Salmon Quiche with Spinach and Cheddar: Easy Recipe

Step-by-step recipe

1. The filling for our pie has three parts. First, pieces of fresh salmon or Atlantic salmon: a steak cleaned of skin and bones. Second, to add volume and give the dish a delicate flavor, we'll add spinach braised in butter. This side dish is often made to serve with grilled fish. And third, a custard of milk, eggs and cheddar cheese. To boost the flavor, we'll add a little lightly pickled sweet onion.
   
2. Pickling the Onion
3. Before you start making the red fish pie, pickle a little onion. Take a small white sweet onion, the kind usually used for salads. Purple sweet onion tends to stain the filling strongly. If the onion is large, you can cut off half. Slice the onion thinly and separate it into strips. Add 0.5 tsp sumac, an Eastern spice used for pickling, including in Turkish white bean salad. Pour 1 tbsp lemon juice over the onion and toss. The onion pickles very quickly: it will literally be ready at the same time as the dough.
   
4. Making the Shortcrust Pastry
5. The shortcrust pastry for this pie is no different from the one we made for ricotta quiche. Sift the wheat flour, add a pinch of salt and mix. Add an egg yolk, separated from the white first, and 100 g of chopped butter softened at room temperature.
   
6. Knead the dough thoroughly without adding water. The dough is quite loose and crumbly, and that's normal. Work the dough with your hands, squeezing and compacting it. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it somewhere cold. Let it rest while you prepare the filling and the egg custard.
   
7. Preparing the Filling and Custard
8. Rinse the fresh salmon or Atlantic salmon steak and pat it dry with a paper towel. Carefully separate the skin from the flesh with a sharp knife. You can do it in one motion: press the skin against the cutting board and, keeping the knife against the skin, cut the flesh away. This is how we fillet freshwater fish when we make perch or zander fillets. Separate the flesh from the backbone and ribs. Pick out as many of the small bones visible to the naked eye as you can. Cut the flesh into cubes of about 2-2.5 cm.
   
9. You can use plenty of spinach for the filling. Greens lose volume when cooked, so don't worry about having too much. The more spinach, the tastier the fish pie. Wash the spinach and shake off the drops. Remove the tough stems and cut the leaves into strips. Melt 30 g of butter in a saucepan, which is about 1 tbsp. Fry the spinach in the butter. Once the greens have wilted, reduce the heat to the minimum and braise the spinach in the butter, covered, for 5 mins. Let the greens cool a little.
   
10. In a small bowl, mix half a cup of cold milk with two eggs. Season lightly with black and red pepper, sweet or hot, as you like. Add a pinch of oregano. Finely grate a piece of cheddar cheese. Cheddar is a very popular cheese from England, often used in cooking, for example when making four cheese pizza. Cheddar's distinctive feature is its pleasant tangy, sharp flavor with nutty notes. Mix the egg and cheese mixture.
    
11. How to Bake Salmon Quiche
12. Get out a round tin with a fluted edge. These tins are a hallmark of quiche that makes it easy to recognize. The tin is 22-24 cm in diameter, and the quantities listed are calculated for it. A tin with a removable bottom is very convenient: the bake comes out easily without the risk of damage. Take the shortcrust pastry out of the fridge and press it over the bottom and sides of the tin with your fingers. Any tears and gaps are easily filled with bits of dough. Spread the dough up the fluted edge to a height of about 2.5-3 cm.
    
13. Spread the cooled braised spinach over the shortcrust pastry. An ordinary spoon spreads it easily. There's no need to cover the dough on the sides. Spread the onion pickled in sumac and lemon over the spinach. If there's liquid in the onion, better squeeze it out. Arrange the salmon cubes.
    
14. All that's left is to pour the egg and cheese mixture over the filling and bake the salmon quiche. Just before pouring, whisk the mixture with a fork. It's convenient to spread the mixture with a spoon, pouring it right up to the edge of the dough, then filling the gaps between the pieces of salmon. Most likely there will be more egg mixture than you need; it's made with a little extra. The mixture should come level with the top of the dough edge, with islands of salmon showing over the whole surface.
    
15. Preheat the oven to 190-200°C and put the tin with the pie in it. Bake the salmon pie, turning the tin from time to time for even browning. Baking time can vary from 45 to 60 mins. After 30 mins, keep an eye on the salmon pie and go by the firmness of the custard: it sets as the egg white coagulates. When the custard and shortcrust are nicely browned, the red fish pie is done.
    
16. Serving Red Fish Quiche
17. Carefully take the tin with the pie out of the oven. Be careful, it's very hot. Let the pie cool a little and only then remove it from the tin. By the way, a tin with a removable bottom lets you do this without the risk of breaking the pastry. It's convenient to place the fish pie on a large flat plate, wider than the bake itself. With a very sharp knife, using small movements of the tip, cut the red fish quiche into 6-8 pieces, much like a fish pizza.
    
18. Sliced quiche can be served warm or cold. It goes exceptionally well with homemade ukha fish soup. As a rule, the pie is brought to the table already sliced on a platter or served onto plates. Eat the pie while it's warm. If it has cooled, you can reheat it, but only once.