Salmon en croute: Daring Cooks december 2009
When you receive an email from Ivonne and Lis asking if you would like to host the Daring Cooks for december, you just don’t say no! So I happily said yes and I thought it was an honour to be even asked, but as soon as the email was send; panick set in! O noooo, what can I possibly come up with that would be worthy of a daring cook challenge?? After discussing with a foodie friend who had some good suggestions I was left with the option to either do a salmon en croute or to do a ham glazed in honey. Now while the latter is certainly on my to-do list (in fact; I am thinking of making it for christmas dinner) I thought it would be more difficult to come up with a vegetarian solution or a fish version then picking the salmon en croute, which would be easily converted in either vegetarian (veggie wellington) of meat (beef wellington).
The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.
Ofcourse I had to test the recipe myself first as I needed to know if I could pull it off and to take a few photos to post on the forum so people would be tempted to make this dish. I have to be honest; I struggled with making the dough. I had seen a really simple video on Good Food, but for whatever reason it simply did not work. It was too crumbly to make any decent dough out of it, so I opted for buying it instead. Here in Holland it is – however – not easy to buy shortcrust pastry in the supermarkets so I ended up using the dough that they sell for making quiche, which I think is not the same (it is not is it?) and that was too dry for this dish.
I recreated it again a couple of days ago and this time with puff pastry. For some reason the pastry became slightly soggy this time, but overall the taste of the pastry was better then the first time I made it.
Making the sauce was a breeze and it is a lovely sauce. I could not find watercress as is stated in the recipe so I used Lamb’s lettuce instead and love it! This is actually a very versatile sauce which I think can be used very successfully on many different dishes. A few people complained that the taste was bitter. I am not sure if that might have been caused by the watercress but if you want you can substitute the watercress for lamb’s lettuce, which is what I did the second time around. It does require some good seasoning as it would be bland without.
The pastry I bought the first time is actually sold in prepacked sheets of about 15 x 15 cm each so that made it a little hard to make one layer of dough, so if you are wondering why my salmon looks a bit like a patchwork, then that is the reason.. 
Overall I think this was a pretty straightforward and relatively easy challenge, if you don’t count my pastry issues (which, ok let’s face it; was what this was all about!) I am determined to get this right at some point, so expect to see more of this dish in various versions until I get it right. The salmon itself is lovely and moist and if you do not have pastry issues will be a real winner for christmas dinner. Since I haven’t really nailed the recipe myself I am planning of tackling the honey glazed ham for christmas, which will be tested very soon! Christmas menu testing is up next (I love christmas menu testing, don’t you? What better excuse to make wonderful dishes that you wouldn’t really make during a regular weekday normally!
And for those who want to try out the salmon en croute here is the recipe!! Good luck and let me know what you thought of it. I can safely say that a lot of Daring Cooks did much much better then I did!!! Have seen some gorgeous results already!
Salmon en croute
Yield: 4
The dough was not very successful in my case but I think with the right ingredients and instructions this dish is a winner!
Ingredients:
- Mascarpone or creamcheese 5.2 ounces/150 gr
- Watercress, rocket (arugula) and spinach - 0.6 cup/4.2 ounces/120 gr
- Shortcrust pastry - 17.6 ounces, 500 gr. Use a butterversion such as Jus-rol which is frozen or dorset pastry. or... make your own!
- Salmon fillet (skinless)- 17.6 ounce/500 gr
- egg - 1 medium sized
- Shortcrust pastry
- 50 gr (15.8 ounces or 3.2 cups ) of plain all purpose flour
- 200 gr ( 7 ounce) cold butter
- pinch of salt
Directions:
- Heat the oven to 200°C/390 F. Put the mascarpone or cream cheese in a food processor with the watercress, spinach and rocket and whizz the lot until you have a creamy green puree. Season well.
- Roll the pastry out so you can wrap the salmon in it completely (approx. 2-3 mm thick) and lay it on a buttered or oiled baking sheet (it will hang over the edges). Put the salmon in the middle. If it has a thinner tail end, tuck it under. Spoon half of the watercress mixture onto the salmon. Now fold the pastry over into a neat parcel (the join will be at the top, so trim the edge neatly), making sure you don’t have any thick lumps of pastry as these won’t cook through properly. Trim off any excess as you need to. Make 3 neat cuts in the pastry to allow steam to escape and make some decorations with the off-cuts to disguise the join if you like. Brush with the egg glaze.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and browned. To test wether the salmon is cooked, push a sharp knife through one of the cuts into the flesh, wait for 3 seconds then test it against the inside of your wrist; if it is hot, the salmon is cooked. Serve with the rest of the watercress puree as a sauce.450 gr (15.8 ounces or 3.2 cups ) of plain all purpose flour<br> 200 gr ( 7 ounce) cold butter<br> pinch of salt
- Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you have a food processor you can use that as shown in the above video.
