Salmon en Croute
Following the scare about Salmon which came out the following day, I guess I was lucky to serve this without having to go into the detail about the Salmon’s provenance (although they were organic fillets, which weren’t one of the products affected, surprise, surprise). It was difficult enough to come up with a new dish which was worthy of a Valentine’s day main meal and would go down well on the other side of the table!
Having discovered the relative ease of making mini beef wellingtons compared to how impressive they look (ease*impressiveness = high)), I thought I’d wow my Valentine with a Salmon version, without having to cook all night. I haven’t yet had the inclination (or the skill for that matter) to start making my own puff pastry, so I am still enjoying the ease of making these type of dishes with the shop bought stuff. A single sheet should be big enough, but you can always roll it out a bit if your fillets are too big.
I first put both fillets of salmon on top of the sheet of puff pastry. Giving 1cm border all round each fillet, there should then be about half the sheet left, to close up the pastry case around the fish. If there’s less than half, then roll out the sheet with a rolling pin. Cut round the fillets, not forgetting the 1cm border and then cut the remaining pastry in half, to place on top.
I decided to add a filling of spinach & garlic to the salmon fillet, so crushed a clove of garlic, sauteed it in pan for a couple of minutes, then added a couple of big handfuls of fresh spinach. It should only take a minute or so for the spinach to wilt and once it has, take the pan off the heat.
Add the spinach & garlic on top of the salmon fillet, then put the remaining pastry on top, pinching round the edges to seal. If you want to revisit your youth and have some fun, make some shapes to put on top of the pastry, appropriate to the occasion (see first pic, above). Place the parcels of salmon on some greaseproof paper (I oiled it, so they wouldn’t stick) and stick in the middle of the oven on gas mk 6 (200C or 400F) for 15 minutes. Serve with salad (the fresh spinach leaves worked quite well).
I was still quite impressed about how this turned out and it would be interesting to experiment with the filling that accompanies the salmon. Maybe some dill mixed in with the spinach or some fennel might be tasty alternatives.
Recipe (for 2):
Two salmon fillets
A couple of large handfuls of fresh spinach (or two portions frozen spinach)
A sheet of puff pastry
One clove of garlic, crushed
Knob of butter
Salmon en Croute
Thursday, 14 February 2008
