Salmon Koulibiac

It is worth buying the most up to date Larouse that you can, because it no longer retricts itself to the purely French.  These days the Larouse has expanded somewhat, it has a page on Japan, it mentions classic dishes from cuisines outside of France, and it also strays into the realms of patisserie. Just briefly.  It still has, however, all the wonderful, classic, old fashioned dishes that are still so relevant today.  Ok, so some of them need a tiny twist, maybe we're not going to cook it with lard and drippings, but if all it takes is a change to olive oil then there is no reason that an old dish cannot also be a new dish.

If you put the pastry on a sheet of parchment it will simply slide off when it's baked, no need to grease the tray at all

It is from these classic dishes that our next dish arrives, Salmon Koulibiac, from fine Russian cuisine. Eaten hot or cold this dish can can be eaten all year round.  It's great for preparing ahead for dinner parties, or having cold with a picnic.  It holds together very well in slices so it's wonderful for lunch boxes for work or school.  Sometimes spelled with a C (Coulibiac), Leith's spells it with a K, and it is this recipe we are using today.

Cut a simple third off the end of the pastry and peel it off the backing paper, onto the baking tray.

The pie can be made in several ways, either in layers, or all mixed together with the eggs chopped in.  This is a small one, just for 4 people; but if I were doing it for a buffet or banquet I would still layer it.  People like to see what they're eating, and if it's all mixed together you loose the visual appeal and you deny people the chance to decide if they don't want to eat a bit of it, too.  

I'm afraid we were incredibly lazy with this one - we used ready rolled puff pastry from the chilled section at Sainsburys.  I have to say, it's probably the best ready made pastry I've used so far, but it's still not a patch on home made.  If you decide to make your own home made pastry watch out for the tutorial that I will be doing in the next few weeks.  

The dish requires you to cook several different fillings in advance of putting the dish together.  Starting at the bottom we put in rice, mixed with chopped parsley, pepper, salt and lemon juice.  Four ounces may not seem like a lot when you weigh it out, but do remember that it will swell with cooking, and it's not the only filling.

Chopping onions is now always a job for the alligator.  As mentioned in a previous post it takes the sting out of the job, it's easy to clean, and it's reliable and simple to use.  Mr FC was happy to use it to finely chop the onion.  Don't over chop the onion here - you'll find that even with an alligator there is lots of juice comes out of the onion.  You don't want to add that to the pan; get a cloth and wipe it away.  If you over chop the onion you'll end up with a pureed pulp that won't cook properly.

The eggs need to be cooked ahead, too, then peeled and rinsed to make sure there is no shell or membrane left on them.  

Cooling the rice under cold water stops it cooking further and getting too starchy.  It also washes off any starch that the rice has released, leaving it fluffy.  Do be sure to drain it very well before you put it on the pastry.  

Despite all those fork pricks the pastry still rose rather alarmingly.  Make sure it's well cooled before you use it or it will be soggy from the trapped condensation.

Sieving the lemon juice before you use it makes sure the pips that fall out and the flesh that gets ground into the juice don't get into the finished dish.  

Chop the parsley finely.  This is a job for a mezaluna knife which rocks across the herbs, chopping them evenly.  

You can use the eggs whole, you can chop the eggs up and mix them in, or you can cut the eggs into sections and spread them evenly through the pie - which is what I did.  If you use whole eggs you will get the effect of a slice through the egg when you cut the pie.  

The salmon was steamed in a pan of water and wine, then the skin, dark strip down the middle and anything else extraneous was removed and the fish flaked.  Mr FC got a bit carried away with the flaking and we ended up with what now looks like tinned salmon - it is fresh, I promise.  You can see it in the ingredients photo at the top of the blog.

Add the salt, pepper, parsley and lemon juice to the rice and stir it through well.  

I couldn't possibly use the pastry as it had risen, so I simply laid my hands on it to flatten it a little.  A couple of tiny pats and ti was soon in a condition to have things laid on it without them rolling off!

Gather your fillings round, ready to layer onto the pastry.  

Before you start filling the pie, make sure yo tuck the remaining pastry under the cooked piece by about an inch.  This will help you later when you wrap the slab.  

Being the driest and bulkiest of the fillings, the rice was laid on first, and carefully spread about to make an even layer that went right to the edges all the way round the pastry.  

The salmon was next - you can see I had a little difficulty keeping the fillings on top, but don't worry, because you can always put it in at the end when everything has stabilised.  

Putting the eggs on their backs didn't work, so I rolled them over and topped them with the bits of salmon that had escaped previously.

The cooked mushroom and onion mixture went on last, as being the wettest and least of the ingredients.  This way the bottom of the pie won't be soggy and greasy, and the flavours will work their way down through the fish to the rice while the pie cooks.  

