Herbed Salmon en Croute

For years, I used to buy this from the Parisian supermarkets without even knowing what it was called. It was all labelled in French anyway, so I simply pointed to whatever I wanted at the deli counter and indicated the size of the slice I wanted. And even after I picked up enough French to get by, I had gotten so used to pointing that I had never bothered to read the labels.

Not usually a fussy eater, I never liked the jelly used to hold terrines and things prepared en croute style. I usually try to peel it off before eating. Recently I found a recipe in an Australian food magazine with a recipe for trout en croute. No jelly involved in this version but instead, it uses a herb-y lemon-y spinach filling.

Time to try it out!

I couldn't find trout in my usual supermarket but thought it would work just as well with salmon

It's really easy to prepare and I roped Le Monsieur in to help me with the puff pastry while I prepared the vegetable filling. The man needs to work for his dinner!

The recipe listed lemon rind as one of the ingredients for the filling. I found it too bitter and recommend that you either add the zest sparingly or skip it completely. I would also prefer to have more spinach in the mix too.The lemon-y filling added a *ping* to the fatty salmon, giving it a nice balance.

Herbed Salmon en Croute - serves 6-8

Ingredients
2 large skinless and boneless salmon fillets, around 250g each
1 store-bought Puff pastry, thawed
1 beaten egg
Juice of 2 lemons
Cooking oil

For the vegetable filling:
1 fennel bulb, sliced (keep the trimmings for garnish)
1 small onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 big handful of spinach leaves
1 small bunch of dill and chives, chopped
Rind of 1 lemon (reduce or exclude according to preference)

Preparation time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 40 mins
Level of difficulty: Easy peasy

Preheat the oven at 200degC (or according to the instructions for the puff pastry). Prepare the puff pastry as per directions on the pack.

On medium heat, fry the onion and garlic with a little cooking oil for around 3 minutes. Add fennel and continue cooking for another 3 minutes. Add the juice of 1 lemon and continue cooking until soft.

Remove from heat and add the spinach in the hot pan with the vegetables. Mix well to wilt the spinach in the heat. When the vegetables have cooled sufficiently to be handled easily, add the herbs and lemon. Transfer to a food processor and blitz until they are coarsely chopped.

Cut 2 rectangles from the puff pastry that are big enough to go around the piece of salmon. (I usually cut a slightly bigger size and trim off the un-necessary portions.) Place the salmon on the rectangle, keeping the longer side large enough to fold over the salmon. Spoon a generous scoop of the chopped vegetables onto the salmon. Spread it evenly on top of the fish and fold the pastry over it. Seal the edges with egg mixture, trimming off excess pastry with a knife. Repeat with the other piece of salmon. Brush the top of the pastry with egg mixture.

Cook in the oven for 20 minutes (or according to the instructions for the puff pastry) or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 20 - 30 minutes.

To the remaining vegetables, I added the juice of 1 lemon and some black pepper and mixed thoroughly. I used that to dress a spinach and tomato salad that was served together with 2 slices of the salmon en croute. Garnish with fennel trimmings.

With the leftover pastry, I made some breadsticks again. This time, just plain ones without any cheese. It went really with the salad too.

Bon appetit!