salmon and herbs | Our Austintatious Life

Salmon en croute with asparagus and asparagus cream sauce.

We first tried to make Salmon en Croute a few years ago and used a recipe that was mushroom based. We actually only made that version one time and then we switched over to a method with asparagus and dill. We like this new version because it is brighter and lighter. For those of you who aren’t familiar with a Salmon en Croute, it is similar to a Beef Wellington except it is salmon wrapped in a puff pastry. I realized I haven’t written up this recipe so here is our contribution to the Salmon en Croute recipes.

For this time, we made our own crust using a pate brisee recipe that I wrote up for our chicken pot pie in a pumpkin. For the pate brisee, we substituted dill instead of the thyme for that recipe. We also used butter for our cream in this recipe but you can easily substitute cream cheese, creme fraiche or Neufchâtel.

This recipe is for 2 people but you can easily adjust it for more. Wih the holidays coming up, it would be a nice treat that you could serve for your guests. It’s really not that hard and the presentation of it on the plate is pretty impressive.

Ingredients

1 pound of asparagus
1 teaspoon of dill
zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of butter
1 pinch of salt
2 salmon fillets (boneless and skinless)
1 sheet of puff pastry (or similar sized sheet of pate brisee)
1 egg

Instructions

First, trim the asparagus to the length of the salmon fillets. Don’t throw away the cut off pieces. Put the cut end pieces into a pot of water and bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the tips are fork tender.

This is the asparagus trimmed to the length of the salmon.

While the asparagus ends are simmering, poach the long asparagus spears. To do this, bring salted water to a boil and then add the asparagus spears. Reduce heat and simmer the spears for 5 minutes then move them into an ice bath. Once cooled, put them on a paper towel to dry.

Here are the cut asparagus ends simmering in salted water.

Once the cut ends of the asparagus are tender, put them into a food processor with the dill, lemon zest, pinch of salt and butter. Mix this in the food processor until it is a smooth cream.

Making the asparagus sauce

Here is the final asparagus cream sauce.

Heat your oven to 450 degree Fahrenheit.

OK, now you’ve got everything prepared and you’re ready to start assembling the final product while your oven heats up.

Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Next, put your pastry on the parchment paper and roll out your puff pastry or pate brisee into a square, about as wide as a baking sheet. You want it fairly thin and large enough to completely wrap around the salmon. Once it is rolled out, place your first piece of salmon on the center of the pastry and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Rolled out pate brisee

Salmon on pate brisee

Next, you’re going to put a layer of the asparagus cream sauce on top of the salmon filet. After that, place a layer of asparagus spears length-wise. This is why you want to trim the to the length of the salmon filets. You’ll notice we timmed our a little too much so we cut a couple spears down to help give us complete coverage.

Asparagus cream sauce on the salmon filet.

Asparagus spears on top of the cream sauce.

Now, lightly salt and pepper this layer to taste, then repeat with the other salmon filet, then cream sauce and then asparagus layers.

When you’ve finished assembling the layers, you are going to wrap it up with the pasty. We pulled up long side, then the two small sides, and finally the final long side. Be careful folding it over so you don’t get holes in the pastry. If you do, just pinch it back together. As hard as we try to be gentle, we typically get a couple of tears in the pastry.

Pate brisee pastry wrapped around the salmon and asparagus.

Once it is assemble, cut small slits in the top of the pastry so it can vent while it is cooking (see picture below). You are going to cook the assembled salmon en croute for a total of 30 minutes and put on an egg wash at the 10 and 20 minute intervals. So, to start, put a light egg wash on the salmon en croute before you put it in the oven. Next, cook for 10 minutes, then take out the salmon en croute and apply a second egg wash. Put the salmon en croute back into the oven and cook for 10 minutes, then take it out and apply the final egg wash. Put the salmon en croute back in the oven and cook for the final 10 minutes.

Egg wash on the salmon en croute before we put in the oven.

Egg wash on the salmon en croute after 10 minutes in the oven.

The finished salmon en croute.

Salmon en croute with asparagus and asparagus cream sauce.

This is something that seems too complicated for home cooks, but I was surprised how easy it was. It all started because we saw them prepare this on one of the cooking shows and it looked so good. Well, now I can confirm it is really good.

There are a bunch of online recipes and variations for this dish. One thing they don’t do well is explain the process so you can be prepared if you haven’t made it before. To start, there are two layers of salmon. If it is a think cut of salmon, cut this one in half lengthwise. If you have thinner cuts of salmon, use a separate filet for each layer. We had thinner cuts so we used a separate fillet for each layer. We served it by cutting it in half and each of us got 1/2 of the dish.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, cut into small dice
salt and pepper
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup mix minced herbs of your choice, such as chives, parsley, tarragon and dill.
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 garlic cloves, grated
2 pounds of skinless salmon filet or multiple smaller fillets
1 sheet of puff pastry, defrosted in the refrigerator for a couple hours, then gently rolled out on a floured surface
1 large egg mixed with a splash of water
Caperberries for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large pan over medium heat, heat the olive oil and saute the mushrooms until they are browned. Then add some salt and pepper and allow to cool.

For the cream sauce, combine the cream cheese with the herbs, lemon zest, garlic, salt and pepper. Surprisingly, we didn’t have any lemon so we used lemon pepper and it turned out great.

If you have one thick fillet, halve the salmon through the middle into two pieces of equal thickness and season with salt and pepper.

Cut the rolled dough into two pieces across the center. One piece will be the bottom and one will be the top. Place the bottom piece on the baking sheet and center one filet (or the halved one) in the center of the dough. Spread half of the cream cheese mixture on top of the salmon fillet. Place the second salmon fillet on top of the cream cheese mixture and then put the remaining cream cheese mixture on top of the second salmon fillet. Place the mushrooms on top of the cream cheese mixture.

Now, place the top sheet of dough over the mushrooms and then seal the edges of the two pieces of dough. Lightly score the top of the dough with a cross hatch pattern on an angle. Be careful not to cut through the dough or the mushrooms will ooze through during the cooking. You can see in our picture that we did cut through it and the results aren’t pretty, but it tastes wonderful!

Bake the salmon en croute for 25 minutes then brush with the egg wash and bake for an additional 20 minutes to make sure the salmon is fully cooked and until the dough is puffed and golden brown.

We served this with farro risoto and salad for Valentine’s Day.