Having had my rant about food additives, I’m ready to move on. Back to real food and restaurants.

Here on the mountains we have had ( Old but not OLD) friends to stay. Very easy to have, once you understand that he does not really like meat ( especially things like beef, stews, etc) I don’t think it is on any ethical grounds but memories of some pretty disgusting boarding school dinners!

Not a problem, Willowy brunette is of a similar ilk, and as much as I like a good steak, or hamburger I would normally choose something fishy as first choice.

The first evening I decided to make a version of Koulibiac / Coulibiac, there are, of course, many different ideas on how to make this, but it is basically a salmon fish pie. Normally it is made in “Freeform” but there is nothing to say that it can not be made into a real pie, in a dish!

So enough for 4-6 people

1. +/-500 grams salmon
2. A packet of frozen spinach ( defrosted and drained)
3. 4oz smoked salmon slices
4. 4 hard boiled eggs ( chopped)
5. 2 packets of frozen or fresh puff pastry , defrosted.

Lightly poach the salmon in either some milk or some white wine, but make sure it is only very lightly poached. Remove from liquid drain and flake into chunks

Roll out one of the pastries into a round ( here in France it is possible to buy pastry all ready rolled in a round ), AND I have just found a French version available on Ocado, so it really makes life easy! I have to admit that although I make nearly all that we eat from scratch, no ready made sauces, gravies, soups and salad dressings, I have not made puff pastry in years!

Lightly grease a quiche type dish or deeper if you have one, line it with the pastry, paint the pastry with an egg white wash, this will help to seal the pastry and stop it from getting soggy. Next cover the pastry with the smoked salmon, then the drained spinach, then the chopped egg and finally the salmon flakes.

Moisten the edges of the pastry and put on top of this the other sheet of pastry, press the edges with you thumbs to make an indentation and to seal the pie. Using the rest of the egg white beaten with the yolk, paint the top of the pie, to glaze it.

Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes until the top is golden brown. Serve with a good salad, one could think that this would serve 6 people, but have to say it was eaten by just the four of us!

And it snowed, stayed cold and the sun shone ! Perfect!