Au Gratin Fish & Potatoes

Syttende Mai is an important holiday for me to celebrate, and every year I like to try something new, while sticking to some of the favorites. This last year I was reminded by my mother that our good friend from Sweden used to make the most amazing creation for Midsommar every year. It was made from pie crust shaped to be a fish, then filled with smoked salmon and other delicious ingredients and baked. I decided to try a variation on the theme: Pie crust shaped like a fish and filled with au gratin salmon and potatoes. What a hit! I couldn't believe how fast we went through this one. The process was a bit lengthy, but I promise it was more than worth the time put into it!

For the crust, I used a typical Pate Brisee:

2 1/2 cups white flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 cup butter, chilled

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Mix the flour salt and sugar in a bowl. Cut the butter in to the bowl until the flour and butter mixture has a sort of sandy grainy texture. Add the ice water, 1/4 cup at first, and then more as needed to form a workable dough.

For the filling I used a recipe for potatoes au gratin:

4 cups peeled baking potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick

2 cups salmon, poached and then flaked into pieces

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1 3/4 c milk

1 1/4 shredded cheese (a combination of Gruyère and Jarlsberg works great)

3 tbsp Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp dill

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 clove garlic

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Boil potatoes to tender, drain. Melt butter in sauce pan, stir in flour until absorbed. Using a whisk, stir in the milk, cook, stirring until the mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat, stir in 3/4 cup of the cheese, 2 tbsp of Parmesan along with the dill, salt, pepper and garlic. Layer potatoes and salmon with the sauce and top with remaining cheese. Bake in the oven 30-40 minutes. When the au gratin is removed, it will need to cool completely before forming the fish, or the butter in your dough will melt. To make the process go even more easily, both the dough and the au gratin can be prepared and then refrigerated one day in advance.

Assembling the fish:

Divide the dough in half. Roll one half of the dough into an oblong shape on a sheet of parchment paper. Making sure to drain any excess liquid from the au gratin fish and potatoes, spoon it onto the middle of the dough, and shape to look like a teardrop. Roll out the other half of the dough into a teardrop shape, and press down on top of the fish. Press down the edges. When you have finished these steps, it should look like this:

Then, trim the outside of the dough so that a small margin remains, approximately one half to one inch. Crimp the edges together with a fork. From the remaining dough, roll out pieces and shape fins, etc for the fish, whatever sort of embellishments you would like to add! Here's how my fish looked before I put it in the oven:

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until the outside of the fish is brown and crisp, around 45 minutes. Garnish with dill and lemon slices and serve! I promise, your guests will be impressed.

A note: A quick way to speed up this recipe would be to buy ready made pie dough, along with some quick au gratin potatoes. If you choose this method, add some extra milk and cheese in order to incorporate the salmon!