Roast Smoked Salmon Koulibiaca

This koulibiaca recipe from Maxine Clarks's Pies Glorious Pies uses smoked salmon to give it a rich flavour. Roast smoked salmon is brined salmon, suspended over hot smoke, which cooks and smokes it at the same time. Serve in generous slices with a mixed-leaf salad tossed in a sharp lemony dressing.

 Ingredients

75 g butter

6 spring onions, chopped

125 g button mushrooms, roughly chopped

75 g basmati rice

225 ml light fish stock

600 g roast smoked salmon (or smoked salmon)

2 large eggs, hard-boiled and peeled

1‹2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

finely grated zest and freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon

1 recipe Rough Puff Pastry

1 egg, lightly beaten

salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

a heavy baking sheet, greased with butter

 

Serves 4–6

 

Melt the butter in a saucepan set over medium heat, add the spring onions and mushrooms and cook for 2‹3 minutes. Stir in the rice and mix well, then pour in the fish stock. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer for 12 minutes. Remove from the heat, uncover and leave to cool.

Break the roast smoked salmon into large flakes (or roughly chop the smoked salmon) and place in a mixing bowl. Roughly chop the hard-boiled eggs and add to the salmon with half the dill and half the parsley, mixing well. Taste and season, but don’t use too much salt as the salmon will be salty.

Tip the cooked rice into another bowl and use a fork to fluff it up, then mix in the remaining dill and parsley and the lemon zest and juice. Taste and season.

Roll out the pastry to a 35 x 27-cm/14 x 11-inch rectangle directly onto a piece of clingfilm. Spoon half the rice mix onto the centre of the pastry, widthways leaving a good bit of pastry at either side that will eventually wrap over the filling. Leave a border of at least 2.5 cm/1 inch at either end.

Carefully spoon the salmon mix evenly over the rice, piling it high. You may want to use your hands to mould this into shape. Top with the remaining rice mix, pressing and moulding it into a rounded loaf shape.

Bring one side of the pastry up and over the filling, brush the edge with beaten egg, then bring the other side over to enclose the filling completely. Pinch the ends to seal. Using the clingfilm carefully flip over onto the prepared baking sheet so that the sealed edges are underneath. Brush the surface of the pastry all over with the beaten egg. (If it is a special occasion, use extra pastry to cut into fish shapes to decorate, then glaze again. Alternatively, glaze first, then use the tip of a teaspoon to indent half-moons to resemble fish scales.) Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F) Gas 7.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20‹25 minutes or until deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

 

This recipe is from Pies, Glorious Pies. To get more great blog posts like this one - direct to your inbox – be sure to sign up to our mailing list here.