- Stir in the salt, then add 2-3 tbsp of water and mix to a firm dough. Knead the dough briefly and gently on a floured surface. Wrap in cling film and chill while preparing the filling.
- For best results make sure the butter is very cold.
Recipe from BBC Good Food
Shortcrust pastry
While this is not mandatory to do, I highly recommend making your own shortcrust pastry as it is very simple to do! As mentioned in the notes; please make sure to not add too much water as that is the key to having a successful shortcrust pastry. Watch this video to check the correct consistency of the dough Making shortcrust pastry
Instructions for Beef Wellington (serves 4)
Button mushrooms – 17.6 ounces/500gr (stalks removed and finely chopped)
Olive oil – 2-3 tbsp
thyme – 1 sprig
Beef fillet, center cut piece – 21.16 ounce/600 gr
English mustard – 1 tbsp
puff pastry (all butter pastry pack) – 17.6 ounce/500 gr
parma ham (prosciutto) – 3 slices
egg yolk – 1 pcs, beaten
For the herb crepes:
plain (all purpose) flour – 0.3 cup/1.76 ounce/50 gr
milk – 0.5 cup/125 ml
mixed herbs – 1 tbsp (chopped, use herbs such as cervil, chives and tarragon
butter – 0.5 tbsp
Instructions:
1. To make the crepes, whizz the flour, egg and milk with a pinch of salt in a blender or processor until smooth. Pour into a jug and stir in the herbs and some seasoning. Leave to rest.
2. Fry the mushrooms in a little oil until they give up all their moisture and it has evaporated, leaving you with a thick paste. Add the thyme leaves and some seasoning and keep cooking for a few minutes. Cool.
3. Stir the melted butter into the crepe batter, heat a 15 cm crepe pan and oil it lightly. Pour in enough batter to make a thin layer on the base of the pan, cook until the top surface sets and then turn over and cook briefly. Remove and repeat with the rest of the batter. This will make a couple more than you need so choose the thinnest ones for the recipe.
4. Sear the beef all over in a little oil in a very hot pan. Brush with the mustard, season and allow to cool.
5. Lay a large sheet of cling-film on a kitchen surface and put two crepes down on it, overlapping a little. Lay over the parmaham (prosciutto). Spread the mushroom mixture over the ham and put the beef in the centre. Roll the cling-film up, taking the crepe with it, to wrap the beef completely into a nice neat log. Chill for 1 hour.
6. Heat the oven to 200°C/390F. Roll out the pastry, remove the clingfilm and wrap the beef in the pastry like a parcel, with the ends tucked under. Trim to keep it nice and neat. Brush with egg, score with shallow lines across the top and chill for 20 minutes.
7. Cook for 20 minutes. The best way to test if the meat is done to your liking is to neatly and carefully stick a skewer into the beef, count to three and then test it against your inner wrist. If it is cold, the beef will be raw, if it is warm then the beef will be rare and if it’s hot, it’ll be cooked through. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving.
Some video tutorials to watch:
Rolling out pastry
Making shortcrust pastry
Making salmon en croute
Also check out the website of BBC Good Food as it has tons of information and other video tutorials as well
Appetizer
Asian
Bread
Breakfast
Desserts & other sweets
Healthy
Simone, this is gorgeous! I’m going to try this definitely! Love it! And yes, Xmas recipe testing is a lot of fun!
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What a great festive dish for this season. It was a great choice Simone – I still haven’t done mine but I will soon!!! Thanks for the detailed instructions, wonderful pictures and recipe!
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This was a great challenge Simone! Food baked in pastry – how can you go wrong?!
We did the beef version (actually with moose/elk) but I’m definitely trying the salmon en croute once the holiday madness is over because it looks absolutely delicious!
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Simone, what a great dish for the challenge! thanks very much for choosing it! I prefer puff pastry over short crust for things wrapped too, because the puff pastry is flakier.. but that could also be coz I interchanged the two quite by accident while making my en croute
) nevertheless, it was delicious and fun!
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 15th, 2009 at 17:24
O believe me, I did lots of things wrong too when making the salmon en croute…
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Thanks for “hosting” Simone! I don’t eat salmon so I was pleased you let us make the beef. I as pretty chuffed with my creation – my first DC challenge! Yours looks beautiful, even to a non-salmon eater!
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Beautiful job on your salmon, and thank you so much for choosing an interesting dish and hosting!
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Thanks for choosing such a great dish, Simone! Yours looks absolutely gorgeous =D.
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Thanks so much for hosting! Great idea for this month’s challenge and beautiful photos and pastry!
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Congrats on your choice of challenge. i really enjoyed making it and it was delicious. Of course your looks better though…through practice I am sure he he.
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Thanks for the challenge! I’ve been planning on making en croute but never got or gave the time to make it until your challenge. It was well worth it. I’m planning on making the beef wellington this New Year.
