Baltic sprat pies

In case you were wondering what the hell is this egg-sandwich in this picture, let me tell you it is another one of Estonian dishes. It is not egg-bruschetta, it is spicy Baltic sprat with rye bread, topped with a slice of boiled egg. Very nice actually, you should try.

Estonians use this fish in many dishes, like in Baltic sprat butter (finely chopped sprats are mixed with butter until smooth - ideal sandwich topping), or in Baltic sprat pies. Those small bite-sized pies are very easy to make and can be a nice lunchtime snack or a starter.

Ok, the question is where do you get this Baltic sprat. Whenever someone from home comes over, they usually bring it - so I can get my fish from Estonia. It is not sold in the supermarkets in Brussels - at least I haven’t seen it here…but maybe one could find it in one of the Polish shops around - or any other Eastern-European shop, they should definitely have it…or just get a friend in Estonia and let them ship you some. Or, even better, open a shop of Estonian food in Brussels and start importing Baltic sprats and other nice things, such as dark rye bread and kama. I would be a regular customer.

Now, if you do succeed in finding the fish, the recipe is the following. If not, maybe just try to bake some pies with some other filling.

You’ll get 12 small pies from those ingredients:

75 g soft butter

65 g sour cream or cream cheese

150-250 g butter

salt, sugar

lightly beaten egg for brushing

Filling: 8-12 spicy Baltic sprats, 2 hard boiled eggs, diced

# Mix sour cream and flour with beaten up butter (at first add about 150 g flour and if the dough is still sticky, add some more, until the dough doesn’t stick anymore).

# Knead the dough until smooth and let it stand for 30 minutes in a cool place.

# Then roll out the dough and cut into 12 squares. Place a sprat (if t is a bigger kind of sprat, half it) and egg wedge on each square.

# Wrap two corners of the square over each other, brush with egg and bake at 200 degrees C until golden brown (about 15-20 minutes). They taste the best when served warm, immediately after removing from the oven.