Roman-style salmon
The Romans were fond of cooking fish with dates, honey and spices - the idea works surprisingly well and makes for a richly-flavoured and special dish.
You can use this recipe to make either two individual parcels or put the fillets together and make one larger one. Double the recipe to make a dinner-party sized en croute for four people!
Ingredients
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2
BigFish salmon fillets, defrosted
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1x 320g pack
ready made shortcrust pastry, can use fresh or frozen (defrosted as per pack instructions).
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40g
dried dates, stoned and chopped
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4
whole cloves, ground in a pestle and mortar
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25g
butter
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1 tbsp
raisins
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1/4 tsp
ground ginger
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1/2 tsp
ground cumin
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1/2 tsp
Dijon mustard
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1/2 tbsp
chopped fresh mint
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1 dessertspoon
clear honey
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a little milk
for glazing
Method
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1.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 7.
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2.
Melt the butter and mix in dates, ground cloves, raisins, ginger, cumin, mint and Dijon mustard to make a paste. Stir in the honey at the end.
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3.
Roll out the ready-made shortcrust pastry into a rectangular shape. You can either split the pastry into 2 sheets (about 16x20cm each) or make one sheet if you want to make a single large en croute.
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4.
Put the defrosted salmon fillets on to one end of the pastry sheet(s). Leave enough room to fold the pastry over the fish to make parcels (or one parcel).
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5.
Spoon the spicy fruit paste on top of the salmon fillets and spread to cover evenly.
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6.
Now use a pastry brush to brush milk around the edges and fold the pastry over to make your parcel.Make sure all the edges are completely sealed – use a fork to crimp the edges if you wish.
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7.
Brush a little more milk over the pastry to glaze and put the parcel(s) on a lightly greased baking tray.
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8.
Cook in the oven for 30 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Serve with some fresh steamed vegetables.
With thanks to Anne Williams 1987 book 'F for Fish' for the inspiration.