SALMON IN PASTRY WITH CURRIED EGGS & SPINACH FILLING

This is a take on the classic salmon en croute, the difference being the addition of a curried egg and spinach filling. It looks complicated but is easy to do if you follow the recipe word for word. You can of course make your own puff pastry, which is fun and satisfying. I haven’t included the recipe here, though, because I suspect, like me, you’ll be buying it ready-made.

Apologies right at the start! You really only need 750g ready-made puff pastry but it comes in 500g blocks so you are going to be left with about half a block. Cut it off before you begin and freeze it for another time.

Serves 8

2 x 500g blocks of puff pastry

2 x 600g (1lb 5oz) sides of salmon (whole, skinned and boned)

140g (5oz) large spinach or kale leaves 4tbsp flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped 2tsp mild curry paste

4 hard-boiled medium eggs, chopped Salt and black pepper

2tbsp semolina

1 beaten egg for glazing Watercress and mustard, to serve

Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/ gas 6. Cut one pastry block in half (and freeze the rest) and roll into a strip roughly the same length and half the width of the salmon fillet. Place on a flat baking sheet and cover with a second baking sheet (to stop it rising too much). Bake for 18-20 minutes, until it is a deep brown. Remove from the baking sheets and allow to cool.

Make sure the salmon fillets have no bones by feeling along the flesh with your fingers to locate any stray pinbones – pull them out with fingers or tweezers.

Cut out the tough stalks of the spinach or kale with scissors (if you fold each leaf in half along the stalk, it’s easy). Bring a wide pan of water to the boil, drop in the leaves and hold them under water with a fish slice until they are limp and wilted. Drain off the hot water and replace with cold. Repeat with more cold water until the spinach has completely cooled. Carefully lift out the leaves and lay on a clean tea towel to dry.

Mix the parsley, curry paste and eggs together. Season well with salt and black pepper. Lay the cooked pastry rectangle in the middle of a board and sprinkle with the semolina. Lay half the wilted spinach or kale over the semolina and cover with a fillet of salmon. Pile on the egg mixture and put the other salmon fillet on top to make a sandwich. (Try to match the thick side of the top fillet to the thin side of the bottom one to end up with a more-or-less-level top surface.) Cover

with the remaining spinach. Pat dry with kitchen paper or a clean tea towel.

Roll out the second pastry block into a thin sheet large enough to wrap the salmon: your rectangle needs to be roughly four times the width of your salmon sandwich and 8cm longer. Drape the sheet of pastry over the salmon, tucking the edges under and using a fish slice to lift the roll a bit as you tuck.

Roll out any pastry trimmings to use as decoration (resist the temptation to screw it up into a ball – that will destroy the layers that puff up so nicely when cooking). Use strips of pastry to create a lattice effect, or simply embellish the top with pastry leaves or fish shapes, or score fine lattice lines with the back of a knife. Transfer the salmon to a flat baking sheet (or a baking tray, see tip), and brush the whole thing with beaten egg. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the pastry is brown and a skewer penetrates the salmon sandwich easily. Allow to cool a little before slicing. This is good hot or cold, served with salad.