A coulibiac is a Russian Pirog usually made with puff pastry filled with salmon, rice, hard-boiled eggs, mushrooms, onions, and dill. It's distinguishable by its oval loaf style shape and complex filling stacked in series and separated by thin pancakes to prevent mixing. This recipe makes the perfect dish to impress your guest, it demands time, patience, and enthusiasm but it's definitely worth it and you'll end with a heavenly dish.
Boil a pan of salted water, add the eggs and cook for 8 mins exactly.
Drain and cool under cold water, then peel and set aside for 10 minutes.
Cut the hard-boiled eggs into cubes.
Preparing the rice
Melt 25 g of the butter in a medium saucepan.
Add the bay leaf, the cinnamon stick, and coriander seeds, then stir in the rice and cook for 2-3 minutes.
When the rice is coated with butter, add the fish stock, salt, and black pepper and bring it up to a simmering point.
Cover with a lid and cook for 15 minutes exactly.
Take the pan off the heat, remove the lid and add 1 tbsp of parsley, then it to cool.
Preparing the salmon
Lay the salmon on a cutting board and add seasoning: salt, black pepper, and lemon zest.
Place a skillet over medium heat. Add 25 g of the butter.
Sizzle the slices of salmon for 1 min on each side, just to firm up the fillets but not cook them all the way through, the salmon needs to be only half cooked.
Before removing from the heat add 1 tbsp of lemon juice and continue cooking for 1 minute.
Preparing the mushrooms
Slice the onion and the mushrooms.
Place a skillet over medium heat. Add 25 g of the butter.
Add sliced onion and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add sliced mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes to brown the mushrooms.
Add dill, salt and pepper to taste, then add 1 tbsp of lemon juice.
Allow the mushrooms to simmer until the lemon juice has completely absorbed and the mushrooms are nearly dry, about 5-10 minutes.
Assembling and cooking
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roll out two pieces of pastry to a rectangle of 20x35cm and 16x35cm.
Then, take the 16x35cm rectangle and lay it on a baking tray.
Pack the rice along the middle of the pastry, discarding the bay leaf and cinnamon as you do so, leaving a good 2.5cm (1in) border around the edge.
Lay the salmon over the rice.
Add the sauteed onion and mushrooms on top of the salmon, pressing and molding it with your hands.
Add the cubed hard-boiled eggs on top.
Brush any stray grains of rice off the border, then brush the border with the beaten egg,
Take the second puff pastry rectangle of 20x35cm and drape it over the coulibiac and use your hands to gently pack everything down to a firm, even loaf shape. Press the edges to seal the 2 pastry sheets together, then trim the edges to neaten and crimp with your fingers or press down with a fork.
Brush the remaining egg over the tops. At this step, you can decorate with remaining puff pastry. Then, brush on top with 1 tbsp of melted butter. Cut a small vent in the top of the coulibiac.
Bake for 45-60 minutes until the tops are golden.
Keyword Appetizer, Fish, Main dish, Pirog, Puff pastry, Russian, Salmon