Salmon Pie that will thrill your taste buds

by Millie Bentley

Greetings. Here is another salmon recipe to follow last week’s that you will like. It’s not like the Russian salmon pie, more like chicken pot pie. I don’t know where the recipe came from because my friend Imogene gave it to me on a sheet of scratch paper long ago. You can make it with your baked leftovers if you’ve got them and the potatoes make it nice and hearty. Any way, give it a try … you’ll like it.
Filling
4 potatoes, medium; peeled, diced
2 carrots, sliced
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8 ounces frozen peas
½ fresh lemon
1 pound cooked or canned salmon, flaked
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon dried dill weed
Sauce
½ cup butter (1 stick)
5 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk, heated
½ fresh lemon (the other half)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Crust
Pillsbury refrigerated crust – 2 per box for round pie or 1 box (20 ounces) Krusteaz Pie Crust Mix for 9-by-13 inch pan.
Method: filling
Place carrots and potatoes in sauce pan with lid and bring to boil. Immediately remove from heat and let set 10 minutes (but check potatoes to make sure they don’t get mushy), drain. Saute onions in olive oil until limp but not brown; add garlic and stir well. Add onions and garlic to potatoes and carrots along with frozen peas. Grate rind off ½ lemon and then squeeze, add both to potatoes. (Actually, sauce calls for ½ lemon juice and zest, so it’s easier to grate rind and remove juice from whole lemon and divide into two parts). Next stir in salmon (skin and bones removed) and season with salt, pepper and dill weed.
Method: sauce
Melt butter in small sauce pan; add salt, pepper, dill weed and flour. Cook and stir over low heat for 3 to 5 minutes, making a roux. Add one cup warm milk, slowly, while stirring constantly to avoid lumps. When mixture thickens – and there are no lumps – pour over vegetables and salmon. Let sit while you prepare crust. (Some folks prefer to prepare crust first and have it ready and waiting; next time I make this kind of salmon pie, I’ll do crust first).
Method: crust
For round pie, using the refrigerated pie crust, place one crust in bottom of a 9-inch or 10-inch pie pan. Pour or scrape filling into a crust and cover with second crust. Pinch edges together with fingers or fork and make a few slits in top to allow steam to escape. Bake in preheated 400˚F degree oven for about 40 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool before cutting.
For a deep dish rectangular pie, follow directions on the Krusteaz Pie Crust Mix (20 ounces) but do not use too much water. When dough is ready to roll out, take 1/3 and set aside for top. Roll out remaining 2/3 dough for bottom crust. Oil a 9-by-13-by-2 inch baking dish and fit bottom crust into it, letting some dough hang over edges. Pour in filling and spread evenly; add top crust. Pinch edges together (I usually trim excess bottom crust to about one inch overhang and, after top crust is fitted and trimmed, turn the bottom one inch back over top) with fingers or fork, make several slits in top and bake in preheated 400˚F oven for one hour. Yummm!
P.S.: One can use this same recipe substituting cooked chicken, turkey, or beef or caribou.
Until next week, amigos, vaya con Dios.