Planning Ahead
There are many recipes which use pre-cooked ingredients. Kedgeree is one, and the following recipe, is another. Worth collecting recipes such as these, then you can plan to cook extra ingredients for one meal to put towards another.
Koulibiac - Russian Fish Pie
The traditional recipes uses fresh salmon, but between you and me it works just as well using canned fish, and - as the other ingredients (all but the parsley) need to be cooked and cooled before assembling - they can just as well be leftovers from yesterday's meal. There are no exact amounts, but allow roughly 2 - 3 oz fish and half-a hard boiled egg per person.
Cooked flaked fish,
onions, carrots, celery, all precooked and chopped
Mushrooms, fresh or raw, chopped,
cold cooked rice
Hard boiled eggs, finely chopped,
fresh parsley, chopped
freshly ground black pepper, melted butter
enough short crush pastry to wrap it all up.
Combine all ingredients except butter and pastry. Roll out half the pastry, place on a baking sheet. Brush pastry with a little butter, pile the filling on top and drizzle over some more butter. Place the remaining pastry on top, seal edges and make a few slits to let out steam. Bake at 180C, 350F, Gas 4 for about 30 mins. until golden. Serve with a mustard sauce and green salad.
Tip Turn this into posh nosh, (I call them Neptune's Pasties), by lining the inside of the top half of a scallop shell (which is deeper than the base) with pastry, put on filling and then cover and seal with pastry. Prick and bake these individual pies in the shells, turning out after about 20 minutes to continue browning the underside which will now have taken the ridged shape of the shell. They look so impressive. The shells, which can be obtained free from places that sell fresh fish, can be washed and used again and again.
Further tip: Hardboiled eggs can be more easily peeled if the eggs are not too fresh. Put eggs into cold water, bring to the boil and boil for no more than eight minutes. Immediately place eggs into cold water, changing water as it warms up. Tap eggs on side of bowl to crack all round, let them rest in more cold water for a bit, then the shells should slide off. If you colour the cold water with food colouring, and soak the cracked eggs in this before peeling, the eggs will take on a marbled appearance, useful for certain dishes but not Koulibiac.
Koulibiac - Russian Fish Pie
The traditional recipes uses fresh salmon, but between you and me it works just as well using canned fish, and - as the other ingredients (all but the parsley) need to be cooked and cooled before assembling - they can just as well be leftovers from yesterday's meal. There are no exact amounts, but allow roughly 2 - 3 oz fish and half-a hard boiled egg per person.
Cooked flaked fish,
onions, carrots, celery, all precooked and chopped
Mushrooms, fresh or raw, chopped,
cold cooked rice
Hard boiled eggs, finely chopped,
fresh parsley, chopped
freshly ground black pepper, melted butter
enough short crush pastry to wrap it all up.
Combine all ingredients except butter and pastry. Roll out half the pastry, place on a baking sheet. Brush pastry with a little butter, pile the filling on top and drizzle over some more butter. Place the remaining pastry on top, seal edges and make a few slits to let out steam. Bake at 180C, 350F, Gas 4 for about 30 mins. until golden. Serve with a mustard sauce and green salad.
Tip Turn this into posh nosh, (I call them Neptune's Pasties), by lining the inside of the top half of a scallop shell (which is deeper than the base) with pastry, put on filling and then cover and seal with pastry. Prick and bake these individual pies in the shells, turning out after about 20 minutes to continue browning the underside which will now have taken the ridged shape of the shell. They look so impressive. The shells, which can be obtained free from places that sell fresh fish, can be washed and used again and again.
Further tip: Hardboiled eggs can be more easily peeled if the eggs are not too fresh. Put eggs into cold water, bring to the boil and boil for no more than eight minutes. Immediately place eggs into cold water, changing water as it warms up. Tap eggs on side of bowl to crack all round, let them rest in more cold water for a bit, then the shells should slide off. If you colour the cold water with food colouring, and soak the cracked eggs in this before peeling, the eggs will take on a marbled appearance, useful for certain dishes but not Koulibiac.
posted by Shirley at 8:08 am
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