Salmon en Croute with Cheesy Dill Sauce
Serve this traditional French dish to your friends and family when you want to pull out all the stops and put something impressive on the table! Use top quality salmon for this – you will be pleased with the results!
Cuisine : European Course : Main Skill Level : Novice
Prep : 120 mins Cook : 20 mins Ready in : 140 mins Serves : 4
INGREDIENTS:
- For the Rough-Puff Pastry
- 250g Flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 250g Butter, cubed and cold
- 150ml Ice cold water
- For the Salmon En Croute
- 40g Plain flour
- 40g Butter
- 400ml Full cream milk
- 50g Grated sharp cheddar
- Chopped fresh dill, to taste
- Salt & pepper
- 1 Recipe rough puff pastry
- 400g Piece salmon
- 1 Egg, lightly beaten
DIRECTIONS:
For the Rough-Puff Pastry
- Sift flour and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the butter and use your fingertips to rub the butter quickly into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add to the cold water little by little, stirring with fingertips, until the dough just starts to come together. Push together into a ball and empty onto a floured work surface
- Roll out into a rectangle, fold the top third down and then fold the bottom third over the top third. Wrap and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes
- Roll out again, turning the pastry so that the open edges are facing away from you. Once rolled, fold again as above and refrigerate again. Repeat one to three more times, turning the pastry each time and refrigerating between rolling.
For the Salmon En Croute
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Lay some greaseproof or baking paper on a baking tray.Melt the butter in a small heavy based saucepan, add the flour and cook over medium heat for a minute. Slowly add the milk in batches, stirring all the while whilst still over medium heat, until all the milk has been incorporated. Continue stirring over medium heat until sauce starts to thicken. Add cheese, dill and seasoning, stir to melt cheese and taste; adjust seasoning if needed. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Roll pastry out on a floured surface to form a large rectangle about 2mm thick. The aim is to cut the rectangle into two smaller rectangles, one to place the salmon on with a 1 ½ cm border, and another about 1cm bigger all around to lay on top of the salmon.
- If desired, cut out shapes and patterns on the rectangle intended for the top.
- Lay the bottom pastry rectangle on the prepared baking tray and place the salmon on top. Spread the cheesy dill sauce over the salmon without going over the salmon edges onto the pastry. Brush a little water onto the pastry’s edges and lay the remaining pastry rectangle on top. Press down on the edges to seal the pastry and brush the top with beaten egg.
- Bake at 200ºC for ten minutes before turning the temperature down to 180ºC. Bake for a further 15-20 minutes, until dark golden and puffed. Remove from the oven, cool for 5 minutes and serve.