Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Salmon en Croûte Recipe



On our resurrected Scrabble night some 10 days ago (after a 3-month gap since the birth of our daughter), we had this Jamie's dish on the table. Well, almost his dish, as I made several improvements to it, you see :) For the original version, see Jamie's Ministry of Food. I thought it was quite a looker, and would happily make it again. My much-less-tapenade and cherry-tomatoes-instead-of-regular-ones version, that is...

Salmon en Croûte
(Lehttainas küpsetatud lõhe- või forellifilee)
Serves 4

500 g puff pastry (I used yeast puff pastry)
600 g trout or salmon filet (skinned, if possible)
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp tapenade (I used Belazu)
a small bunch of fresh basil (just leaves)
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
150 g mozzarella cheese
1 egg, for brushing

Carefully remove all pin-bones from the fish filet. (I like to cut off the thin side of the salmon filet and use that for another dish - perhaps soup - on the following day. I think the thick part of the filet looks much more festive, plus you it's easier to cook the fish uniformly). Skin the fish, if you wish.
Roll out the pastry into a 30x40 cm rectangle, transfer into a lightly floured oven tray.
Place the fish filet on top, right in the middle. Season the fish with salt and pepper, drizzle with some olive oil.
Spread the tapenade thinly on top. Place halved cherry tomatoes, cut-side down, over the fish. Top with basil leaves (I left them whole). Finally, shred the mozzarella cheese and place on top.
Fold the pastry over the filling, leaving an opening in the middle to show off some of the filling.
Lightly whisk an egg and brush the pastry with it.

Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C/400 F oven for 30 minutes, until the fish is cooked and puff pastry lovely golden brown.

Serve warm, with some green salad.

5 comments:

thepassionatecook said...

oh well, what a picture, what a glorious combination of flavours as well. i bet it tasted as good as it sounds!

Coffee and Vanilla said...

I love it!!! :)

Saee Koranne-Khandekar said...

Scrabble and cheese and fish—perfection! Love your blog!

Katie Zeller said...

Wow! That looks wonderful. Even my reluctant, fish eating hubs should like!

Jonathan said...

Hi there, planning this for Xmas day family meal (oops time ticking). do you think I can prep this the day before? thank you and cheers.