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

Raclette & Peach Melba Cocktails

The ingredients...

Ok, an easy one to start off with, and a double to boot!  Raclette followed by Peach Melba Cocktails.  I first discovered Raclette as a child, holidaying in Switzerland.  We had family out there, so it was a cheap holiday for us.  It was only later I would realise just what a privilege living or holidaying in Switzerland could be!

Raclette is named after the round cheese made in the Swiss alps.  I used to go to a restaurant on the edge of a glacier to watch the cheeses being cut in half and pushed up against what looked like a cage full of coals.  Wood was burned in niches in the wall which were fronted with decorative grilles against which the cheese could be melted.  Not actually touching the metal, but happily taking on the heat from the fire.

Our choice of cheese

The face of the cheese would be melted just enough before it was rushed to your table, tucked into the elbow of a waiter/chef who would scrape the molten goodness onto your plate over a mound of steaming potatoes.  You were told to drink tea with this meal as they thought the cheese would otherwise set in your stomach and make you ill.  Of course we now know a tad more about cheese and happily much on molten cheese with wine or beer.

In the modern European home Raclette has become something more elaborate if a little less magnificent in its move from coals to a small electric element in the middle of the table where you place trays of cheese or meats and sausages under the grill to cook.

Meats, cheese, pickles and olives waiting patiently

Ours was done a la Alsace - in deference to Mr FC's heritage - with a grand plate of meats and salamis, frankfurters, hard boiled eggs out of their shells.  With it we put a salad of onions and tomatoes dressed in olive oil, a bowl of boiled potatoes in their skins, and, of course, heaps of Raclette cheese from France, courtesy of FrenchClick.co.uk - an excellent online store providing the best of France to the UK.

Our usual accompaniments include Italian salami, German salami, Pepper salami and Bavarian ham along with a selection of mustards and pickles such as cornichons or sliced dill pickles and pickled beetroot.  The salad is made by thinly slicing tomatoes and covering them with finely chopped onion and fresh basil leaves.  Dress this with a very high quality olive oil, a touch of vinegar and a good sprinkling of freshly ground, black pepper.

The feast

The eggs are very simple - boil them in water for about 8 minutes once they come to the boil, then place under cold running water to cool.  When you can hold them without burning your fingers peel off the shell and put the whole egg into a bowl.  You can cut them in half for the look of things, but they're easier to transport to the plate from the bowl if they're intact.  I used a half a green pepper and a half a red pepper that were hanging around doing nothing to garnish the eggs, sausages and meats.  It not only looked pretty but it tasted good mixed in with the rest of it, too.

Buy good quality potatoes, be they new or as we used here, Maris Pipers which are fluffy and soft.  Boil them in water until soft.  Their arrival at the table is the start of the meal.  Also on the table is a dish of olives to nibble on while we waited for the potatoes to finish cooking, and some good red wine, French, of course.  We had a Cote du Rhone and a vin du Pays brought by our guests, both of which vanished just in time for dessert.

The 30 year old Raclette

The Raclette we used for the evening is something like 30 years old, given to Mr FC by his mother when she upgraded to a newer model.  It reminds him of his childhood.  The age came up in conversation when our French guest asked about the machine, she had never seen one such as this before.  There are plenty to buy on line these days, including top griddles, Pierrade stones and other delights.  Check out your local Amazon for a good selection.

I wish I could tell you that I was controlled enough to take photographs of our convivial evening, but I wasn't.  Like everyone else I was too busy with the food!  A good thing I took the pictures at the start of it all, really.

The potatoes to start the meal.  Mr FC couldn't find a smaller bowl...

Because the meal is really very filling dessert had to be something light, and preferably alcoholic!  Some time ago now a friend introduced me to her cocktail called Peaches and Cream.  To return the favour I introduced her to Chambourd liqueur - the black raspberry delight that the French make in round bottles with crowns.  It deserves its reputation as something special, it is pure raspberry flavour captured in a dark, purplish red liquid that belies its alcohol content.

For four of these cocktails I used a quantity of ice, about double that of the half 500ml tub of vanilla ice cream I was going to add, roughly 20cl of good vodka (Russian Standard Gold), a similar quantity of Archers  Peach Schnaps,maybe a little more.  The contents of two 400g tins of peaches in fruit juice, drained and the juice discarded, and 250ml or a half tub of really good quality vanilla ice cream, in this case I used Hagen Dazs.  The peaches are best bought in juice rather than syrup, you don't need and won't want the extra sugar.

4 glasses waiting and ready

This is a drink that can only be made by tasting.  What I used produced something full of flavour but not sweet, some like it sweeter - add more schnapps.  Some like it creamier - add more ice cream.  Some like it fruitier - add more peaches.  You get the gist?  The aim is to have something that tastes strongly of peaches and cream without being sickly or overwhelming, that's cold and slushy without being completely frozen, and that you can't really taste alcohol in.  The last thing you want in pudding is a really strong taste of alcohol.  Well, I don't, anyway!

Half tubs are easy with good knives.

