Salmon & asparagus en croûte
Golden pastry, wild mushrooms & Old Winchester cheese
1 hr
Not Too Tricky
serves 8 to 10
About the recipe
Asparagus is a proper springtime treat in the UK, so I’m putting it front and centre in this epic salmon en croûte.
Ingredients
400g wild mushrooms
2 onions
olive oil
50ml Scottish whisky
½ a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley or wild garlic (15g)
150ml half-fat crème fraîche
50g Old Winchester or Parmesan cheese
2 lemons
2 large free-range eggs
flour, for dusting
1 x 320g sheet of all-butter puff pastry
1 x 1kg side of salmon, skin off, pin-boned (ask your fishmonger for a fillet from the top end of the fish), from sustainable sources
300g asparagus
Top Tip
If you can get hold of wild garlic, it’ll make all the difference here.
Method
- Clean and roughly chop and place the mushrooms in a large non-stick frying pan on a high heat. Dry fry for 5 minutes, or until lightly golden, while you peel and roughly chop the onions. Add the onions to the pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until soft and sweet.
- Pour in the whisky, tilt the pan to carefully flame, or light with a long match (watch your eyebrows!), and, once the flames subside, remove from the heat. Taste, season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper and allow to cool, then finely chop with the parsley or wild garlic and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7 and place a large baking sheet inside to heat up.
- Place the crème fraîche in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, then finely grate in the cheese and zest of 1 lemon. Crack in 1 egg and beat until smooth.
- On a large sheet of flour-dusted greaseproof paper, roll out the pastry so it’s 10cm bigger than your salmon all the way round.
- Spoon the mushroom mixture onto the pastry base, spreading it out and leaving a 3cm border around the edges. Place the salmon in the middle, then roll up the sides of the pastry to create the crust, going right up to the salmon and pinching it at the corners to secure.
- Evenly spoon the crème fraîche mixture over the top of the exposed salmon, spreading it out to meet the pastry. Trim the asparagus and slice each stem in half lengthways, then line them up like little soldiers in the crème fraîche mixture, trimming to fit, if needed.
- Brush the exposed pastry with beaten egg, then carefully lift the greaseproof and salmon en croûte onto the preheated tray. Bake at the bottom of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. Delicious served with a garden salad and lemon wedges for squeezing over.
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