Salmon en Croute

March 25th was a fish day so I decided to venture off from my fail-proof poached salmon and try something new. Salmon en croute is what I decided on. This dish has many varieties but it is basically just salmon wrapped in puffed pastry and baked. The pastry keeps the fish moist and captures all the flavors in one neat pocket. There are many recipes out there but I just threw some ingredients that I had on hand and made a mild spinach pesto. One could easily used a prepared basil or other type of pesto but I decided on a spinch pesto that would not overpower the flavor of the salmon. I also made these the night before and put them in the freezer and baked them the next evening which worked out perfectly.

Ingredients

6 servings

• 1 large skinless salmon fillet cut into 6 2" fillets
  
• 2 frozen puff pastry sheets thawed
  
• 1 box frozen chopped spinach thawed
  
• 1/2 cup toasted almonds
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 -1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 small hand full fresh basil
• 2 cloves garlic
• zest and juice of half a lemon
• lemon pepper
• salt and pepper
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toast the almonds in a dry skillet until aromatic. Put the thawed, chopped spinach in a cleaned dish cloth and wring out all excess moisture. And the almonds, spinach, garlic, basil, lemon zest and juice in a food process and mix until it starts to resemble a paste. While the food processor is on, drizzle in the olive oil and enough vegetable broth through the top of the food processor until a thick pesto is formed. Salt and pepper to taste.

Season the salmon fillets generously with lemon pepper and quickly sear in a very hot skillet with a little oil (not more the 1 or 2 minutes on each side). This step can be skipped altogether and if your fillets are thin I would recommend not searing them.

Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the puff pastry sheets to 1/8" thickness. Place a fillet on the pastry, top the fillet generously with the spinach pesto and cut around the fillet insuring that there will be enough dough to fully enclose the salmon fillet. Wrap the fillet like you would a present and place seam side down on a parchment lined baking sheet and repeat for the remaining fillets. Brush with olive oil and bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Recipe from me