Parents for dinner

My parents were due to visit for lunch and for a nosey around our new place. I felt like the occasion deserved a bit of cookery-effort, and with the weather feeling distinctly autumnal something a satisfying but not too heavy seemed the order of the day. To my mind there's nothing more comforting than pastry. I find the process of making it strangely soothing, and the golden glow of the finished product does lift the heart a little. About six months ago I ate my very first salmon-en-croute, and remembering the wonderful textural contrasts of flakey pastry, nutty wild rice, and soft salmon, as well as my new love-affair with dill, I decided to have a go at making it.

Now, every recipe for salmon-en-croute tells you to use puff pastry. But, smart-arse that I am I decided to use shortcrust.
Rookie-error.
Even though I rolled it out really thin it made the dish a bit too heavy overall. So, definitely puff pastry in future. On the otherhand, I loved everything else about the dish. The salmon was soft and was enhanced by the dill and spinach, while the rice added a bit of welcome bite. we had it with little potatoes, a watercress salad and a yummy bottle of Riesling.
A bit time-consuming, but perfect fuel for the country walk that followed.

Salmon-en-Croute (enough for 4 people):

375g puff pastry
splash of olive oil
2 reasonable sized shallots
450g skinned salmon fillet
Juice of 1 small lemon
Large bunch of fresh dill
salt and pepper
115g mixed basmati and wild rice (pre-cooked)
Handful of wilted spinach
1 egg - beaten

Preheat oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6.
Cut off 1/3 of the pastry and roll it out into a rectangle. (Wrap the other 2/3 in cligfilm and put in frisge). Place onto a non-stick baking tray, prick all over with a fork to stop it puffing up too much in the oven, then bake for 12 minutes or so until golden. Set aside to cool.
Make the filling:
Fry the shallots in a little olive oil over a low heat until soft. Set aside to cool.
Place the salmon in a bowl, squezze over the lemon juice, scatter the dill over the top, drizzle with a llittle olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. (Do this no more than an hour ahead or the lemon will start to 'cook' the salmon.)
Combine the cooked rice and shallots. Season to taste.
Assemble the dish:
Spoon the mixture over the cooked pastry base, spreading out towards the edges. Place the wilted spinach on top in a thin layer, then put the salmon fillets on top of that. Spalsh on a little of the marinade liquid and discard the rest.
Roll out the remaining pastry until it is slightly larger than the base. Lift it and place over the partly-assembled dish. Trim off the corners of the pastry and tuck the sides underneath the cooked base.
Brush the top of the pastry with beaten egg, then bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes until golden. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.