Grilling For All Reasons

As those who know me and as many of you have likely begun gleaning from my posts – I LOVE HOLIDAYS!  The time was when the holidays were my opportunity to blossom as a cook, trying new, different, and challenging recipes that I’d never attempted before – all the while striving for an elegant presentation and meal for family, friends, and guests.  With the advent of Grilling For All Reasons, I am now routinely pushing my culinary envelop with new recipes, new experiences, AND all the while continually pushing the envelop of the possible of preparing any and all heat-cooked foods on the grill.

So, now holidays are even more special as I continue to seek out the new across a holiday menu AND find a way to prepare the dishes on the grill.

This New Year’s Eve was no exception as I planned a menu for an elegant meal at home for the occasion.  The first major decision was to decide on the primary entree protein – would it be meat, fish/shellfish, or vegetable.  Part of my decision was rooted in the presentation – it had to be an elegant presentation.  One of the more elegant presentations in my view is the en croute, whether as an appetizer/dessert as with a Baked Brie, or a main course like Beef Wellington.

On this occasion, I would do an en croute (wrapped in pastry) with one of my favorite fish – salmon.  Many recipes use dill as a savory herb with salmon, and while I enjoy a light lemon-dill sauce with salmon, I was looking for something a bit more earthy, yet complimentary to the salmon and not overpowering, AND different from what others were doing!   The filling – sauteed fresh spinach with freshly roasted sweet red pepper, shallots, bacon (gotta get some smoke on the inside, no?), and bound together with sweet Mascarpone cheese.   With a number of savory ingredients already in play, the only seasoning necessary was sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

An issue when preparing a salmon (or any fish fillet) en croute, is gaining some “height” to the presentation.  My compliments to Chef Gordon Ramsay for his solution to this problem.  The salmon fillet is trimmed to remove the “belly” flesh as well as the tail with the result of a fillet piece relatively uniform in size from side-to-side and along the length.  The height is then attained by cutting the fillet along the center line and placing one piece on top of the other to achieve a rectangular fillet of even height.  While not appealing if prepared alone, this technique works perfectly in an en croute.

The pastry can be a commercially available puff pastry (such as Pepperidge Farm’s puff pastry sheets), or your own butter-rich short pastry.  To a large part, the decision will be based on the amount of preparation time you have available.  There are times I’m the purist and insist on fresh preparation for everything, and times I’m not (though I typically only “cut corners” when the alternative is as good or better than I could prepare – which was the case with the pastry!).

The assembly is relatively simple, but requires some attention to detail.  If you’re using purchased puff pastry sheets, you may or may not need to use both sheets depending on the size of your prepared salmon fillet.   If using two sheets, be sure to fold and press the pastry together at the seam so it doesn’t separate.   Spread your filling on the pastry sheet to the size of your fillet, then place the fillet on top of the filling.  Fold over the long edges, being careful not to stretch the pastry any more than necessary to bring the edges together with at least 1/2 inch overlap.  To ensure a good seam seal, bring the two edges together and press together before folding down and pressing again.  Use an egg wash to help seal the seams.  Pull up the ends and gently press and knead the edges into the surrounding pastry.  You’re looking for a good seal, and a relatively smooth finish, even though this will be the bottom.   Also, you don’t want a lot of excess either along the length or at the ends, so trim as necessary.   I find that it helps to lay the pastry out on a piece of parchment paper to make flipping the sealed en croute easy.   When the seams are closed and sealed, place another piece of parchment paper over the sealed pastry, place a shallow baking pan over, reach under the bottom parchment and flip the en croute over onto the baking pan.  Remove what is now the top piece of parchment.

Now, at this point you have an assembled en croute that’s ready to bake.  But, you can take the presentation a step farther by decorating the top of the pastry package.   Lay out your excess dough (you WILL have some), and cut out some designs of your choice – leaves are easy and look great when baked.   Brush the top of the en croute with an egg wash, then place your decorative pastry elements on the top, brushing each with the egg wash.

The baking pan with the en croute now goes on the grill over indirect and deflected heat (or in the oven if you choose), and baked to golden brown perfection.

The starter was a cucumber dill salad (see, I did work dill into the menu), and sides with the salmon were Haricot Verts Lyonnaise (green beans Lyon style), and Rosemary Leek Smashed Potatoes.

Here are the recipes:

Elegant Salmon en Croute

Haricot Verts Lyonnaise

Enjoy!