Salmon pie

I puzzled for a while this evening about what to cook but then decided I needed some comfort food. Hmm I had some salmon, some silver beet and red pepper. All I needed to do was thaw the pastry, turn on the oven and steam the silver beet!

Ingredients

3 silverbeet leaves including stalks

1 spring onion

1 clove of garlic crushed

1 tsp Sambal oelek

1 tsp crushed ginger root

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

450 gr skinned salmon fillets

1 red pepper

Poppyseeds

Mode

Place water in steamer to boil

Preheat the oven to 180c

Take the pastry sheets from freezer to thaw

Roughly chop the silverbeet and stalks and add to steamer

Chop spring onion and add to steamer

Add garlic, ginger and Sambal oelek to vegetables 

Add lid to steamer bring to boil

Place a thawed sheet of pastry on the bottom on a baking dish

Arrange the salmon fillets on top of it

Roughly chop the red pepper and add to the salmon

Spoon the steamed vegetables on top

Cover with other slice of pastry and pinch edges to seal

Sprinkle poppyseeds on top

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Salmon pie

Earlier in the year when I was doing a FutureLearn course, I experimented with making a couple of Elizabethan vegetable pies. This time I decided to experiment by making a pie which contained salmon as well as vegetables and using verjuice as before and Dijonaise rather than butter. This pie didn't have the richness from the butter but the more delicate flavours allowed the salmon to be tasted more.


 

Ingredients

250 gr salmon fillet with skin
1 carrot
2 cauliflower flowers
2 handfuls frozen baby peas
2 tbs verjuice
1 tbs Dijonnaise
Puff pastry

Mode

Preheat the oven to 180c
Remove the pastry to thaw to room temperature if frozen
Chop the carrots as you wish and add to baking dish
Break the cauliflower into florets and add
Add the Dijonnaise and stir
Microwave the carrot and cauliflower for 1 minute (or steam lightly)
Make space in the middle and place the salmon fillet there
Add frozen peas
Pour over verjuice
Cover the pie dish with a sheet of puff pastry and decorate as desired
Pierce the top in a few places
Cook in the oven for 45 minutes

Salmon & ricotta patties

Today was the hottest day in Melbourne's history. I think weather started being recorded in about 1855. The temperature rose to 46.4 celsius: that is 115.52 fahrenheit. We sweltered and there are fires throughout the state. Xena and Hecuba felt the heat though not as badly as they did during the last heatwave when we had 40+ temperatures for days.

In the midst of a lot of serious monitoring of fires and people at risk of evacuation, we had a lot of flippant comments on Twitter (and Facebook) about magnums, peppermint or otherwise. Then @shewgirl stopped me in my tracks by asking when I was going to blog! Good point. I wasn't going to blog about peppermint magnums but I did have a blog post waiting to write. So Tania, thanks for the wakeup call! This is for you! You may even be interested to know that during the week I had a couple of chicken schnitzels influenced by you. I bet you don't normally eat them with plum sauce though ;.)) Delicious!

Over Christmas one of the jobs I did was a major clearout of the pantry. This was needed but I also wanted to make space to store my new food-processor and my vacuum cleaner in the pantry. Well, I succeeded in all that. I also found various items that I needed to eat. Amongst the booty was a stock of canned pink salmon. Nom, nom! But what should I do with it? I had a couple of salads and then I remembered that once upon a time I used to make salmon patties. I remembered that I used ricotta in them, and think I probably also had grated carrot, grated zucchini and potato though the recipe varied according to what was in stock at the time. However, this time I decided on a much simpler recipe focusing on salmon, ricotta and the piece de resistance, dill! The mixture can be used to make patties or smaller balls which can be used for nibbles.




Ingredients

375 gr low fat ricotta
420 gr canned pink salmon
Cup dill
2 eggs
2 cloves of garlic
Breadcrumbs, dry
Olive oil


Mode

Drain salmon and ricotta
Roughly chop dill
Place salmon, ricotta and dill in bowl
Add one egg
Crush garlic cloves and add to mix
Mix thoroughly and form into patties (or small balls if desired for nibbles)
Beat remaining egg and put in a dish
Put breadcrumbs on a plate
Crumb the patties (or balls) in the egg and breadcrumbs
Let these rest in a cool place for a couple of hours
Heat some olive oil in a pan
Cook the patties until browned on the outside and cooked inside, turning regularly
Serve patties hot or cold with a salad or vegetables for a main meal
If making salmon balls, serve as nibbles with drinks.