Salmon coulibiac

Method

• step 1

  First, get everything prepared. Boil a pan of salted water, add the eggs and cook for 8 mins exactly. Drain and cool under cold water, then peel and set aside.

• step 2

  Heat half the butter in a non-stick frying pan and sizzle the slices of salmon for 1 min on each side (Pic 1), just to firm up the fillets but not cook them all the way through. Lift the salmon onto a plate.

• step 3

  Now cook the rice. Melt the rest of the butter in the same pan. Add the onion, cumin and coriander seeds, cardamom and star anise, then gently fry for 8 mins until golden. Stir in the rice and add the bay leaf and cinnamon stick (Pic 2), then pour over the stock and season generously. Cover and bring to the boil, then lower the heat to its lowest setting and continue to cook for 10 mins. Turn off the heat and leave covered for 10 mins, then stir through the lemon zest and juice. Set aside to cool. This can be done several hrs in advance. Once cool, stir though the chopped dill.

• step 4

  To assemble the pie, roll out one of the pieces of pastry to a rectangle as wide but a third longer than this magazine (23 x 40cm), then lay on a baking tray. Pack half the rice along the middle of the pastry, discarding the star anise and cinnamon as you do so, leaving a good 5cm border around the edge. Lay the salmon over the rice, then slice the eggs and lay those over the whole salmon layer (Pic 3). Top the eggs with the remaining rice and use your hands to gently pack everything down to a firm, even shape. Brush any stray grains of rice off the border, then brush the border with beaten egg,

• step 5

  Roll the second piece of pastry out to a rectangle slightly larger than the first. Drape over the coulibiac and gently press the edges to seal the 2 pastry sheets together. Trim the edges to neaten and crimp with your fingers or press down with a fork. The uncooked pie can now be chilled, on the baking sheet, for a day or frozen for up to 2 months.

• step 6

  To cook, heat oven to 220C/200C fan/ gas 7. Brush the pie all over with beaten egg and, if you want, lightly score the pastry with the back of a knife in a criss-cross fashion, making sure you don’t cut all the way through (Pic 4). Bake for 20 mins, then reduce the heat to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and continue to cook for 20 mins until golden brown. Leave to rest for 10 mins, then serve in thick slices with a bowl of Dill cream or Herb salsa (see recipes, below).