SALMON IN A BLANKET

One of my favorite ways to enjoy salmon is with a tasty garnish and a crust of phyllo pastry. Although not truly a "Wellington," salmon prepared this way is elevated to a more impressive level and adds a pleasing textural element that poaching, searing or grilling cannot deliver. Regardless of the garnish being used, the nice thing about it is that it's held neatly in place by the pastry and imparts flavor to the salmon as it is baked. This is sort of like baking salmon en paupiette, but instead you get to eat the pouch!

Here, I have done the salmon in a Mediterranean theme with sweet sundried tomatoes and salty giant green olives. Baby dill weed rounds out the flavors and marries well with the salmon. A kiss of lemon, some salt and fresh pepper is all that is needed before wrapping this little fishy up in a blanket and putting her to bed in a nice warm oven.

I chose to serve this salmon with a dill beurre blanc and a baby spinach and blonde frisee salad lightly dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, dill, salt and pepper.

Slam dunk it, baby!!

SALMON BAKED IN PHYLLO

Ingredients:

2 6 ounce pieces of salmon fillet, skin off
4 sheets of phyllo pastry
1/4 lb unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, softened in hot water and cut julienne
10 large green olives, fruit removed from stone and diced roughly
4 thin slices Asiago cheese roughly the same length as the salmon fillets.
2 small bunches of fresh dill, picked into small sprigs
1/2 fresh lemon
T.T. salt and cracked black pepper

Method:

1. Place one sheet of phyllo pastry on cutting board and brush thoroughly, yet lightly, with
melted butter. Lay a second sheet of phyllo over top of buttered sheet being sure to pull out
all wrinkles.

2. Spread 1/4 of the picked dill over the center of the buttered pastry covering an area roughly
the same size as the salmon fillet. Place one piece of salmon in the center of the pastry on top
of the dill.

3. Spread another 1/4 of the picked dill over the top of the salmon. Season the salmon lightly
with salt and pepper. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the salmon. Lay i/2 of the Asiago
cheese over the top of the salmon. Spread out 1/2 each of the sundried tomatoes and the
green olives.

4. Gently fold one side of the pastry over the salmon. Actually, fold one end over! The
sequence of folds must end where you complete the last fold from the long side (or the long
edge) of the salmon for a nice presentation. Once the end is folded, butter the now exposed
bottom of the pastry. Fold the opposite end of the pastry repeating the same steps for the
first fold. Now fold one side over completely and repeat the buttering as before. Finally,
fold the last side over and brush the entire outside of the bundle with melted butter.

5. Pepeat steps 1 through 4 for the second portion of salmon.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place salmon bundles on a baking sheet and bake for 20
minutes. Cool 5 minutes before slicing.

7. Serve with dill beurre blanc and a light salad.