I took advantage of the backing sheet on the pastry, leaving it on as I wrapped the pastry over the top of the pie.  One simple peel and it came away, leaving the pastry exactly as I wanted it.  If your pastry doesn't go over with an inch to spare to tuck under, flatten your pie down a little and try again.  It's tempting to make a heap of the ingredients in the middle, but the more you spread them out to the edges the better the pie will be and the greater the chance of your pastry fitting.

Using your longest pallet knife - preferably a thin, strong, metal one - slide it completely under the base pastry.  You can see here that my 30cm knife fails to show on the opposite side of the pastry.  

Use the knife to carefully lift the pie and tuck the remaining pastry under the edge of the pie to close the second side.  

Using the pre-rolled pastry mean that I had to pull the ends a little to get the top and bottom of the pie to close over, and a good dollop of egg wash was used to stick them down well.  

The rest of the egg wash was used to coat the pie completely, ensuring that it would gain a lovely, golden glaze when it was baked.

There are a million things you can do with this pie when it comes to dressing it.  I've made it fish shaped, I've put marks on it with a teaspoon to make scales, I've done intricate vines and leaves over it, all manner of things.  But today I was exhausted, I was hungry, and all I wanted to do was bake the pie!  I will be back to form by the end of September, unfortunately until then we do rustic!  

And rustic is just as good as anything else when it tastes as wonderful as this pie.  

I trim the very ends of the pie off, only about three quarters of a centimetre, not even half an inch.  Just to get rid of the pastry overload.  You can cut it thicker for the end slices so everyone gets the same amount of filling.  You can cut it into simple quarters if you like.  The pastry isn't very thick on this one anyway.  

Even just at the very start of the pie you can see that already it has all 3 layers and the eggs clearly visible.  

Sliced and plated with new potatoes and green beans, the pie looked amazing.  It tasted amazing, too.  Mr FC felt it deserved a little parsley garnish for being so wonderful.  If you want a sauce with this, sour cream with freshly ground pepper and maybe a little dill in it goes wonderfully; however, this was moist enough that we didn't need anything with it at all.  It was delicious.  

I suspect you'll be getting a lot more recipes from Leiths - after this dish Mr FC has declared it his favourite cook book.


Salmon Koulibiac  (Printable Version)

Serves 4

110 g/4 oz long grain or basmati rice - not quick cook
170 g/6 oz flour quantity rough puff pastry - I used a single pack of ready rolled puff pastry 375 g
55 g/2 oz butter
1 onion, finely diced
30 g/1 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 tab chopped fresh parsley
Juice of half a lemon
285 g/10 oz cooked salmon, flaked
2 hard boiled eggs, roughly chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 egg beaten with a pinch of salt, to glaze

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6.

Cook the rice in a large saucepan of boiling water for 10-12 minutes.  Drain in a colander or sieve and refresh with cold water.  Stand the colander on the draining board.  Using the handle of a wooden spoon make a few draining holes through the pile of rice to help the water and steam escape.  Leave until cool.

Roll a third of the pastry into a rectangle as thick as a £1 coin.  Leave to relax in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Place the pastry on a baking sheet.  Prick lightly all over with a fork.  Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, until golden-brown.  Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool but do not turn the oven off.  Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water until cool.

Melt the butter over a medium heat and add the onion.  when nearly cooked add the mushrooms and cook gently for 5 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Put the cooked rice into a bowl and fork in the onion, mushrooms, parsley, lemon juice, salmon, eggs and plenty of salt and pepper.  (Note:  I chose to use the original method for this of layering out the rice, mushrooms with onion, fish and eggs.  I just happen to prefer the layout, but it's entirely up to you.  It certainly won't change the flavours.)

Place the cooled pastry base on the baking sheet and pile on the rice mixture.  Shape it with your hands into a neat mound, making sure that it covers the fish completely.

Roll the remaining pastry into a blanket large enough to cover the mixture with an overlap of 2.5 cm/1 inch.  Using a sharp knife, cut the corners off the blanket at right angles to the cooked base.  Working carefully with a palette knife, life the base and tuck the pastry blanket underneath it.  Brush with beaten egg to seal.  Repeat with the other 3 sides.  Chill until the pastry is firm.

Meanwhile, shae the discarded pastry corners into leaves, making the veins and stem with the back of a knife.

Brush the koulibiac with more beaten egg, decorate with the pastry leaves and brush again with egg.  Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden-brown.  Serve hot or cold.

Original notes: If a sauce is required, serve plain soured cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.  This is also delicious made with cooked chicken instead of salmon.

Original receipe and notes by Prue Leith & Caroline Waldegrave from Leiths Cookery Bible, with amendments and comments by Mrs FC