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Great challenge this month, Simone! And your salmon is gorgeous. I wish we could have participated. This is definitely going on our “to make” list, though… I’m convinced most things are better when they’re “en croute”!!
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I have really enjoy it, fabulous challenge, thank you
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you did an amazing job with this challenge. thank you and I hope you had lots and lots of fun.
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Ciao Simone ! Thank for choosing this nice recipe ! I think I added some liquid (I forgot if it was iced water or egg white) to the crust and it worked for me !! Thanks again !!
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Simone,
Thank you again for a wonderful holiday Challenge! Loved the salmon and can’t wait to try the Beef Wellington – I think it will make a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. Enjoy your holidays and I look forward to cooking with you, and all of the Daring Cooks, in 2010.
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I thought this was a really yummy challenge! Thanks so much for hosting us =)
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amazing! and thanks for hosting it was fun
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Thank you for this challenge as it was a great learning experience and super yummy! Your pastry at the end is gorgeous!
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It was a great choice, Simone! I loved the salmon, it was delicious and really fun to do! Congratulations on being a fabulous hostess!
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Thanks again for the challenge, I really enjoyed it.
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Wow, this is so pretty and elegant! I’m impressed. Love the idea of a watercress sauce.
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Congratulations on hosting the challenge!! This sounds amazing and I hope to try it sometime.
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Congrats!! I love the way you did the salmon, and the sauce.
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Thank you for a great challenge. Hope you didn’t mind me using your pic, it was pitch black by the time we ate, and all our lights are yellow to avoid bugs. One day I will have a light box.
Thank you for choosing something non time consuming, and so yummy.
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Simone,
We are so very very happy that you agreed to host! You did a fabulous job and you gave us the opportunity to make such a classic dish! Cheers!
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You were a wonderful host! Gracious and talented! Thanks for a fun challenge!
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A very nice challenge it was. It was nice to have a choice as well. I chose the Salmon en Croute. We loved it. Its definitely something I would make again. Thank you for the challenge.
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Congratulations
I love the salmon and I want to make this soon. Thanks 
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Thanks for hosting this challenge! Had some fun with this one, though it didn’t entirely work out.
You’re far too modest. Yours looks like it turned out very nicely
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I loved the challenge! Thank you, again, for hosting it.
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I love salmon and I love pastry…I’d love to try that! It looks wonderful!
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This is beautiful. What a gorgeous package of dough!
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Simone, can’t thank you enough for this wonderful challenge. I have done it once, and I just had to do it once again to improve it. When it comes to your hosting I just need to do my best
Your salmon en croute is just fabulous, both the recipe and photos!
Sawadee from Bangkok,
Kris
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thank you so much for hosting this challenge, i thoroughly enjoyed every step of it and thankyou for picking such a simple yet sophisticated dish to make! Made me feel good about myself when i was able to carry out this dish
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This looks absolutely delicious! The sauce sounds fantastic! It just brightens it up.
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Wow! You’ve put in a lot for this Daring Cook challenge! Must’ve tasted great … Wish I can have some …
Cheers from Malaysia
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Thanks for the challenge Simone…I loved the idea, so easy but so impressive. You have a beautiful blog and a great talent with photography! Привет!
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Adorable decorations.
Thank you so much for choosing a challenge that did not have me stressed out about it for days and that did not take a zillion days to make!!!!
I was so happy to do a challenge that my friend came up with!
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Thanks for being a fabulous host with this challenge. Your photos are lovely!
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Your photos are unbelievable. I love your blog.
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I loved this dish! It will become part of my regular repertoire. Thanks so much for the challenge!
Your photos are stunning and I love your packet presentation.
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Simone, Thank you for the wonderful challenge. I finally got one done on time! Of course yours looks just amazing. And I really appreciate not having to prepare something overly complicated in the middle of the Holidays.
See you in 2010!
~Blondie
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Thanks for a great Challenge. The hubby really loved it.
I think next time, I’ll definately do the chilling step. }:P
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Simone, thank you so much for a great challenge! I had made anything ‘en croute’ in a long time, so I was glad when I saw your challenge! That said, your salmon en croute looks incredible..as do (once again) your photos!
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Thank you so much, Simone, for the nice challenge. I got mixed up with the date and ended up being late, but I made it and had great fun in the process (actually, I’ve made it 3 times in so many days).
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Thank you for the great challenge!
This is a recipe I will use again and again. I’d never thought of making it before, but now it’s not so scary!
P.S. Thanks for the comment on my post!
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I made a salmon en croute similar to this with asparagus and it was awesome to serve and a delight to eat. Yours looks fab, as always.
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Your salmon en croute looks delicious. If you hadn’t confessed to piecing together the pastry sheets, I would have thought that the patchwork look was intentional and people everywhere would be trying to recreate it.
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