I find it very strange that there seem to be four different ways to spell this fish pie. The c/k muddle I can understand, but the b and l rearranging seems very peculiar. Hey ho. This is great for feeding about 8. The first time I made it, the girls scoffed it, but the second time were more suspicious. There’s a bit of faffing, but it’s incredibly easy and looks good at the end. We had it on Boxing Day with a lot of green salad, a couple of sorts of slaw and a few boiled potatoes. I did two puds – some poached plums as I thought everyone must surely be stuffed to the gills by this point, and a Nigella Bakewell Tart. No one ate the plums! They were good for breakfast over the next few days though.
The recipe is a Sophie Grigson / Sarah Raven combo.
500-700g puff pastry (you’ll use about 500g, but have to buy it usually in 350g blocks unhelpfully. You can use extra bits for silly patterns – I couldn’t help myself on Boxing Day and covered it with stars – one day I’ll resist the urge to uber-bling Christmas)
1 egg beaten
30g butter, melted
Filling:
700g salmon
200g smoked haddock or cod
60g basmati rice
1 large onion, chopped
200g(ish) mushrooms – I used mixed dried porcini and button mushrooms – what I had
1/4 teaspoons turmeric
2 tablespoons each chopped parsley and dill
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Cook the fish – poach it or cook the salmon in a foil parcel with a few slices of lemon. When it’s just cooked, let it cool, then flake it.
Soak the dried mushrooms if you’re using them.
Cook the rice with the turmeric until just al dente then drain it well.
Cook the onion in the butter, then add the mushrooms and porcini and cook until all the water thrown out by the mushrooms has evaporated.
Mix the flaked salmon, onion/mushrooms, rice, herbs and hard-boiled eggs and season well.
Put a piece of baking paper onto a baking sheet. 2 options for building the thing, depending on whether you have one big block of pastry or 2 smaller ones:
1) 2 blocks: With one half of the pastry, roll out a rectangle about 35 x 25cm ish (but basically slightly smaller than the baking sheet). Gently with a knife, mark a border (ie don’t cut it, just give yourself a template for the filling, or if you want, ignore this bit entirely) about an inch and a half in from the edge all the way round, then pile in the filling on this inner rectangle. Pat in the filling to form a fat sausage. Pile it quite high and make it evenish. Roll out the second piece to the sameish size, though it will need to be wider to cover the sausage. Paint the border with egg wash, then place the top piece onto the bottom piece, pressing the edges down gently with the tines of a fork.
Option 2) 1 block – this is a bit tidier, but I can only find the posh pastry that comes in the right size v occasionally in Waitrose. Here, roll out one big rectangle, c35×45cm. Pile up the filling down the centre of the pastry again, patting it in the form a sausage. Lift the sides of the pastry up around it, brush the eggs with the beaten egg and press them together to join. Seal the ends too, using beaten egg and folding the joints towards the long central seam. Gentrly roll it over, so the joins are tucked away underneath.
Either way, make a few slashes in the top so the steam can escape. You can decorate it (if you’re a bit kitsch like me) with bits of pastry – criss-crosses, leaves, etc. Rest it for at least half an hour (but I “rested” it for 48 hours between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day and it was fine), brush the top with beaten egg, then bake in a pre-heated oven at 200/gas 6/fan 180 for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Just before serving, pour melted butter through the slits in the top.
If you want this to be extra delicious, it’s wonderful served with Hollandaise sauce. Serve it hot or cold.
