Serves 6-8

A great alternative to beef wellington, and just as good cold as it is warm. The filling is based on a classic Russian dish called koulibiac, whereby delicately poached salmon is stuffed with rice, mushrooms and eggs and then encased in brioche dough. It is much easier to use a good quality puff pastry as the outer casing, and I’m using curried rice with coriander as the filling. The most important thing to remember is to season the fish and rice as you go along.

100g plain flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 egg
200ml milk
2 tbsp chopped herbs (such as chives, parsley and coriander)
Few knobs of butter
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp curry powder
200g risotto rice
500-600ml hot vegetable or fish stock
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped coriander
800-900g side of salmon, skinned
1 medium egg, beaten
500g puff pastry

1 First, make the crêpes. Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Beat the egg and milk together and pour into the well. Gradually whisk the flour into the wet mixture until the batter is well combined and smooth. Stir through the chopped herbs.

2 Heat a non-stick crêpe pan with a knob of butter and pour in a small ladleful of batter. Quickly swirl the batter around the pan, pouring off any excess, and cook until golden-brown at the edges. Flip the crêpe to cook the other side for 30 seconds. Repeat until all the batter has been cooked. Set aside.

3 Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan and add the curry powder. Toast the spice for a minute, then tip in the rice. Stir for two minutes over medium heat. Adding a ladleful at a time, gradually incorporate the hot stock into the rice, stirring frequently until the rice has absorbed almost all the liquid before each addition. After about 18 minutes, when the rice is al dente, season the rice and take the pan off the heat. (You may not need all the stock and, unlike regular risotto, leave the rice quite dry.) Stir through the chopped coriander and leave to cool slightly.

4 Lay out the crêpes in two overlapping rows. Cut the salmon fillet into two and season well with salt and pepper. Place a half on one end of the crêpes, skinned-side down, then spread over the rice filling in a neat layer (you may not need it all). Top with the other salmon fillet, skinned-side up and in the opposite direction so that the overall filling is similar in height. Wrap the crêpes around the filling, trim and tuck in the sides.

5 Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Roll out the pastry thinly into a large rectangle. Put the wrapped filling towards the lower end of the rectangle. Brush the pastry around the filling with egg yolk and fold over the top half. Gently pat the pastry to ensure there are no air pockets, trim off any excess and neatly tuck the sides underneath, like making a bed. Transfer to a baking sheet and glaze all over with beaten egg. Lightly score the pastry in a herringbone pattern, taking care not to cut through the pastry, then make a small incision in the centre with the tip of your knife.

6 Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the pastry is brown and crisp.

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