SERVES 6

340 g | 12 oz flour quantity puff pastry
900 g | 2 lb fresh spinach, cooked and chopped
Freshly grated nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper
900 g | 2 lb smoked eel, skinned and boned

For the sauce
55g | 2 oz unsalted butter
15 g | ½ oz plain flour
150 ml | ¼ pint milk
2 egg yolks
Beaten egg to glaze

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C | 400 °F | gas mark 6.
2. Take one-third of the pastry and roll it out to a 15 x 20 cm | 6 x 8 in rectangle. Place on a wet baking sheet and prick all over with a fork. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden-brown. Transfer the pastry to a wire rack to cool but do not turn oven off.
3. Season the spinach with nutmeg and pepper.
4. Make the sauce: melt 15 g | ½ oz of the butter, remove from the heat and add the flour. Return to the heat and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk gradually. Return to the heat and stir until boiling. Boil for two minutes.
5. Cool slightly, then beat in the remaining butter and the egg yolks. Season with pepper sauce over the eel and cover with the remaining spinach.
6. Arrange half the spinach on the cooked pastry base and cover with the eel. Spread the sauce over the eel and cover with the remaining spinach.
7. Roll the remaining pastry on a floured board into a ‘blanket’ large enough to overlap the edges of the pie. Lay it gently over the spinach. Using a sharp knife, cut off the corners to the size of the pie. Reserve the pastry trimmings.
8. Lift one side of the overlapping pastry and brush the underside with a little beaten egg. Tuck the ‘blanket’ neatly underneath the cooked base. Repeat with the other three sides.
9. Shape the trimmings into leaves. Brush the whole pie with beaten egg. Arrange the pastry leaves on top and brush again. Chill until the pastry is firm.
10. Bake in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

NOTE: To counteract the saltiness of the smoked eel, salt is not added to the sauce or to the spinach.

Wine: DRY WHITE

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Excerpt from Leiths Cookery Bible

[Leith, P., and Waldegrave, C., (2003), Leiths Cookery Bible, 3rd edition, Bloomburys, UK]