Yum Noir: What We Ate This Week; Salmon Pockets and Mishaps
Last week wasn’t a good food week for us. When I have one mishap in the kitchen, it throws me off for the entire week. Sunday is my big cooking day and last Sunday I decided to make a recipe I’d been eyeing for a while. Salmon Pie. Now, I’m a pretty good cook but I do this thing when I think I’m all that and see a recipe and try to perfect it BEFORE I even try it. That’s what happened here and that’s why we have mishap in the title. I saw these tasty looking salmon pies on Food Network and I had everything I needed in the kitchen so I went to work.
- 4 (6-ounce) center cut salmon fillets, skinremoved
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 tablespoons canola oil, divided
- 1 medium Vidalia onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup chopped shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 4 cups washed, dried, and loosely packed fresh baby spinach
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 frozen puff pastry sheets, defrosted
- Chopped fresh parsley leaves, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Brush both sides of the salmon with 1 teaspoon lemon juice and sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.
Warm 2 tablespoons oil in 2 separate skillets over medium-high heat. Add half of the onion and half the garlic to each pan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and thyme into 1 pan and the spinach, lemon zest and remain lemon juice in the other pan. Stir the spinach until it wilts, then transfer it to a bowl and set aside. Saute the mushrooms until they are reduced and tender, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the sour cream. Set aside.
Trim the thinner ends of the salmon fillet so you have 4 pieces of even thickness. Unroll a pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Pass a rolling pin lightly over 2 or 3 times to seal the seams and lengthen slightly. Cut the pastry sheet into 3 equal strips, using the natural seams as a guide. Roll out the second puff pastry sheet to get 1 more strip. Save remaining puff pastry for another use. Lightly prick the 4 strips with a fork. Put 1 heaping spoonful ofmushroom mixture on 1 half of each pastry, top with salmon, then layer with a heaping spoonful of spinach mixture. Wet the edges of the pastry with water and fold over the other half, pressing lightly and folding to seal the edges. Repeat with remaining pastry and filling. Cut 2 vents on the top of each pastry packet and arrange them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake until the pastry is golden and fish is just opaque in the center, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Bam. Should’ve been delicious but instead I left out the salt and the damn pepper and everything turned put bland. It looked beautiful but tasted like shit. I was so pissed.
This week, I played it safe. I went to my go to specialty-cornish hens. I had to redeem myself and I did a damn good job. I baked my baby birds, roasted butternut squash, corn on the cob, glazed baby carrots with brown sugar and sauteed spinach with garlic. It was delish! I also used this opportunity to introduce more veggies as sides instead of rice, potatoes or pasta. Just a side note, I could eat spinach all day everyday! I love it sauteed in olive oil with chopped garlic and a dash of salt. Here’s my plate. Dig in! And yes, I eat everything on a white plate. 
Recipe via Food Network
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed so you get first dibs on all things glamorous!!Tags: dinner, recipe, salmon pie
