Variations On A Theme - Salmon Pie Version 4

Looking through my list of recipes, I see that there are already three salmon pies on it, not to mention the salmon and spinach pie. But here I go again - there was salmon in the fridge, Lundulph and I are massively hungry and I'd bought a packet of ready made puff pastry, I really can't remember the reason why.

I had planned the pie for Thursday night, that's why both salmon and puff pastry were thawed and ready to go. But work was extremely busy and I didn't finish until well in the evening, so we had salad instead.

But yesterday Lundulph had a day off from work and I finished up a little earlier.

Other left-over ingredients in the fridge were also happily used up - the whipping cream I had planned to use with my sticky muffins and never used and the remaining créme fraîche from the nougat muffins.

I also realise that this pie is very similar to my last one, it seems my mind is fixed and I keep thinking along the same lines.

Ingredients

600 g ready rolled puff pastry - two sheets
600 g fillets of hot smoked salmon
1 tsp hot chilli flakes
3 eggs + 1 egg white
3 dl whipping cream
2 dl créme fraîche
black pepper
1 dl finely cut chives
1 tbsp dried mint
1 tbsp dried dill
1 tbsp dried thyme
3 tbsp fresh finely chopped parsley
1 egg yolk for decoration
Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees C.


2. Line a deep (5 - 7 cm) pie dish with one of the puff pastry sheets, making sure it goes right up to the edge of the dish and even a little above.


3. Remove the skin from the salmon steaks, then shred it and put in the pie dish.
   
   


4. Sprinkle in the hot chilli flakes and stir in a little.


5. In a bowl, stir together the eggs, whipping cream, créme fraîche, black pepper, chives, mint, dill, thyme and parsley, then pour carefully over the salmon.
   
   


6. Cover the pie with the second sheet of puff pastry, pinch in along the edges, so that it doesn't run out, make some holes to allow steam out and brush with the egg yolk.
   
   


7. Bake until golden brown, 1h to 1h 30 min. Let cool a little before serving.
   
   

I made a couple of mistakes (as usual) - I added salt to the liquid mixture, not thinking about that hot smoked salmon tends to be quite salty, so the whole pie was a bit on the salty side.



I also should have blind-baked the bottom pastry layer, knowing that my oven doesn't bake at all underneath. Probably this wouldn't be necessary in an electric oven with heating elements at both bottom and top.

I think this pie would have been rather nice with my standard white sauce that normally do for barbecues.

It could also have taken on more chilli flakes.