Salmon Coulibiac

Кулебяка

That translates to English as kulebyaka.

This is 3rd Russian recipe I have posted, and two of them have a dough shell. I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

The other used a yeast-based pie shell, this uses puff pastry. It is worth the time to make. It doesn’t take a lot of consecutive time and a bonus is that making croissants is not that much more involved. So, if you can make one, you can make the other.

Since I cheated with the Thai recipe I posted a little while ago and did not make the curry paste and powder from scratch; I will atone and do this one the hard fun way.

Puff pastry is very versatile. It can be used in both sweet and savory food. In main courses or yummy desserts and lots of other things.

If you must cheat, use 3 sheets of frozen puff pasty that you can get in any grocery store, and hang your head in shame. Shame!

Seriously though, look at the ingredients in puff pastry and go look at the listed ingredients of the commercial stuff in grocery stores. It has lots of fake stuff, nasty oil and no butter. Gross!

This has no hard-to-find ingredients. I usually dislike mushrooms, but in Russian recipes, they are not bad at all for some odd reason. Maybe it is the massive use of dill that these recipes use?

A lot of this can be prepared the day before, and assembled the day you plan to serve it. I would recommend making the puff pastry a day before.

This is not difficult to make, but it is time-consuming!

Supposedly, this is traditionally made for special occasions and guests. I don’t have special occasions or guests, but made it anyway. I am a rebel!

Salmon Coulibiac

4 thickly sliced hard boiled eggs

Do this in advance enough that it has cooled down to make it easier to slice

Mushroom Rice

2 Tbsp butter
15 thinly sliced white mushrooms
1 sliced medium onion
4 minced cloves of garlic
1 cup cook white rice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp chopped dill
1 Tbsp chopped parsley

  1. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat
  2. Melt the butter and add the mushrooms and onions
  3. Stir and cook for 5 minutes until the onions become clear
  4. Add the garlic and cook for another minute while stirring
  5. Combine the rice, with the mushroom and mix well.
  6. Add the rest of the ingredients and fold them until very well mixed

Salmon Spread

1/2 cup softened butter
1 tsp salt
Lemon zest, 1 lemon
2 Tbsp chopped dill, finely
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Place all ingredients in a bowl, mix by hand, or beaters until it is well mixed

Assemble it

Set the oven to 375 F
Place parchment paper over a baking sheet

1 egg

In a bowl, beat the egg and set aside.

1 lb salmon fillet

  1. Skin the fillet if it has not been done already and lightly scrape out any remaining bones with a sharp knife
  2. Roll out one sheet of puff pastry to about 15 x 10 inch and place it one the baking sheet
  3. Pour 1 cup of rice to make a bed for the salmon to lay on
  4. Place the salmon on top of the rice
  5. Spread the butter mixture on the salmon
  6. Place the sliced eggs over the butter
  7. With the remaining rice, spoon it over the fish and press down on the rice to make it firm and dome shaped
  8. Brush some of the beaten egg over the rice
  9. Roll out another sheet of puff pasty to the samne dimensions
  10. Place it on top of the salmon mixture and press the top and bottom sheets together.
  11. Make sure the seal is tight all of the way around
  12. With the third sheet, roll it out to the same dimensions.
  13. Cut small triangles or other shapes out in the dough.
  14. This gets placed over the top and bottom puff pastry and seal the edges again
  15. Brush the beaten egg over the top layer of puff pastry
  16. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes

Lemon Sauce

4 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup white wine
2 diced shallots
6 Tbsp butter
Dash of salt
1 tsp chopped parsley
1 tsp chopped dill

  1. On medium heat, mix the lemon juice, shallots and wine. Bring to a simmer
  2. Simmer for 5 minutes, it will reduce to about 1/4 cup or so
  3. Add the remaining ingredients and wisk together
  4. Pour into small bowls
  5. Serve with lemon wedges and the sauce on the side
  6. A pizza cutter works well to slice it.
Notes

Make sure the fish is thawed and let it warm up for a bit before putting this together to ensure it is cooked through.

The size of the rolled puff pasty can be altered to your fillet so that there is not a lot of excess dough on the sides.

When rolling out the puff pastry dough, and it becomes sticky, gently fold it, wrap it up - using linen cloth or paper towels - and throw it in the fridge for about 10 minutes. I am not above using a tiny bit of flour instead, but I am an unkempt savage. At least I am polite enough to brush the excess flour off when I am done.

The third sheet of puff pastry is just presentation and could be skipped.

The excess dough can be cooked if you like eating it straight. I left a rope of dough, sealed off from the fish, but still attached to the shell, and used a little cinnamon and sugar on it for a quick and easy dessert.

I typically only have sticky and jasmine rice on hand, so I used jasmine. Brown rice, buckwheat or quinoa might be good also.

It was pretty good, but this has a ton of butter. I am going to have to be good with my diet for a while. This contains more butter in total than I probably eat in a year.

I didn’t chop my finger while cutting dill this time, progress!

Edit: One thing I was concerned about was in what condition it would be in the next day. I wrapped it up tightly and put it in the refrigerator. The next day, I set the oven to 200 F and let it sit in there for about an hour. It was okay, but this is definitely a dish to make for company, so you don’t have leftovers or leftovers.