Salmon en croute

Salmon en croute

This makes an impressive dish for a dinner party but is a doddle to put together

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking times

Total time

Ready in 50 mins

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Put the mascarpone or cream cheese in a food processor with the watercress, spinach and rocket and whizz the lot until you have a creamy green purée. Season well.
  2. Roll the pastry out so you can wrap the salmon in it completely (just a bit thinner than a £1 coin) and lay it on a buttered or oiled baking sheet (it will hang over the edges). Put the salmon in the middle. If it has a thinner tail end, tuck it under. Spoon half of the watercress mixture onto the salmon. Now fold the pastry over into a neat parcel (the join will be at the top, so trim the edge neatly), making sure you don't have any thick lumps of pastry as these won't cook through properly. Trim off any excess as you need to. Make 3 neat cuts in the pastry to allow steam to escape and make some decorations with the off-cuts to disguise the join if you like. Brush with the egg glaze.
  3. Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and browned. To test whether the salmon is cooked, push a sharp knife through one of the cuts into the flesh, wait for 3 seconds then test it against the inside of your wrist; if it is hot, the salmon is cooked. Serve with the rest of the watercress purée as a sauce.
Try

Know-how

This makes an impressive dish for a dinner party but is a doddle to put together.

Per serving

985 kcalories, protein 35.6g, carbohydrate 61g, fat 68.1 g, saturated fat 27.8g, fibre 2.6g, salt 1.94 g

Recipe from olive magazine, September 2006.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • Binder photo Harinder

    21 December 2007

    Harinder rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    We cooked this for some friends, and the kids - it was easy to cook and tasted amazing! Will be cooking it again as an alternative option this christmas!

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  • Binder photo Pipe-o

    01 January 2008

    Pipe-o rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo TAYLOR

    03 February 2008

    TAYLOR commented on this recipe

    I have found that this along with several other recipes very easy as well as being tasteful.

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  • Binder photo Julia

    31 March 2008

    Julia rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I cooked this on New Year's Eve as part of a buffet dinner for a crowd and I got loads of praise yet it couldn't have been easier to prepare.

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  • Binder photo emmalouise283

    05 April 2008

    emmalouise283 rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo Janeanne

    16 June 2008

    Janeanne commented on this recipe

    Excellent dinner party dish. Everyone loved it and it was so easy to make.

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  • Binder photo Jeffers

    03 September 2008

    Jeffers commented on this recipe

    I cooked this tonight with a slight variation, If I don't have all the ingrediants I will improvise I had no watercress so I sauted some chestnut mushrooms in butter & olive oil blended with soft cheese & crab terrine for the stuffing mixture, 25 mins in a fan oven was plenty,It was absolutely fantastic even my wife said so.

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  • Binder photo Jeffers

    04 September 2008

    Jeffers rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I forgot to give it 5 our of 5

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  • Binder photo gemcheat

    23 October 2008

    gemcheat rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Gorgeous! Used puff pastry and made individual portions for my dinner party.

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  • Binder photo Ann O'Neill

    01 November 2008

    Ann O'Neill commented on this recipe

    Gemcheat, can I ask when you used puff pastry, how thick did you roll it out, because I tried this, and it was a disaster. Thanks.

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  • Binder photo Jane Powell

    03 November 2008

    Jane Powell rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Made up this recpe a few hours ahead and put it in fridge until time to cook. The filling did try to ooze out of pastry join but everything stayed put during cooking. All my guests thought it was wonderful. Recommend and will definitely try it again

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  • Binder photo Buzz

    23 November 2008

    Buzz rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Really pleased with how this come out. I haven't cooked with pastry for what must be 15 years but I had no problems with the Dorset shortcrust and it came out beautifully. I thought the sauce seemed very runny and it did spill out as the pastry split a bit I stuck another bit of pastry over the crack and it held. The rocket etc sauce looked great against the pink salmon but you don't get a strong leafy flavour. Will definitely do this again.

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  • Binder photo TUGSY

    04 January 2009

    TUGSY commented on this recipe

    I used cream cheese as I was too late to get any mascapone 2 days prior to Christmas. It was fabulous, I made double quantities of it on Christmas eve decorating it with holly leaves and it sat in the fridge waiting patiently! I gave it a second layer of egg glaze just before cooking it. So many people commented on how fab it was and how laid back I was. It was a perfect main course for 14 hungry people. Stress free! Thanks!

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  • Binder photo TUGSY

    04 January 2009

    TUGSY commented on this recipe

    A definate 5 out of 5 !!!

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  • Binder photo Rosemary

    07 January 2009

    Rosemary commented on this recipe

    I made this recipe in the morning for a dinner party. It was easy to make and I was able to pop it in the oven while we had a starter. I had nothing but praise. It was delicious.

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  • Binder photo hlnharrison

    27 January 2009

    hlnharrison rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Great - all the family enjoyed it even the fussy eaters and the men who usually want a bit of red meat.

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  • Binder photo Cupcake

    28 January 2009

    Cupcake commented on this recipe

    This was so easy even though my food processor died minutes before making the watercress part so I substituted the watercress, spinach & rocket salad for some pesto and mixed it with the mascapone and grated in some lemon zest with a good amount of blackpepper - it was fantastic and got rave reviews at my party, I have never cooked fish so successfully. This dish is so easy that even I made a pretty looking pie that tasted fantastic!!! Looking forward to making this again!!!

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  • Binder photo Claire Jasmine

    28 June 2009

    Claire Jasmine rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I made this for my Sunday dinner this evening with new potatoes and broccoli. I too used puff pastry instead of shortcrust and it came out fine. I don't think I've ever had Salmon en croute with shortcrust. The sauce was great and I froze the rest to use on other dishes at a later date - it would go perfectly on normally grilled salmon. I made the sauce with Watercress and spinach as suggested but skipped the rocket. Whizzed it in a food processor with cream cheese, black pepper, two cloves of garlic, all purpose seasoning and one quarter of lemon juice. Tasted wonderful. In addition to putting some on the croute, when the new potatoes were cooked, I spooned some of the mixture over the potatoes before serving all up. Yum!

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  • Binder photo Ed Ashton

    29 June 2009

    Ed Ashton commented on this recipe

    Blimey, if you cooked that for 30 min at 180 in a fan oven there would be no need to test if the salmon was cooked.

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  • Binder photo Ezme

    15 December 2009

    Ezme rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Cooked this for mother's 50th birthday and she loved it! Used lightly smoked salmon fillets with spinach in the mascapone which she said was a very nice combo and agreed watercress probably goes better with the unsmoked. I also used jus-rol puff pastry (mistake in the supermarket!) but it worked well. I made it the night before and popped it in the fridge before cooking and it held up well.

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Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking times

Total time

Ready in 50 mins

Ingredients

  • 150g mascarpone or cream cheese
  • 1 bag watercress , spinach and rocket, about 120g
  • 500g shortcrust pastry , use a butter version such as Jus-rol, which is frozen, or Dorset pastry
  • 500g piece salmon fillets , skinless
  • 1 egg , beaten
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Per serving

985 kcalories, protein 35.6g, carbohydrate 61g, fat 68.1 g, saturated fat 27.8g, fibre 2.6g, salt 1.94 g

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