More Wellington (-ish), or Variations-on-a-Theme....
Well, if you read the original page about Salmon Wellington (-ish) you will have noted that i can't get pre-made puff pastry in large sheets here in my part of Norway. But i did find some filo (strudel) pastry at the Turkish food shop so here is a sort of variation on a theme......
In fact, although i almost disparaged putting cream cheese in it in the original recipe, despite other recipes that do exactly that, guess what? Yep!
What i had in the fridge were:
Salmon
Home made curd cheese (see the Curd Cheese page for how to make it)
A normal sized tin of pears in syrup
Wasabi powder
Filo pastry (made in Germany!)
Olive oil
So that is what i used!
Normally you paint filo pastry with melted butter. This makes it crisp up in the oven, plus it allows the paper-thin sheets to stick together. Here, for the first time, i substituted olive oil for the butter. I had read that others had done this but was skeptical, but it worked great!
In fact, although i almost disparaged putting cream cheese in it in the original recipe, despite other recipes that do exactly that, guess what? Yep!
What i had in the fridge were:
Salmon
Home made curd cheese (see the Curd Cheese page for how to make it)
A normal sized tin of pears in syrup
Wasabi powder
Filo pastry (made in Germany!)
Olive oil
So that is what i used!
Normally you paint filo pastry with melted butter. This makes it crisp up in the oven, plus it allows the paper-thin sheets to stick together. Here, for the first time, i substituted olive oil for the butter. I had read that others had done this but was skeptical, but it worked great!
I started by trimming the salmon, making the wasabi, and warming up the olive oil
Then i sliced the pears and beat the curd cheese to make it a bit smoother. Having assembled all the parts, i was ready to go.
Then came the fun with filo!
I brushed a baking tray with the warm olive oil and lay one sheet down on it. After painting it with oil, i layed two sheets on top of it at 90 degrees to the original one, and painted them too.
I spread the curd cheese over the bottom of the fillet of salmon so that it made the whole thing into a relatively symmetrical shape -- thicker where the fillet was thin, and vice versa. I carefully turned it over and placed it in the middle of the filo. Then it was time to season the fillet top with Malden Salt and to spread thin dollops of wasabi paste over it (by using wasabi powder i was able to make it fairly soft and spreadable).
I brushed a baking tray with the warm olive oil and lay one sheet down on it. After painting it with oil, i layed two sheets on top of it at 90 degrees to the original one, and painted them too.
I spread the curd cheese over the bottom of the fillet of salmon so that it made the whole thing into a relatively symmetrical shape -- thicker where the fillet was thin, and vice versa. I carefully turned it over and placed it in the middle of the filo. Then it was time to season the fillet top with Malden Salt and to spread thin dollops of wasabi paste over it (by using wasabi powder i was able to make it fairly soft and spreadable).
The last step in the assembly of the fillet/filling was to arrange the pear slices on top of the fillet.
To make this work, you have to be a bit careful to lay them out symmetrically. It is kind of like making a dry stone wall -- you have to sort the pieces to fit in the right places! In the picture below you can see the layers -- the curd cheese on the bottom, the salmon and then the pears on top.
Then it was just a matter of overlapping the filo over itself, being sure to paint the top of each sheet as i arranged it. It made a nice package which was then painted with a little more oil. Just before i put it in the oven, i sprinkled a little Malden Salt on the top.
Then, into a hot (200 C) oven for 30 minutes.
And it came out looking like this. Actually, it looked much nicer than this picture -- it was lovely and brown; crispy and glowing with its oil!
And it came out looking like this. Actually, it looked much nicer than this picture -- it was lovely and brown; crispy and glowing with its oil!
Actually, i must apologize for the images in this. They are not my best! My buddy Rafal Ziolkowskii is a wonderful photographer, and came over for dinner. So he took a couple of shots of the finished product -- much better than mine!
If you want to see more of Raf's photographs, he has a blog at http://www.the-zet.com/
I would highly recommend taking a look, especially of his photos from his last trip to India.
If you want to see more of Raf's photographs, he has a blog at http://www.the-zet.com/
I would highly recommend taking a look, especially of his photos from his last trip to India.
**Btw, i served it with crispy fried rice -- one of my favourites! I will have to post a 'how-to' for this another day!