Saumon en croute = Salmon in Crust!

Saumon en croûte à la julienne de légumes - Crusted Salmon with vegetable julienne

I love to try something new every now and then especially when having friends for dinner! Maybe a bit stressful, you think? I generally don't try the recipe before the big day I just take the plunge and cook on the day and serve it to my guests! with fingers crossed and thank God when the new recipe is actually really good to eat!

This recipe is from Rick Stein's "Taste of the Sea" published in 1995, and yes I made a few adjustments to the recipe - because I wanted to cook without the wine, and also because I wanted to use what I have in my pantry.

Immediately below is the recipe as stated in the book, and just under that you will find a list of what I changed.

UPDATE (May 20, 2013) - just managed to find some photos I took whilst making this salmon recipe for the upteenth time - although without the final result of how it looks after baking - damn - have included a photo from my Spinach and Mushroom Roll - it would look pretty much the same.  Also although I mention below how I changed this recipe the first time I made it, I have now made it many times, following the exact recipe.  Still the super special salmon dish (everyone loves), oh and I have made it without the pastry as well, instead of using pastry, you can wrap in aluminium foil, and bake the same way.  Bon appetit!

Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 leek, cut into matchsticks
50 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
50ml white wine
2 tsps roughly chopped fresh tarragon leaves
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground white pepper
750g puff pastry, preferably made with butter
900g salmon fillet, skinned and boned
1 egg, beaten
600ml fish stock
175ml double cream
juice of 1/4 lemon

MY CHANGES:

• use less butter about 50g
• replace wine with chicken stock cube;
• replace fresh tarragon with dried tarragon;
• no salt added;
• replace white pepper with black pepper;
• replace puff pastry (butter based) with "Jus-Roll" Puff sheets (vegetable oil based)
• 4 x frozen salmon fillets (Iceland Foods)
• no fish stock;
• no double cream.

I used frozen salmon fillets (Iceland Foods) which by the way are my favourite salmon fillets - I always have a packet or two in the freezer.  So first thing to do is take the salmon and pastry out of the freezer and allow to thaw.

In the meantime, prepare the vegetables and let cool.  I allowed myself plenty of time between all the prep work and the actual dinner.  I first prepared the starter "Mushroom Caviar" (a trial recipe),  it  needed to cool before being served, and then prepared the vegetables for the "saumon en croute".

When everything was cool I proceeded to assemble the salmon, vegetables and pastry and placed it in the fridge to chill before baking in the oven.  The recipe recommends chill for 30 mins - I did mine earlier so it chilled for about 1hr 30mins.  I read on a French recipe website that you can prepare your "saumon en croute" and chill for hours or even freeze.  So I decided to take advantage of this fact, which permitted me to be stress-free, with everything ready to go, well before the guests arrived and time for a bit of relax!

Method:

Place 25g butter in fry pan, add the vegetables, tarragon, and chicken stock cube dissolved in 1/2 cup water, season with black pepper.

Cover and cook gently for approx. 5 mins. Remove lid and strain off the juices (keep aside for sauce), cook for another 2 mins, driving off the moisture.  Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Un-roll your pastry sheets, place a sheet of pastry onto a greased baking tray lined with greaseproof baking paper.  

Divide your cooked vegetables in half and place half in the centre of pastry sheet, spread to the size of your salmon.  Lay the salmon fillets, side by side, on top of the vegetables and cover with remaining vegetables.

Brush the edges of the pastry with some beaten egg, and lay the other pastry sheet over the salmon and vegetables.  Pinch the edges together to seal.  Brush liberally with the beaten egg.  Place in fridge and chill minimum 30 mins.

Pre-heat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius and bake for 25 mins (Stein recommends 20 mins - I like my salmon cooked not pink in the centre so extended the cooking time a bit), and also not having cooked this before didn't want to open up the pastry to find it still pink!  Anyway it wasn't and always remember to remove the salmon from the oven and leave to rest for at least 5 mins before serving.

SAUCE

Put the strained juices from the vegetables, 25g butter and approx. 100ml single cream into a frypan and gently bring to boil, add fresh dill.  Give a squeeze of lemon.  Pour into warm jug.

I transferred my salmon en croute to a warm serving plate (this is easy to do with the greaseproof baking sheet - just lift, transfer and slide off) and served with boiled charlotte potatoes, steamed savoy cabbage and string beans.  Served with buttery dill sauce and of course, some horseradish cream.

Bon appetit!