Filo pastry might seem like an initially scary concept to work with, but it’s actually a lot easier to work with than you might think, which is one of the reasons our salmon and feta cheese filo pastry pie recipe is so brilliant. We don’t massively recommend making your own filo pastry, as you’ll be working on it for a long time, but the ready made filo sheets are perfect every time and allow you to prepare and add ingredients to your parcel pies to make a wide range of goodies.
For any filo pie there’s largely 2 key steps in the process. The first one is bringing all of your ingredients together and getting them ready to be added to the confines of the filo pastry. The important thing to consider here is that you don’t want the mix to be too wet as it will ooze out and leave you with a soggy bottom, but equally you don’t want it to be too dry considering the lack of moisture in the brittle filo pastry. Our salmon and feta filo pie recipe will help you get a good feel for achieving the right balance with its splash of wine and the melted feta cheese, but held together by the starchy potatoes.
Ingredients (serves 4):
• 4 sheets of ready made filo pastry
• 2 salmon fillets
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 3 medium sized potatoes, boiled and chopped into cubes (if you’ve got these
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 medium sized carrots diced
• A handful of green leaves chopped in thin strips – Kale, chard, cavalo nero or spinach will all work well
• 100g feta cheese, cubed
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tbsp mixed herbs
• A handful of pine nuts
• A good few of pinches of salt and pepper to season well
• Olive oil
Salmon and feta cheese filo pastry pie recipe steps:
1. Put the potatoes on to boil with a good twist of salt and pepper and leave them for ten minutes to soften up (we like to leave the skins on). You can also use this time to poach the salmon in a shallow pan of water (you can buy pre-poached salmon fillets if you want to skip the poaching process. After the ten minutes, drain both pans and put to one side.
2. Fry the onion and carrot in a frying pan with a little olive oil over a low heat. Everything is going to cook twice (once in the pan and once in the oven), so you don’t need to cook the filling too much on the hob.
3. After a few minutes add the finely chopped garlic, followed by the green leaves in a couple of minutes more, stirring frequently to heat through all over.
4. Throw in the cubed boiled potatoes and stir through thoroughly. These will only take a couple of minutes to work in, at which time you should cover in a sprinkle of turmeric, the mixed herbs and pine nuts, stir once again and leave to heat for a minute or so.
5. Glug in a splash of wine and stir through. We recommend less than a small glass, but if you want to experiment will a little more for a creamier finish, you can do. You just need to make sure you don’t go too far and end up with a side ooze or a soggy bottom.
6. Once the wine has had a chance to absorb in the potatoes and mix in with the flavours it’s time to add the feta cheese, which will melt over the low heat and mix with what’s left of the moisture from the wine to leave a creamy.
7. Break up the salmon fillets (remove the skin) and add to the pan and stir in. Cover and turn the hob off.
8. Heat up some olive oil a little (in a bowl in the microwave for 10 seconds will be fine) and use a small amount of it to grease the bottom of baking tray. Now you’ll need to coat both sides of 4 filo pastry sheets lightly with the warmed olive oil too and layer them on top of each other in the centre of the baking tray.
9. Spoon the salmon and feta filling into the middle and spread out evenly. Now you just need to fold the corners of the 4 filo pastry sheets
10. Pop the salmon and feta cheese filo pastry pie in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C (355 degrees F/gas mark 4) and cook for 17 minutes or until golden brown on the outside. You can also cook the salmon skin in the same pan with a little covering of the oil for a nice crispy addition to decorate your pie with (see image above). Slice and serve as a meal in itself.
