Fish in puff pastry case

Puff pastry

Henning Eskol

This is a dish which is classic, and I would never dream of calling it mine. It can be made as one big case or several small ones - usually known as piroges.
You need:

• Frozen or fresh puff pastry dough - not sweetened! Get it in the super market or order it by the baker
• Filets of fish - anything will go. 0.5 kilo (1 lbs) is fine for one big case
• Fresh spinach leaves, 250-400 grammes or 0.5-1 lbs will be fine
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper
• Egg for closing the case and brushing the dough before baking to add color

1. Clean the spinach very well in a water filled kitchen sink
2. You need more than you think, so just clean a lot
3. Shake dry
4. Put a deep saucepan over the heat and add olive oil
5. Put the spinach leaves into the oil and sauter quickly
6. Add salt and pepper
7. Let the spinach collapse and the water reduce. Add more spinach if needed
8. Leave on pan to cool
9. Spread out the dough and roll each plate out to a suitable size (20x25 centimeters or 8x10")
10. Put the fish on the dough, leaving 2 centimeters or 1" of the edge empty
11. Top with the spinach
12. Brush with whipped egg on the edge
13. Put a second plate of dough over the fish and spinach
14. Press down the edge with a fork to fuse the two plates
15. Brush the outside with egg before baking to add color and shine
16. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes in approx 225 deg. centigrade
17. Let cool a bit on a grill, but serve warm
18. Serve alone as an hors deouvres, maybe with a cold sauce based on whipped cream with lemon zest, parsley and mustard
19. or as a main course with rice and a bechamel sacue with shrimp

I have made this dish with many other types of vegetables. One of my greater successes was onion and chilli. You can use frozen spinach if there's no fresh available, but make sure you get anough water fried out of it.