Never have I ever made a meat pie. This technically isn't a meat pie - it's seafood. I haven't been a particular fan of fish at any point in my life, but I'm growing to like it. With this meal, there are so many great flavors going on that it's not just the taste of fish that you get, which is what I used to hate about eating seafood.
This is a spin on a recipe I picked up from Sunny Anderson on Food Network quite a while ago. I would swear that I have a photographic memory when it comes to recipes on TV, because I remembered everything that was in hers weeks after seeing the show. We did add a few different things to do our own take on it.
The Meal: Salmon Pie with Roasted Spring Vegetables
This recipe make a LOT of food. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I ended up eating all of mine. Bill made a valiant effort at clearing his plate, but didn't quite make it. It's okay - I'm not offended. At all.
This serves two very hungry people or four people who have actually eaten proper meals throughout the day.
The Ingredients: 2 oz. jar pine nuts
1/2 red onion, diced
8 oz. package whole white mushrooms
3 tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
Splash dry white wine
6 oz. fresh baby spinach
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Two 6 oz. salmon portions
4 sections puff pastry, thawed
10 asparagus spears
3 whole carrots
2 tsp. fresh thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 oz. light sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 large tbsp. champagne mustard
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. flour
The Directions: In a large frying pan, toast the pine nuts over medium-high heat. Toast until just browned on the outside, about 2-3 minutes. Keep them moving in the pan - they burn easily because they have a high fat content. Remove from the pan and set aside.
In the same pan, add 2 tbsp. of olive oil. Add the onion with a little salt and pepper and cook just until softened, about 5-6 minutes over medium-high heat.
While the onion cooks, clean the dirt off of the mushrooms with a dry paper towel. You don't want to rinse them, because they'll absorb the water and make the pie soggy.
Slice the mushrooms thinly, about 1/8 inch thick. You can certainly buy sliced mushrooms in a package in most produce sections, but I strangely enjoy the prep work and chopping that comes with cooking.
Add the mushrooms, garlic, more salt and pepper, and more olive oil (if needed) to the onions. Cook and additional 4-5 minutes until the mushrooms have softened.
Add just a splash of white wine to the pan to deglaze, moving everything around to get the lovely and tasty caramelization from the bottom of the pan. Cook and allow to reduce for about 2-3 minutes. Pour the mixture into a bowl and set aside. I could really just eat this by itself. SO GOOD.
I have always been a strong proponent of not cooking with wine. Why waste good alcohol by cooking the buzz out of it? But, we were having white wine with dinner, so I just used a splash. Otherwise, you can substitute any kind of stock.
In the same pan (Yet again! Easy clean-up!), add 1 tbsp. olive oil, spinach, salt, pepper, and the juice of 1/2 of a lemon. It wilts down and cooks very quickly, even uncovered.
Once the spinach has wilted down, remove the pan from the heat and toss in the pine nuts.
Look at these lovely salmon portions:
These were in my grocery store's seafood case, already cleaned an in 6 oz. filets. Cube the salmon into about 1-inch cubes. You should get about 12 cubes out of each filet.
Now, we're ready to assemble the pies. Frozen puff pastry typically comes folded or perforated. For large pies (serving two people), you'll use two of these sections for each pie. For smaller pies (and less hungry people), use one section for each pie.
Here, with the large pies, you'll need to work the seams of the puff pastry together to form one sheet. Then, roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface. You don't need to roll it too thin - just enough to get a good working surface.
Confession Time: After the pastry is rolled out, place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I left mine on the cutting board and had a near-disaster experience trying to transfer the full pie to the baking sheet.
Once rolled out, spoon an even layer of spinach on the pastry. It should cover about half of the area of the pastry, so that there's room to fold the pastry over later to form the pie.
Add the salmon, seasoning with salt and pepper:
Divide the mushroom mixture evenly and top the salmon:
Finally, fold the edges of the puff pastry up, gathering at the top. Pinch together at the fold so it stays together. Leave a vent in the center of the pie so that steam can escape and the pie doesn't get soggy.
There must have been steam on the camera lens. Oops! This is Bill's pie. He folded his much prettier than mine, so I only took a picture of his.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the salmon is flaky.
The rest of the meal is really very simple. Cut the asparagus spears in half and slice the carrots into sticks, about the size of the asparagus. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme. Cook them alongside the salmon pies in an even layer in a small roasting pan.
While everything is in the oven, you have plenty of time to make a sauce for the pies. Combine all of the listed ingredients above - sour cream, milk, lemon juice, salt, pepper, mustard - EXCEPT the butter and flour.
Whisk everything together and cook over medium heat, allowing to reduce for about 10-15 minutes. Our sauce wasn't as thick as we wanted, so on Bill's suggestion, we added the butter and flour. He has some fancy term for this, which I don't care to subject all of you to (nor can I remember it). In a small bowl, combine the flour and butter using a fork until small crumbs form. Whisk this into the sauce and cook an additional 1-2 minutes. It makes the sauce thick and gives it a nice sheen.
This all looks long and complicated now that I've typed it all out, but it's really not. It's an easy meal, even for a weeknight. It's got lots of protein and veggies, and not a whole lot that's terrible for you.
I promise you, it's SO worth it.
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