Salmon Wellington

I have really been trying to eat healthier lately. And to face facts, fish is healthy. It’s got omega-3, lots of protein, and low on your bad fats. The only problem is… I hate fish. I had a bad experience at a red lobster when I was very little. It involved some escargot my father forced me to try, and the results were, let say, explosively bad. That sort of soured me on seafood in general. Which was a real tragedy, considering I ended up spending several of my formative years living on Prince Edward Island, literally surrounded by fish.

Recently, I figured it was time to try my hand at fish again. But I wanted to find something that didn’t have that nasty “fishy” taste, or at least, not much. Which is why I chose salmon. It is a pretty mild fish, as far as taste goes, and it’s one I’m fairly used too. I mean, who hasn’t had a salmon sandwich, really?

So, I did a little looking, and found a little dish called Salmon Wellington. It’s basically salmon rolled in pastry like a jellyroll. It fit all my criteria, a healthy fish dish, that wasn’t too fishy. Also, it turns out that it is absolutely gorgeous when it’s done. Serve this at a dinner party, and you’ll have friends for life. Or at least moochers who want more of “that fish thing.”

Now, the recipe I saw was different than this, as the filling was made with Foie Gras. That’s duck liver, so you don’t have to google it. That isn’t exactly a low fat option, so I tweaked a little, and used halibut instead. It’s another relatively mild fish, and it worked out beautifully.

So without further ado…

Salmon Wellington

Filling
10 oz halibut fillet, cubed
1 egg, white
¼ cup whipping cream
1 ½ tbls. fresh basil, rough chopped
1 tbls freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
Tabasco sauce

Salmon Wellington
1 lbs Salmon fillet, cut in ½ centimeter strips (¼ inch)
Halibut Filling
10 cups baby spinach
1 450g pkg puff pastry
1 egg, yolk

Cream sauce
3 shallots, finely diced
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup whipping cream
½ cup butter, cubed
Pepper

Filling
Toss the halibut, and the egg white into a food processor, and blend it until it is smooth. Add the cream, and go at it again until it’s well mixed and smooth. Next, put in the basil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and 4 drops of Tabasco, and turn the processor back on. Once this is well mixed again, transfer this to a bowl, and put it in the fridge, and leave it there for an hour minimum, and no more than four.

I’d suggest doing it about 3 hours before your planned dinner. This is also a good time to slice up your salmon. Store it in the fridge as well.

Salmon Wellington
First, take your puff pastry out of the freezer, set it aside to thaw. We all have busy lives these days, and there is no shame in using store bought pastry.

Next take your spinach out of the bag, and give it a good rinse in a colander. We’re using baby spinach here, so, for the most part, the stems will be nice and tender, and we can save ourselves the work of trimming them all off. Feel free to pick off any large ones you see, though. Once you’re sure it’s pretty clean, give it a good shake to get off most of the water. We can’t have it waterlogged, but we don’t want it bone dry, either. I usually just shake it until it stops doing any major dripping, and leave it in the sink ‘till I’m ready to use it. Which, of course, means we need to get out a large pan, and put it on medium. Put just a touch of oil in the bottom, not even quite enough to cover the bottom. I like to used a basil infused grape seed oil here, but plain old vegetable will work fine. When the pan is up to temperature, put in your still damp spinach. We just want to wilt it, so keep it moving around the pan to make sure nothing gets overdone. When it is going really limp, turning a nice dark green, and just smelling wonderful, pull it off, and transfer it to some paper towel. Pat it dry, and set it aside for the moment.

On some parchment paper (I usually just use what came in the box) roll out your now thawed pastry into two 10” squares, or one that’s 15”. Leaving a space on all sides, 1” along the bottom, 1 ½” along the sides, and almost 2” at the top, place a layer of the spinach on the pastry. It doesn’t have to be perfect, so don’t sweat little gaps. On top of this, spread the halibut filling we made up earlier. If you’re doing two, divide the filling in half, then use a spoon to place it on. I divide each half into 6 spoonfuls, place them evenly over the spinach, and spread the out with the back of the spoon, so I don’t push the spinach layer around too much. If your just making one big one, do it the same, just don’t divide the filling in two first.

Next, we put on our salmon. Again, I would suggest splitting your salmon into two portions first, if you’re doing two separate pastries. This way, you won’t short one of them on the salmon. We’ve sliced it nice and thin, so feel free to layer it a bit, and use smaller pieces to fill the gaps.

Once both are done, take the egg yolk left over from your first step (you saved that right?) and mix it with about a tablespoon of water to make an egg wash. Use a pastry brush to spread some around the empty space we left on the sides and top of the pastry, but not the bottom edge. This will help seal it up for baking. Now, we need to roll it up. Starting from the bottom side, fold that inch of empty pastry over onto the salmon. Now, slide your hands right under the parchment paper, and roll it over again, paper and all. Make sure it is good and tight. It will actually work better if you roll the paper in there too, it will come right out, and you’ll get a much tighter dinner, with less mess. Keep going until you do the whole thing. The insides are going to slide a bit while you do this, which is why we left that whole two inches at the top. When it’s done, press down firmly along the top edge and the sides to seal it. You can twist the side too, but not too much. Place the log onto the parchment paper, and stick it on a tray. (You finish the recipe up to this point ahead of time, and put it in the fridge rolled up, but only for a couple hours.) Then take your remaining egg wash and give it a good brush. This is going to make it a lovely golden brown. Sometimes, I can’t think of anything prettier than a golden brown, flakey crust. Now, fire it in an oven preheated to 400F for about 30 minutes. When it looks just perfect, take it out, and let it cool just long enough for you to be able to slice it. Cut off the end, (a little treat for yourself?) and then slice the rest into 1 ½ to 2 inch slices. Plate it onto of a dollop of the cream sauce(bellow), right in the center. Put three slices of the smaller rolls, or two of the larger. Garnish with a lemon twist and a sprig of basil.

Cream Sauce

In a medium saucepan, on medium-high heat, add the white wine and shallots, wine first. I usually use just a bit of whatever wine I plan to serve with the meal. Let it simmer until the wine has evaporated, then add the cream. Keep it simmering until the cream has reduced by half. Now, add the butter a few cubes at a time, until the sauce becomes very creamy again. Add pepper to taste (white pepper is best), and remove from heat.

And there you have it. Serve it with a nice green salad on the side, maybe with a homemade vinaigrette, and you’ll be in heaven. Fish heaven anyway.

copyright 2005 Chromia Poetics