smoked salmon and potato pie

Watching the Great British Bake off means there is more pie in my life.  Not sweet pie but savoury.  I actually bought Paul Hollywood's pie book for just that reason.  American cooks do not seem to focus as much on savoury pie.  This is a modification on what he calls his temptation.  Hot smoked salmon.  Golden potatoes.  Cream.  Carmelized onion.  All baked in pastry.  He suggests puff.  I use hot water crust.

Yum!  It is one of those meals that I find, if you can not eat it all the first night, gets better the longer it sits.  It normally does not last past three days around here though.  It makes pretty spectacular lunches.

The only problem is that in summer it makes the kitchen hot.  Oh well.

smoked salmon and potato pie

Note:  I make one six inch springform or high sided cake pan with a removable bottom

1 recipe hot water crust pastry

25 grams butter

1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced

400 grams Yukon yellow gold potatoes, thinly sliced.  Peel if you wish.

about 500 ml milk 

200 grams or 8 ounces hot smoked salmon

50 grams double cream if you can find it or heavy whipping cream

salt and pepper to taste

In a frying pan, melt the butter over low heat.  Add the onion and sauté over low heat until carmelized.  This will take about 20 minutes.

Put the potatoes in a saucepan.  Cover with milk. Bring to a boil, turn down, and cook until the potatoes are just tender.  There should be a bit of bite because you will bake them again.  Remove from heat and drain but reserve 50 ml of the milk.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line the bottom of the tin you chose with the hot water crust paster.  Save enough to make a lid.

Put a third of the potatoes on the bottom of the pastry lined tin (I was making two here and doubled everything).  Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper.  Go lightly.

Cover the potatoes with half the onions and half the fish, broken up or flaked into pieces.

Repeat the layers but end with potatoes.

Mix the reserved milk with the cream and pour over the pie.

Cover the pie with the reserved dough.  Pinch the edges closed.  Poke the top so the pies do not explode.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

If you can, wait thirty minutes to eat or until it cools to room temperature.  The above picture is what happens when you cannot wait.  It just does not hold together well.  

But it is so good!

It has been an odd evening so far.  Good but nothing has gone as planned.  Oh well.