It’s Lent and for many of us this means giving up meat on Fridays. Being raised Catholic, it’s something that I grew up doing. Eric’s parents also practiced it due to Eric’s mom’s Catholic upbringing. Even though we now go to a church that doesn't require abstaining from meat, we have decided to continue this tradition as one of the small ways we can remember Christ’s suffering during the Lenten season.
This means more pasta and more fish since Thursday also has to be meatless to provide a non meat lunch for Eric on Friday.
I like to try to keep things interesting and found this recipe in our Best of Gourmet 2000 Cookbook. The combination of the buttery salmon, lime, and flakey puff pastry crust are a perfect combination. Another bonus is that we typically don’t like buying frozen fish because we find that it tends to taste more "fishy". The lime does a nice job of cutting any fishiness in the salmon so an added bonus is you don’t have to splurge on fresh salmon if you don’t want to.
Ingredients:
4 large leeks
2 Tbsp butter
2 lbs skinless boneless salmon fillet (FYI – I typically only use 1 – 1 ½ lbs)
¼ cup chopped dill
1 tsp grated lime zest
1 ½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp ground pepper
1 large egg
1 Tbsp water
1 package frozen puff pastry sheets
Directions:
Cut white and pale green parts of leeks crosswise into ½ inch thick slices. In a bowl of cold water, wash leeks well and lift from water into a colander to drain. Pat leeks dry. In a large skillet cook leeks in butter over moderate heat, stirring until tender, about 12 minutes, and cool. Cut salmon into roughly ¾ inch pieces and in a bowl toss with leeks, dill, zest, salt, and pepper until combined well.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg and water to make an egg wash. On a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin roll 1 puff pastry sheet into a 10 inch square and the other into a 12 inch square. Transfer 10 inch pastry square to a floured large baking sheet and mound salmon filling in center, forming a round 8 inches in diameter. Brush edges of pastry evenly with some egg wash. Carefully drape remaining pastry square over salmon and gently press edges together to seal. With a sharp knife trim edges of pastry to form a 10 inch round. Crimp edges and cut 4 steam vents on top of crust. Brush crust evenly with some remaining egg wash. Chill pie, loosely covered, at least 1 hour and up to 3.
Preheat oven to 400 deg F.
Bake pie in middle of oven until pastry is golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Serve pie warm or at room temperature.
-Anna
