Now the sun is coming out Salmon Wellington is a great dish with some bright flavours. A lovely dish to have with friends and family. The Salmon here is has a supporting cast of flavours with crisp cucumber, fragrant dill and a good splash of botanical heavy gin!

This recipe is from local food blogger Elizabeth Stancombe at “Food and Thought” (an adaptation of the great Nigel Slater she tells us) who is based here in Crouch End. They post on a whole range of things; recipes to try at home, craft beer, street food reviews all with an emphasis on seasonal and local. If you like this recipe pay them a visit here www.foodandthought.co.uk/

Elizabeth is recommending Hendricks gin which plays nicely with the cucumber or if you want to stick with the “Buy Local” theme you could try some award winning Sacred Gin which is made just across the A1 in Highgate.

Allow about one hour for preparation and cooking

Ingredients for Salmon Wellington

  • 1 x 2.5kg of side salmon from Walter Purkis and Sons (skinned and cut in half)  
  • 1 x 380g of puff pastry
  • 2 medium cucumbers, with the middle seed section taken out
  • 3 tbsp of Dijon mustard
  • 2 tbsp clear honey
  • 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar
  • 75ml gin
  • Zest of half a lemon
  • 30g of dill, finely chopped
  • 1 egg mixed with a drop of milk for egg wash

Cooking Method for Salmon Wellington

  1. 3 to 4 hours before you intend to pop your salmon wellington in the oven, make the relish that goes in the middle of the salmon. Take the watery, seeded middles out the cucumber and cut into thin crescent moons.
  2. Add to the cucumber to the gin, mustard, honey, white wine vinegar, dill and lemon zest. Taste and season with salt. You want a sharp but sweet pickle taste, heavy with dill and the gin. However, you may need to add a little more honey or vinegar to balance the flavours.
  3. Leave the relish in the fridge for at least 3 hours (5-6 if you can wait that long) to allow the cucumber to marinate in the gin.
  4. Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius when you are ready to cook and drain all liquid from your relish.
  5. On a well floured and dry surface roll out your puff pastry to 40cm x 30cm and transfer to a lined baking tray
  6. Place one of the pieces of salmon on the pastry and cover in a layer of relish but don’t over-fill (leaving some to be served with the cooked dish). Then place the other piece of salmon on top, making a salmon relish sandwich.
  7. Once you have that all in place, egg wash the edges of the pastry and wrap the salmon up tight leaving a long gap in the top to allow moisture to escape. Egg wash to ensure a golden finish and decorate however you want. Like me you can go for a tacky fish shape with tail and scales, or you can keep it classy.
  8. Bake for 45 minutes until crisp and golden. (If the pastry is catching before fully cooked cover the browner bits in tin foil)
  9. Garnish with dill admire your Salmon Wellington handiwork and have yourself a gin and tonic.