I don't even attempt to make my own pastry and I won't judge if you don't either. But I do use a really good quality one, like Careme. It's not cheap, and I get it from the Clayfield Markets and it's worth it.
Ingredients
Butter (Lurpak being my favourite)
1 leek, washed and finely sliced
1-2 tablespoons plain flour
1 cup of milk (Maleny Dairy being my favourite)
½ cup grated tasty or vintage cheese (yes it is ok to buy it already grated)
500g salmon (buy the hot smoked one from your fishmonger, yes I've banged on about this before)
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 sheets of puff pastry
1 egg white, beaten
Method
Preheat your oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Melt a good knob of butter (or two if you're up to it) in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the leek and cook 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the flour and cook for one minute, while stirring. It will make a sort of roux.
You know what to do next... stir in the milk slowly and keep bloody stirring. Some people say it should boil but I'm not one of them. When it thickens, add the cheese.
Let the whole thing cool then add your salmon and shallots. Easy! Horray for one saucepan.
OK, now to the pastry. You need a rectangle shape, and you need one piece to be bigger than the other, because one is the base and the other is the top so it needs to be bigger to go over the gorgeous filling. I won't give you measurements, you can look at your own pieces of pastry and work it out.
But you will need to cut some shallow slits about 2cm apart on the top piece, leaving a 2cm border all they way around the edge.
Now for the fun bit. Pop the smaller piece of pastry on the baking paper tray. Heap on that gorgeous mixture, without sticking your finger in it too much, leaving a 3cm border around the edge.
Brush the border with the egg white then whack the top piece on, press the edges together and brush the top with more egg white.
Bake it in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until it's all puffed and golden.
Serve with a tomato, rocket and avocado salad, perhaps sprinkled with a few toasted pepitas. Oh, and a hefty ice cold glass of NZ Sav Blanc.
