Salmon en Croûte
Salmon fillet with a herby cream cheese topping, wrapped in golden puff pastry - an easy and impressive dish to eat hot or cold.
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- fresh herbs of your choice e.g. parsley, dill, chives
- 200 g full-fat cream cheese
- salt and pepper
- 320 g pack ready-rolled puff pastry
- 550 g salmon fillet 500g after trimming
- 1 egg
Equipment
Instructions
PREPARATION:
- Set the oven to 220°C/ 200°C fan/ gas mark 7/ 425°F
- Grease the baking tray if you aren’t using a liner
- Beat the egg for the egg wash, if using
- Dry the salmon on kitchen paper. Run your fingers over the surface and ends to check for pin bones. Remove with tweezers or your fingers
Remove the skin from the salmon
- Turn the salmon skin side up and run a sharp knife under the skin in the middle of a short side
- Gently pull upwards and outwards as you run the knife under the skin. It should come away fairly easily - probably not all in one piece
- Trim the salmon if the edges aren't square
For the Salmon en Croûte:
- Chop the fresh herbs, if using. Add the herbs, salt and pepper to the cream cheese and beat well to combine
- Unroll the pastry onto the baking sheet.Ignore what it says on the packet and use it straight from the fridge
- Put the salmon fillet in the middle of the pastry and cover with the cream cheese mixture
- Pull the sides of the pastry up to meet in the middle lengthwise and press together. You may need to stretch the pastry if your salmon is particularly wide.You probably need to wet your fingers to make it stick
- Fold in the corners of the pastry and fold up the edges
- If you have a lot of pastry left over, cut some off for decoration. Otherwise, you can cut any thick pieces off when it's cooked
- Brush the beaten egg over the pastry. This will give the cooked pastry that golden finish
- Cook for 30 minutes until golden brown
- Rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.