La Cocotte Verte

— Serves 4

Recipe courtesy of Luisa’s Catering

This is a simple and elegant first course that always impresses. The key to recipes that use only a few ingredients such as this is to use THE BEST of everything. So, for this recipe, use fresh wild salmon, fresh herbs, good wine and quality butter.

*Items marked in green are available from The Gourmet Corner
Suggested wine pairing: 2006 Chablis, Domaine Vocoret

Salmon

• Four (4 oz) salmon fillets, pin bones and skin removed
• Kosher salt & freshly ground white pepper
• 8 fresh basil leaves (may be substituted with fresh tarragon)
• Olive oil, for rubbing on salmon
• 4 sheets Feuilles de Brick (brick pastry) or phyllo pastry, defrosted
• 2 Tbs melted Échiré unsalted butter, for brushing pastry
• Butchers twine (to tie puffs before baking)
• 4 blanched green onions (to tie puffs after baking)

Sautéed Leeks

• 1 large leek
• 1 Tbs Échiré unsalted butter
• Kosher salt & freshly ground white pepper

Shallot Butter Sauce

• 1 shallot, minced (about 3 Tbs)
• 3 Tbs white wine, such as 2006 Chablis, Domaine Vocoret
• 3 Tbs heavy cream
• 6 Tbs white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup Échiré unsalted butter, room temperature

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 °F.

Using only white and lightest green part of the leek, slice in half. Wash thoroughly, dry and thinly slice. Sauté in butter about 3 minutes or until softened. Season with kosher salt & white pepper and set aside.

Rub salmon filets with a little bit of olive oil and season with kosher salt and white pepper. In a nonstick pan, sear the salmon on each side for a few minutes (you just want to get a nice sear as the salmon will finish cooking in the oven).

Lightly brush each side of the brick pastry round with melted butter. Place one portion of seared salmon in the middle of the sheet. Place two basil leaves on top of salmon. Close pastry and gently tie with butchers twine. Repeat process with the remaining salmon.

Place puffs on parchment lined baking pan and bake for 12-15 minutes or until pastry is golden.

While puffs are baking, combine shallots, white wine and white wine vinegar in a small sauce pan. Reduce just until liquid has almost evaporated. Add cream and heat until hot. Remove from heat and whisk in room temperature butter. Season the sauce with white pepper and kosher salt to taste.

Plating

Gently remove butcher’s twine from pastries with a kitchen knife and replace tie with blanched green onions. Pour butter sauce in center of the plate. Spoon the leek mixture across each plate. Place salmon puff in center of plates and serve. Enjoy!

Tags: Appetizers, phyllo, puff pastry, salmon, shallots

This entry was posted on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Appetizers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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