Hello!   It’s been a while.   I’ve got a bunch of excuses, but the biggest reason I didn’t blog is that I’m cooking up a big project.   I’ve been doing my darnedest to pull all my energy into it.   It’s almost ready and I’ll share as soon as it is.

In the meanwhile how about something weird?  Is sardine pie interesting enough?

Remember my hidden fish success back in April?  Lemony sumac yogurt and fresh bright veggies to balance/hide the sardines.   The flavors were a win. But it wasn’t practical enough for our lifestyle.   Which right now is lazy and inconsistent cooking.  I wanted all the components and flavors  but in a format that would make leftovers.

This seemed like an impossibly tall order.  Yet, watch mean leap over buildings!  Fish pie was even more successful!  Gold star for me.

I really worked for that gold star. This was a long drawn out affair.

Tuesday 8/22 – Brainstormed how to reconfigure the fish toast.
Wednesday 8/23 – Went grocery shopping.
Friday 8/25- Was going to cook and didn’t. Same with Saturday.
Sunday 8/27 – Only got as far as the vinegar veggies and the sumac yogurt.
Wednesday 8/30 – Managed to assemble the fish filling, then got distracted by beer on the front step…
Thursday 8/31 – Made the hot water crust and baked the pie!  But we had an event and didn’t get to eat it.
Friday 9/1 – FINALLY GOT TO EAT IT!
It took 11 days for me to cook something new and another 9 for me to write about it.   This is my wildly productive life.

Below is what I did.  I hope you get some inspiration from it.

Vinegar veggies:
Chopped english cucumber, red onion, fresh raw corn cut off the cob (and my god this was better than anything canned or frozen).  Sprinkled with generously with salt, about 1/2t of sugar, and a dousing of white wine vinegar.  Mixed and let sit in the fridge, giving it a toss every now and then.
Sumac yogurt:
About 1c of plain greek yogurt mixed with enough ground sumac to make it fairly gritty.  With time it get’s to be purple and the gritty texture softens.  (I got the sumac at the Holy Land) 

Fish filling:
4 tins of oil packed sardines.  1 14oz can of salmon.  Both drained of excess liquid. Mixed with one bunch of chopped parsley, and as much parmesan cheese as felt right. Added salt to taste.

Hot Water Pastry (because I love the Great British Baking Show):
200g lard + 220g water +1/2t salt boiled in sauce pan.
Mixed in 575g flour, then turned out and needed like it was bread.  Then rolled out and very poorly assembled it as a pie in my rarely used springform pan.

Baked it at… well I’m not sure.  I think it was 400? For… I was multi-tasking… I think I just checked on it every 15-20min…
It wouldn’t win any awards for presentation but, ta-da!  It was finally done!

It was delicious.  It kept in the fridge and individual slices reheated beautifully.  We ate it all week.