This pie is a big favourite among my friends. I came up with this dish a few years ago when I was trying out a tuna pie recipe from a French cookbook. I wasn’t too keen on using tuna, so I decided to replace it with salmon fillet and changed a couple of things here and there. The end result was far better than I expected — the combination of salmon, olives and tomatoes was delicious and gave the pie a real Mediterranean feel. This is perfect for an intimate dinner with close friends. Once you’ve made the pie, throw together a Greek salad, bring out the wine and put a record on. Now we’re talking.
*APOLOGIES* for the appalling image quality: I’m waiting to get my camera back so in the meantime we’re stuck with these pictures from my phone.
Ingredients:
1kg ripe tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
500g salmon fillet
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 bouquet garni (a bunch of herbs tied together: parsley, bay leaves, thyme)
50g pitted green olives
2 rolls of shop-bought puff pastry (230g each)
Salt
Pepper
Directions:
Put oven on grill and cook the peppers in there for 15 minutes, turning them over regularly. Once the skin is black on both sides, wrap the peppers in aluminium foil to cool. Heat water in a large saucepan. Once the water is boiling, add tomatoes and let them simmer for 1 minute or so before taking them out and rinsing them under cold water.
Now peel the skin off. Next, peel the skin off the peppers too; it should come off easily. Chop the tomatoes and peppers roughly. You’ll want to pre-cook the salmon so take the large saucepan again, fill it with water and bring to a boil, adding salt, pepper and bay leaves. Add the salmon fillets and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Be sure to remove the skin and bay leaves before you flake the salmon.
Now take a large frying pan and heat the olive oil. Cook the onion and garlic together. Add the tomatoes, peppers, tomato paste and bouquet garni. Don’t forget to salt and pepper. Let it cook for 30 minutes or until the sauce has boiled down and stir from time to time. Remove the bouquet garni, add the salmon and the olives and keep stirring. Cook for 10 minutes more on a low heat.
Pre-heat the oven at 180°C. Spread one of the pastries over a greased pie tin. Remember to poke a few holes in it with a fork, otherwise it won’t cook properly. Now pour the mixture gently onto the pastry and spread evenly. Fold over the second pastry, making sure the edges stick together by moistening them. Place a pie bird in the middle. This will prevent the filling from boiling up and leaking through the crust by allowing steam to escape from inside the pie. If you don’t have a pie bird, cut a dime-sized vent hole in the center of the top crust and with a fine knife tip make a circle of piercings spaced about an inch apart and stop one inch from the edge of the crust.
Put the pie in the oven and cook for about 35 minutes, or until the top pastry is golden (but not too much).
Mila's Kitchen 