Salmon en croute is made from a salmon fillet wrapped in pastry - it's as simple as that. In this video Gordon shows how it's done for the Cookalong. You can make your own pastry, however, shortcrust pastry is cheap, can be bought ready made and is easy to prepare. Here's Gordon's recipe for salmon en croute to follow
Ready made shortcrust pastry is always sold frozen and can be found in the freezer section of any good supermarket.
Before you can use it you must defrost it. The best way to defrost pastry is to place it in the fridge for 24 hours.
Keep your salmon close by so you can judge how wide and long the pastry needs to be rolled. When the pastry is rolled out, take the salmon and place it lengthways in the centre of the pastry.
In order to make your en croute you will need to create an egg wash to get the pastry to seal around the salmon. Crack one large egg in a bowl and whisk lightly with a fork. With a pastry brush, brush the egg wash all over the pastry where the salmon isn't resting. Fold one side of the egg washed pastry over the salmon. Pull the other side over the fish and stroke it gently to seal the pastry sides together.
Trim the ends of the pastry with a sharp knife to neaten them up, then fold the edges up so all the joins are on the top of your en croute.
Flip over the salmon en croute so the edges are on the bottom and transfer it to a cold baking tray. With a sharp knife, score the top of the pastry to mark out the portions.
