Stuffed Salmon in a Puff Pastry
Jan. 2nd, 2007 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weaktwosSo, here is how you make the Stuffed Salmon Recipe. For the full instructions, consult this cookbook by Jacques Pepin.
So, the first thing you want to do is make the dough. It's flour, butter, water, a little salt. I forgot to take a picture of this part. But you freeze the flour in advance, keep the unsalted butter chilled. Combine ingredients until just combined, then roll out to an 16x10 size. Fold it three ways like a letter, then roll it out again, then chill for 45 minutes, then repeat. Chill until ready to prepare the dish.
Damn, I'm miffed I didn't photograph this part. Ah well.
Then you make the stuffing, which consists of a 1/2 pound of whatever mushrooms you like. In my case, I did shitake, crimini, and white (bulk) shrooms, shallots, shrimp, and chives. As well as salt and pepper to taste.
When you're done it looks like this:
You'll want to let the stuffing cool. At this point, if you wanted to do this ahead of time, you can stop here, keep the dough and stuffing in the fridge, and finish the next day.
When you're ready, take 2.5 lbs of salmon. I recommend getting it from Costco. It's skinned, boned, and in long strips, as if it were made for this very dish!
Roll out the dough, cut off a 6 inch x 16 inch strip. Lay in a pan on silpat or parchment paper. Put a strip of the filet down on the dough, put the stuffing on the filet, then the other salmon strip, then the remaning 10x16 strip of dough on top. Fold the top layer over the bottom layer. Pinch. Pinch, pinchy pinch around the edges.
Note: Here's what you don't do. You don't look over at your entertainment center, see that your dvd shelf is off balance and in the middle of food assembly dart off to the living room to "fix it". Your repair suddenly features another shelf falling down and your DVDs every-frackin-where. You curse like the entire naval fleet. Angry and defeated, you return to your food preparation, forgetting to take photos of this section of the task.
The final product before baking looks like this:
You use the fork to to decorate the perimeter. Carve a mouth, use extra dough to make fins, use the fork to score the fins. Add a dough ball for an eye, use a cake decorating tip to simulate fish scales. Crack an egg, remove half the white. Whisk remainder. Brush it on your doughy fish sculpture.
You bake at 375 for about 40 minutes. Maybe more if you're a silly goose and keep opening the oven door to admire the baking process. Not that I would know anything about that. I couldn't possibly identify with the claim that looking through the oven door "...just isn't the same, man."
While that's baking, make the eggy lemony sauce. Ingredients include egg yolks, potato starch, cayenne pepper, chicken stock, salt and lemon juice.
You've got to whisk it until it reaches 180 degrees. Doing this made me realize I need a thermometer that stands up in the sauce pan. Trying to whisk and get temp readings ain't happening. The flavor of the sauce is great. But it smells kinda...unsatisfactory.
And here's what it looks like after you bake it. If you have a serving platter big enough, try to foist this bad motha unto said platter. Otherwise, carve 'n serve.
You'll notice a puff pastry puck in the photo. That's a suggestion on what to do with the extra dough. Claim it as your own once slightly cooled for the purposes of "quality control". If you have no extra dough, shout dibs for the fins and tail. Num!
And there you have it.
So, the first thing you want to do is make the dough. It's flour, butter, water, a little salt. I forgot to take a picture of this part. But you freeze the flour in advance, keep the unsalted butter chilled. Combine ingredients until just combined, then roll out to an 16x10 size. Fold it three ways like a letter, then roll it out again, then chill for 45 minutes, then repeat. Chill until ready to prepare the dish.
Damn, I'm miffed I didn't photograph this part. Ah well.
Then you make the stuffing, which consists of a 1/2 pound of whatever mushrooms you like. In my case, I did shitake, crimini, and white (bulk) shrooms, shallots, shrimp, and chives. As well as salt and pepper to taste.
When you're done it looks like this:
You'll want to let the stuffing cool. At this point, if you wanted to do this ahead of time, you can stop here, keep the dough and stuffing in the fridge, and finish the next day.
When you're ready, take 2.5 lbs of salmon. I recommend getting it from Costco. It's skinned, boned, and in long strips, as if it were made for this very dish!
Roll out the dough, cut off a 6 inch x 16 inch strip. Lay in a pan on silpat or parchment paper. Put a strip of the filet down on the dough, put the stuffing on the filet, then the other salmon strip, then the remaning 10x16 strip of dough on top. Fold the top layer over the bottom layer. Pinch. Pinch, pinchy pinch around the edges.
Note: Here's what you don't do. You don't look over at your entertainment center, see that your dvd shelf is off balance and in the middle of food assembly dart off to the living room to "fix it". Your repair suddenly features another shelf falling down and your DVDs every-frackin-where. You curse like the entire naval fleet. Angry and defeated, you return to your food preparation, forgetting to take photos of this section of the task.
The final product before baking looks like this:
You use the fork to to decorate the perimeter. Carve a mouth, use extra dough to make fins, use the fork to score the fins. Add a dough ball for an eye, use a cake decorating tip to simulate fish scales. Crack an egg, remove half the white. Whisk remainder. Brush it on your doughy fish sculpture.
You bake at 375 for about 40 minutes. Maybe more if you're a silly goose and keep opening the oven door to admire the baking process. Not that I would know anything about that. I couldn't possibly identify with the claim that looking through the oven door "...just isn't the same, man."
While that's baking, make the eggy lemony sauce. Ingredients include egg yolks, potato starch, cayenne pepper, chicken stock, salt and lemon juice.
You've got to whisk it until it reaches 180 degrees. Doing this made me realize I need a thermometer that stands up in the sauce pan. Trying to whisk and get temp readings ain't happening. The flavor of the sauce is great. But it smells kinda...unsatisfactory.
And here's what it looks like after you bake it. If you have a serving platter big enough, try to foist this bad motha unto said platter. Otherwise, carve 'n serve.
You'll notice a puff pastry puck in the photo. That's a suggestion on what to do with the extra dough. Claim it as your own once slightly cooled for the purposes of "quality control". If you have no extra dough, shout dibs for the fins and tail. Num!
And there you have it.