Blitz the whole lot in a blender or food processor until smooth and then taste it.  If you like what you've got then it's time to pour it out.  4 large cocktail glasses, 4 spoon straws, and about 5mm of of Chambord goes into the bottom of the glass.  Slide the peach mixture down the side of the glass so it doesn't mix into the Chambord too much, leaving it layered.

Ready to blend

Normally I serve this with a Maraschino cherry on the straw, too, just for a bit of an extra twist.  However, in deference to a guest who hates cherries in all their forms this time I left it out.  Ok, so I ate one in the kitchen while I was making it.  A girl has her limits, you know!

Mixed and ready to pour

Our guests were quick to pounce on the cocktails and stir in the raspberry from the bottom, adding a pink tinge to the yellow mixture.  Pronounced delicious they tucked in until one of them realised the effect it was having and that if he carried on slurping it down at that rate he wouldn't be getting up out of his chair at the end of the meal so much as slithering to the floor.

Chambord black raspberry liqueur

I don't condone drunken-ness, but the occasional numb lip and slight wobbliness is ok so long as you're not driving, which none of us were.  And this was *very* occasional since I can no longer really drink at all.  Remember - drink responsibly!  /end of public service announcement.

Here's to pudding!

Sipped a little slower through the straws we remained capable of conversation and enjoyed watching the cats chasing each other in and out of the garden.  Oh, that's something else about Raclette - the room gets very hot!  We had ours in the conservatory where we could open the doors to the garden and keep comfortably cool.

The empties

Enjoy!

Mr & Mrs FC


Our thanks to Doug and Marie who joined us for dinner and were most complimentary, thank you also for the excellent wine they provided!  We hope to be able to host you again soon.

Raclette  (printable version)

200g per person of Raclette cheese - or other cheese of your choice, cut into slices about 4mm thick.
A selection of hams, salamis and other cooked meats as you wish
A selection of cooked sausages such as Frankfurters, Nurembergers, Kabanos, Bratwurst, etc.
Mustards - I recommend Dijon, wholegrain Dijon and English for a good selection
Pickles such as cornichons, onions and beetroot or others as wished
Up to 2 hard boiled eggs per person
A couple of tomatoes per person
1 onion - in the UK we just call these onions, but they're the ones in golden skins, variously known as white or yellow onions
Olive oil
White vinegar of your choice
Fresh basil leaves, chopped

A selection of olives 

Red and green peppers, thinly sliced, to garnish

Method:
If possible make the salad about an hour beforehand to allow it to blend the flavours together.  Thinly slice the tomatoes and spread them on a plate.  Cover them with the chopped onion and dress with the best quality olive oil you can afford and a touch of white vinegar, either white wine or cider vinegar will do.  Grind over some fresh, black pepper and top with the chopped basil.  Cover and refrigerate until ready.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the eggs, boiling them for about 8 minutes to ensure the centres are hard.  Put the pan under running water when the time is up and keep the tap running into the bowl.  This will cool the eggs quicker and also prevent that nasty black line round the yolk that can occur if they cool too slowly.  When you can comfortably pick up the eggs without burning your hands peel the eggs and put them in a bowl.

If using the peppers, core them and remove the seeds before slicing them thinly.  These can be sprinkled liberally where you wish to add colour.

Before your guests arrive, drain the pickles and olives and put into bowls for the table.  Plug in your Raclette and pre-heat the element so your guests don't have to wait longer for their first melted cheese.

When your guests arrive put a pan of water on to boil.  Add to it your potatoes, washed and in their skins, and boil until they are soft when tested with a fork.

Lay out the cheeses and meats on plates or in bowls, with the sausages cut to the size of your Raclette dishes so that they will fit under the grill, or leave them whole if you're lucky enough to have a griddle on the top of your Raclette.

Dress the table with mustards and the pickles, the plates of meat and cheese, uncovered salads, eggs and any other accompaniments you may wish, and finish with the potatoes, which is the signal to start eating.

Melt the Raclette cheese and brown the sausages under the grill - the peppers can be put into the little dishes, too.  The cheese can be poured over the potato or poured onto the plate or anything else as you wish.



Peach Melba Cocktails (printable version)

Serves 4

Ice up to the 500ml mark on a blender jug, or use an empty ice cream tub to measure out twice as much as the ice cream you will use
20cl good quality vodka
25cl peach schnapps
2 x 400g tins peach slices in fruit juice, drained and the juice discarded
250ml good quality vanilla ice cream
10 cl Chambord

Maraschino cherry - optional 

To serve:
4 tall cocktail glasses
4 spoon straws

Put all the ingredients except the cherry and the Chambord into a blender or food processor jug and blitz until smooth.  Have a taste of the mixture and see if it is balanced to your palate, and adjust accordingly.

Pour about 2.5ml Chambord into the bottom of each glass, careful not to splash it up the sides.  Side the peach mixture down the side of the glass on top of the raspberry so that they remain layered, remembering to share the mixture out evenly between the four glasses.  If using the cherries push one over the end of the straw and slide it down about 5 or 6cm.

Serve immediately.