
any fresh herbs you feel guided to ad such as parsley or basil - works well with out herbs
a little white cooking wine (I use leftovers I didn't drink) Everyone says, I never have leftovers but I don't drink so much so I usually have a little leftover. If you don't have leftover, then open a new bottle and drink a little of it while you make this dish. Saute everything together in a nice cast iron pan, salt and pepper and add a little wine.


Fish: Use any firm white fish available. I think this would be good with just about anything. I have made this with halibut with great success but for this recipe I used 2 fillets of Haddock which is about one lb. You could make individual portions but for this I made one large fish pasty shaped like a fish (just for fun!)
Wash the fish and pat dry. I fresh it with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Set to the side and create the crust.

Roll out the crust and cut a portion of it off for the bottom layer of the pastry.

Lay 2 Haddock Fillets (about 1 lb) on top of pastry layer.

Layer the mushroom, red pepper, onion, and asparagus filling on top of fish

Cut the remaining pastry to a shape of a fish (be creative!)

Lay the pastry on top of the fish and stuffing. Use extra pieces of pastry to decorate the fish and make eyes, fins, gills, and tail. Pinch around the edges. Place into a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes and then reduce heat for 15-20 more minutes until browned and looks and smells done.

Brush the pastry with Milk and Pop into the Oven

Serve with sidedishes of choice great with everything. I am serving this with butternut squash, popovers, and an almond rigatoni herbed pasta.