Koulibiac (Kool-e-be-ack) - Its just like Christmas!

This dish was always and forever remind me of Christmas. Christmas in my house always had a "polish" Christmas. We celebrated Christmas Eve as this is when Santa actually came and I always remember my mum making this dish.

Joe bought some salmon recently and I knew instantly that I had to make this to make my mum proud! This was the first time I ever made it so I cannot express how nervous I was.

First of all, Koulibiac is a fish dish first and foremost. Its Salmon, rice, egg with dill and parsley stuffed in a puff pastry shaped like a fish. Now, this is pretty much the English version as the Polish version is mainly Carp, and honestly, I can't stand Carp so it's a win-win really.

So first things first. You have to cook the salmon. Wrap it up in foil with Julia Childs amount of butter and dill. Cook it at 200c for 20 minutes and while this is cooking cook off your long grain rice, 1 cup should be enough. You also need to hard boil 3 eggs for about 12 minutes.

The most important thing to remember here is that everything should be chilled before adding everything together! We are going to put all this onto puff pastry so we need to make sure the pastry will not wilt and stays in place!

So first things first after everything has cooled down is to flake the salmon off the skin ensuring you have "chunky" bit of salmon and there are no bones. Add a nice splashing of lemon juice to this and give it a nice stir. Next, your rice should be cooked and you have rinsed it before and after and your eggs are hard-boiled, peeled and sliced into 1cm rings.

I normally make my own puff pastry but sometimes you just wanna be lazy, so i bought 2 rolls of pre-rolled puff pastry sheets. I was a bit nervous about this part as you need to cut out the shape of the fish. Make sure it is as big as you can when you cut it out!

We got to fill the fish up now with yummy goodness! First, the rice, ensuring you keep a 2cm distance away from the edge! We got to egg wash the edges but we can do that later. With a lovely sprinkle of parsley next we had a juicy salmon. You don't need to worry about how much you put on, you can put on as much as you want but make sure there's enough room for egg too. Once you are happy for your placement its time to make the other side of the fish. With your second roll of puff pastry, this stencil of the fish needs to be BIGGER than the last. That was my small mistake, as at this point I was doing it from memory and not the newspaper recipe my mum sent me from the 90s.

Don't forget the egg wash before you put it together. You want to make sure there are no gaps when you clasp both pastries together. I bunched mine up a little bit of a roll like you would with a cornish pasty. I may have had a meltdown at this point, as through all the lockdown I haven't seen my mum since Christmas. I always want to make my mum proud, so doing this dish brought a lot of memories that apparently I was keeping in as I was excitingly showing Joe the fish I created, the next balling my eyes out because I missed my mum. After I had my moment I had a glass of wine, and carried on.

With a tablespoon, I went to my fish and with a curve of the spoon, I created my scales. Working my way up the fish I made space for the "eye" and honestly I was so happy with myself. Finishing it off with an egg wash off it went into the oven for 20-25minutes until golden brown for 200c.

Every mouthful reminded me of Christmas, my mum and quite possibly simpler times but I am glad I made this. If I can bring a bit of polish food into my house and know I can make my mother proud then that's good enough for me. Don't get me wrong, the dish was demolished, we went up for seconds and its just comfort food in the shape of a fish!

I couldn't be happier! 9/10. It cant be a 10 though. Mums cooking is always a 10

Emily x