, Step by step

Salmon en croute

A classic and tasty dish.

Mark Stower, Director of Food and Service.

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Cooking Time: 35 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1 side of salmon fillet, approx. 800g
6 pre-made pancakes (these stop the pastry going soggy)
300g baby spinach, cooked and drained
Zest of 1 lemon
6 portions of curly kale
1 tsp dill, chopped
Bunch of asparagus or a small pack of fine green beans
500g Puff pastry (block or roll, depending on which you prefer)
1 egg
A dash of milk
Olive oil
25g butter, melted

Method

Step 1

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Step 2

Roll out (or unroll) the pastry onto a buttered baking sheet.
Step 3

Place the pancakes onto the pastry and then lay the salmon fillet onto this. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the chopped dill and lemon zest.
Step 4

Lay the asparagus or green beans lengthways along the salmon.
Step 5

Place the cooked spinach onto this and brush with some melted butter.
Step 6

Make an egg wash by beating the egg and adding a little milk. Brush some of the egg wash over the edges of the pastry and then roll the pastry over the salmon to form a parcel.
Step 7

Trim off the excess pastry and crimp the edges. Now brush the outside of the pastry parcel with the remaining egg wash.
Step 8

Bake in the oven until crisp and brown (this should take about 30 minutes).
Step 9

If you have one, use a digital temperature probe to check the salmon inside to make sure that it is cooked – 60-65C is about right.
Step 10

Cook the curly kale by boiling in water for about 3 minutes. Drain, toss in a dash of olive oil and season – then serve with a slice of the salmon en croute.

Nutrition

Mark’s recipe this month is a great way to combine fish and two different kinds of vegetables together in a delicious all-in-one dish.

This recipe demonstrates how it’s possible to update and improve a classic dish and although pastry is not normally high up on the list of healthy foods, this would make a perfect way of serving salmon for a special occasion.

Oily fish is an important part of the diet – worth eating at least once a week as a source of beneficial omega-3 oils that have positive effects on heart health.

Because the recipe contains more than 600g vegetables, it actually provides you with one of your daily five portions.

Another one of your five comes from the curly kale, which is in season now. Curly kale is packed full of nutrients and deserves to be more popular than it is – apparently in the Middle Ages it was the most common green vegetable in Europe!

DR JULIET GRAY, COMPANY NUTRITIONIST