Salmon En Croute

I am always looking for a new way to prepare salmon.  I am not a seafood lover, so cooking any seafood is a stretch for me.  However, the husband went fishing for a week in the summer (1-1/2 years ago), and we are still working on eating the salmon in the freezer. 

When salmon is cooked properly, it is delicious!  While perusing cookbooks, getting ideas for dinner, I came across a recipe for Salmon En Croute in Jamie’s Food Revolution.  As you can see from the picture, it’s salmon fillet with all sorts of goodness on top, wrapped in puff pastry and baked.  YUM! 

This was really fun to make!  I thought it was going to take a long time to prepare, but it actually only took 10 minutes to get ready before it went in the oven.  I used half of a tub of bocconcini cheese.  Bocconcini cheese is fresh mozzarella cheese, formed in balls about the same size as cherry tomatoes.  It is sold in tubs of water with the specialty cheeses.  Bocconcini has a mild, soft flavour.  It is a cheese that I really love.  I think its worth using in this dish.

This dish looks really impressive once it is finished.  It is a great meal to serve to company!  Last night, the husband and I had green salad on the side, and this complemented the salmon nicely.

Salmon En Croute

Adapted from Jamie’s Food Revolution

all-purpose flour, for dusting

2 sheets puff pastry, defrosted (I used the whole package of Tenderflake brand, from the freezer section, as it was all I could find in my grocery store.)

1-3/4 lb salmon fillet, bones removed (we also removed the skin… it’s nice to have an evenly shaped piece)

olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup black olive tapenade paste (our grocery store was out of this, so we got some olive spread from the deli counter.  It worked fine!)

a small bunch of fresh basil

1 ripe tomato

1/4 lb of fresh mozzarella cheese

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 400°F.  Take a large sheet pan and dust it with flour.  Dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour.  Lay the puff pastry sheets on one on top of the other.  Roll out the puff pastry until it’s the same size as the sheet pan.  Put the pastry on the pan.  Drizzle the salmon with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place in the middle of the pastry and spoon the black olive tapenade on the salmon and spread it into a thin layer.  Pick the basil leaves and place them over the fish.  Slice the tomatoes and place them over the basil.  Tear the mozzarella into pieces and put on top of the fish and tomatoes.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle with olive oil.  Gather up the sides of the pastry and push them together.  The pastry will not cover the entire top of the salmon.  Beat the egg with a fork, and use a pastry brush to paint the egg wash over the pastry edges. 

Place the pan on the bottom rack of the oven, and put an empty sheet pan on the rack above to prevent the top from getting too much heat.  Cook for 35 minutes,  then remove from the oven, cut it into slices and serve!

Enjoy!

The Hungry Teacher