This is not only a great family dish but also something with which you can impress your guests – if not just with your “cooking expertise” but also your “historical” knowledge of such a famous dish! This delicious dish can be prepared in advance and is best served with a little Hollandaise Sauce. The bonus is that it really isn’t too expensive to make.

Koulibiaka simply means a long pie made of rolled pastry but the fame of this Russian dish spread to France in the 18th century when Parisian chefs employed by the Russian nobility took the recipe home with them…

…and so you need the highlighted items – it is essential to prepare and cool the fillings in advance before rolling out the pastry and completing the dish which also needs to have a certain amount of “resting time” before the “final cook” in a hot oven:-

You will need:

From Our Shop

500g of skinned Salmon

Other Ingredients

A little chopped Onion
Some black Peppercorns
Slice of Lemon
A little salt
2 oz long grain Rice
6 oz mushrooms (finely sliced)
1 oz butter
1 tbps lemon juice
6 oz single cream
Pinch of Nutmeg
2 oz of Raisins
1 tbps cornflower
2 tbps chopped Parsley
1 packet of Puff Pastry
1 beaten egg

Method:

Fish:

500 g skinned salmon; a little chopped onion; some black peppercorns; slice of lemon; a little salt

Put all of these ingredients into a pan, cover with water and very slowly bring to the boil but it is vitally important that you immediately turn the heat off, remove from the heat source and leave aside for around ten minutes until cool don’t be tempted to take the pan lid off since the steam/heat will cook your salmon perfectly – alternatively you simply can steam the salmon. Remove the salmon and flake but retain the stock.

Rice:

2 oz long grain rice

No matter what your preferred cooking method is reserve the liquid since you want to retain around three ounces of the fish stock in which you cook the long grain rice. Once again set this aside to cool.

Mushrooms:

6 oz mushrooms, finely sliced; 1 oz butter; tablespoon lemon juice; 6 oz single cream; pinch nutmeg; 2 oz raisins; seasoning.

1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with a couple of tablespoons water

a couple of tablespoons chopped parsley

Finally you fry the mushrooms in the butter until they’re soft add the lemon juice, cream, nutmeg, raisins and a little seasoning; remove from the heat but keep stirring until all is amalgamated before adding the cornflour mixture; simmer just to thicken, remove from the heat before adding the chopped parsley and leave to cool.

… and so to complete, you will need:-

a packet of puff pastry – there are so many good ready made varieties around I don’t see the need to do the rolling, folding and chilling thing that my granny used to do – it’s too time consuming and I’d rather do some “girly” pampering or taking the poodles for a walk!!!

All you now need to do is to roll out the puff pastry to around a fourteen inch square; place this onto your baking tray; spread half the rice mix towards one edge of the pastry; cover with half the mushroom mix; all of the flaked salmon; top with the rest of the mushroom mix and the remaining rice. Stretch the remaining pastry over the top; crimp the edge and seal with a little beaten egg. You can decorate “the roll” with pastry shapes made from the trimmings before glazing with the remainder of the beaten egg. Refrigerate before baking for around 45 minutes in an oven (350F/180C/Gas Mark 4/Bottom Shelf of Aga Roasting Oven).