Salmon Wellington

Knock Knock...

Who's There?

Orange

Orange Who?

Orange you glad I'm not posting about my
Christmas Eve Dinner any more?

While it was GREAT fun while it lasted, it is indeed time to move on and see what else I've been cooking. This is a sister dish, I made to coincide with today's posting over at OUR KRAZY KITCHEN.

Hey, It's Thursday... And you all know what that means don't ya... Today I am hosting my weekly sister posting of I CAN COOK THAT, over at OUR KRAZY KITCHEN! If you follow the links, you will see a very detailed explanation of my original recipe for using home made Puff Pastry to create an Asian Influenced Pork Wellington dish I called - JENNIFER TILLY's Pork Wellington. "Wellington" is sometimes informally used to describe any dish in which meat is baked in a puff pastry. It is most commonly associated with a Beef Wellington. But feel free to wrap a pastry shell around some other meat and call it Wellington. You would not be the first.

Wrapping a pastry shell around meat does two important things. First, it adds a great deal of presentation appeal. It just looks great! You can also accent the pastry to make it look even better!

But, A Wellington dish also makes your cooking easier and your food taste better. Best example of this is this Salmon Dish! By wrapping salmon in the pastry, it acts as a little pressure cooker, keeping a lot of the moisture locked in and making the fish extra moist. No more dried out fish!

Here's what I did...

The ingredient list is very simple...

1 thick portion of salmon, about 2 pounds
2 tablespoons Teriyaki Sauce
2 tablespoons Ginger Molasses
1/2 pound of spinach
1 egg for a wash

1 sheet of puff pastry (store bought is fine, but I prefer to make my own (really, I do, click HERE for the details).

First step is remove the skin from the salmon.

Then prepare the wet rub That is just mixing the Ginger Molasses and the Teriyaki together. Rub the wet rub in well, until it is uniformly covered.

Next, add the 5 spice rub. Now, normally, I make my own rub, and I am in love with my homemade Chinese 5 spice rub. But, I am in a mood to clean out my spice drawer of all those bits and pieces that have been collected over the years. I had an unopened jar of this, and decided to give it a go. It does not have as strong a flavor as my fresh, so I laid it on pretty thick. Coat both sides, and continue to sprinkle on until it actually gas a coating instead of just getting absorbed into the liquid.

Allow the wet/dry rubs to marinade on the fish in the fridge while you work on the pastry.

Roll it out so that you have enough to completely wrap the fish, and have another couple inches to spare. Trim off the edges to make flat lines. These trimmings can be used to make decorations. Here, my wife cut out little fishes... Wont this be cute???

OK, time to stuff the pastry...

Put the marinated fish on the pastry, with about two inches edge free. Top the fish with the spinach. the idea is that the liquid will steam the spinach, cooking it. At the same time, all of that great flavoring in the wet/dry rub will create a sauce that flavors the cooked spinach while you cook the fish.

Pile it on the fish, and bring the pastry up over the fish, shoving the spinach in so that it is on top of the fish. Keep shoving the spinach around so that it stays on top.

Put the couple of inches from the bottom in first, then fold a couple inches from the top under the whole piece so that the top is flat with no seams.

Next, use the egg wash to seal the edges. Flip the bottom over so that you can wash the edges and pinch closed. Flip back, so that the smooth surface (the side with the spinach) is on top.

And finally, decorate...

Use the remaining egg to coat the top of the pastry. Then, add the fish, and coat them with egg also.

I put the school of fish on the top. I also put a few holes in the pastry so it looked like bubbles coming out of the fishes mouths. It is important to have a few slits or holes in the pastry so that the steam does not build up and split the pastry. May as well incorporate the holes into the presentation!

And here is the final product, after cooking in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 40 minutes

Not just a little good, this is a great way to cook your salmon! VERY moist, fork tender, flakes easily. The spinach is especially tasty. A little bit flavored with the teryaki, certainly has a 5 spice flavor. Everything came together VERY WELL. The pastry made a big difference in keeping the fish so moist, and locking in all the flavor.

So, that's one of the dishes I have been making while posting Christmas Eve...

Be sure to stop over at OUR KRAZY KITCHEN! If you follow the links, you will see a very detailed explanation of my original recipe for using home made Puff Pastry to create an Asian Influenced Pork Wellington dish I called - JENNIFER TILLY's Pork Wellington. While you are there, drop a comment, let the girls that allow me to host that you visited.