Salmon in Phyllo with Hollandaise & Caviar

Seafood & Fish

May 1

*If you know a few tricks, this dish is not as difficult as it might sound and the end result is stunning.*

I originally called this dish Salmon en Croûte, which would be technically correct but I decided I needed distinction between Puff Pastry dough and Phyllo, both of which are available in your grocer's freezer, and only the very serious culinarian with a lot of time and patience on their hands should attempt to make either of these from scratch.

Puff Pastry, or pâte feuilletée, as the French call it, is the workhorse of the puff pastry world and it serves as the base for many pastry items in both the sweet and savory categories of cuisine. But for this dish, I prefer its lighter middle eastern cousin, Phyllo. It can be a little difficult to work with unless you know a few tricks:

Buy a quality frozen phyllo dough product. Athens is the brand I most commonly use, and I prefer the 9" x 14" sheets.
Follow the thawing instructions on the package to the letter.
When the phyllo has thawed, remove the plastic wrapped pastry from the box, but do not open it until you are fully ready to begin using the product.
When you are ready to begin using the pasty dough, you want to work as fast as possible, and not leave the pastry exposed to the open air for very long periods of time. It will become dried and brittle very quickly.
When you open the plastic package, carefully unroll the pastry sheets so they lay flat on a clean, cool counter top.
Lay a large piece of wax paper over the pastry sheets, and put damp paper towels on top of the wax paper.
As you work with the phyllo dough, pull off two sheets at a time placing them directly on another spot of your kitchen countertop, then quickly return the wax paper and damp paper towels to your stack of phyllo sheets.
Have melted butter and a pastry brush nearby.
Work directly on the surface of your kitchen countertop. Have paper towels ready, and wipe the surface of the countertop after you’ve made each salmon bundled in phyllo to ensure that the next sheets of phyllo you put down on the surface does not stick.

No matter what you are using phyllo dough for, follow the tips above, and you'll find it none too difficult to make amazingly stunning results.

This recipe calls for any fresh salmon, and farm raised or Atlantic salmon is fine, but shy away from coho or steal head salmon because they lack the oils needed for this method of preparation. You want to ask your fish monger to give you six ounce fillet portions and to remove the skin.

If you forget to have your fish monger remove the skin you can easily find You Tube tutorials in how to do it, but you will need a very sharp, flexible filet knife to do it easily.

For the Hollandaise Sauce recipe, it is a part of the Kitchen Tapestry repertoire, but posted below for your convenience. This is the original Julia Child recipe, from The French Chef Cookbook, published in 1968, from her PBS series of the same name, and the ninety-eighth show that would have been broadcast sometime in 1965-66.

Finally, my recipe calls for a dollop of caviar. True caviar is the roe of Sturgeon and no other fish. You can go as high or as low as your taste and pocketbook will allow for this ingredient, but you just want a dollop as a garnish, so any commercially available whitefish or lump fish roe will do, and a wholesome product generally available in most grocery stores is sold under the brand name Romanoff. Since this roe is not from Sturgeon, I am taking poetic license in calling it “caviar.”