Pie success

Once again I managed to find a piece of hot smoked salmon in the freezer, I swear they are multiplying on their own when the door is closed.

Having had salmon, boiled potatoes and mustard/dill sauce the last x times we've had salmon for dinner, I decided on a last minute pie to create a bit of variation.

Last minute meant that I bought ready shortcrust pastry. I've never used ready made one before and had low expectations, but it turned out quite alright actually.

I rolled it out a bit thicker than normal and blind baked it at 200 degrees C until it had a bit of colour and looked dry. As with my own shortcrust pastry, the sides of the pie dish sank down to the bottom. I've yet to work out how to keep them on.

For the filling, I diced an onion and softened in a little grapeseed oil, stirring until translucent. Then I took the pan off the heat and added about 150 g of chopped spinach (also from the freezer, but thawed). I stirred through and poured in about 3 dl of double cream, salt and pepper. The salmon tends to be quite salty, so not too much salt. I also added a tablespoon of dried dill.

When the filling had cooled down, I stirred in three eggs and an egg white, keeping the yolk separate for glazing.

When the pie crust was ready, I filled the bottom with bits of salmon, about 200 g in all, then poured the spinach mixture over it. As the walls of the pie crust had sunk down, the spinach mix overflowed them. Not super.

I had some shortcrust pastry left over and remembering how hard the pie crust went in my last attempt, I rolled it out thinly and cut into strips for decoration.

I glazed the strips with the whisked up yolk as well as I could. Parts of them sunk into the spinach mixture and I tried not to dip the brush into it.

I baked it for some 35 minutes at 200 degrees C and it turned out rather nice this time. In fact, Lundulph had seconds.