Salmon Wellington

I went into this dish with absolutely no direction and wanted to use up a few ingredients in the fridge that were soon to expire. Safe to say it turned out to be an absolute treat!

If you love fish and pastry, this one's right up your alley!

Salmon is a delicious and fatty fish where you can experiment with all sorts of flavours. I usually marinate my salmon in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and lime juice. But it was about time I switched it up a little – with a coat of shortcrust pastry over it ;)

With this recipe, you can pre-buy your shortcrust pastry – this is a way of speeding things up. Or you can make your own from scratch, which is super easy and doesn't require any waiting around!

INGREDIENTS FOR SHORTCRUST PASTRY

225g plain flour

100g lightly salted softened butter (I use Lurpak)

3.5 tbsp water

INGREDIENTS FOR FILLING

2 salmon fillets

3 garlic cloves, chopped finely

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp butter, melted. Plus another 1 tbsp to spread on the pastry

A handful of parsley, chopped finely

1 egg, whisked

Salt & pepper

METHOD

1. (Skip this step if you have pre-bought your pastry) In a large bowl, combine the plain flour and softened butter and use your fingertips to mix them together until the mixture looks and feels crumbly. Once you have achieved this, add in the water and mix through with your hands until a nice soft dough forms. If the dough is flaking, add a couple of drops of water and knead through. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge whilst prepping the salmon.

2. In a large bowl, mix together garlic, lemon, melted butter, and chopped parsley and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

3. Add in the salmon fillets and cover them with the mixture. Cling wrap the bowl and put it into the fridge for 20 minutes.

4. Prep a baking tray with baking paper and put to one side. Preheat the oven to 180ºC fan.

5. Get the dough out of the fridge once the salmon has been in for 15 minutes. Roll the dough out onto a clean and floured surface until it is the thickness of a £1 coin.

6. Cut the rolled out dough into half and place both sheets onto the baking tray.

7. Brush both pastry sheets with the 1 tbsp of butter. Remove salmon from the fridge and place a fillet on each pastry sheet. Fold the pastry around the fillets, making sure there are no gaps allowing the juices from the marinade to escape during baking.

8. Once the pastry is folded over the fillets, brush the tops and sides of the wellingtons with the whisked egg, and sprinkle salt and pepper on top. Bake for 30 minutes.

9. Enjoy with a side of steamed vegetables or roasted potatoes!