I’ve always been a sucker for pastry, I’m from Wigan – locally we are known as the ‘pie eaters’ and I grew up eating all sorts of things baked in a pie or pasty both savoury and sweet. I don’t think I ever ate salmon in a pasty though – salmon wasn’t a staple food item in my childhood, unless it came in a tin and was only had on birthdays or special occasions on an open barm cake (the name for a bread roll apparently used by 8% of the British public, mainly from Greater Manchester and Lancashire and a whole different debate).
When I started learning more about food and changing my eating habits, pastry is one of the things that I pretty much dropped right away labelling it as ‘bad’. But over time, as I’ve learned more about nutrition, healthy eating and cooking, I don’t like to put labels on foods and separate them into good versus bad, rather I prefer to find alternatives or healthier ways to enjoy things or eat them less often rather than banning them completely.
One of my great swaps and changes is using filo pastry sheets (premade ones, I’m not going to ever be that person who makes filo pastry sheets from scratch!) to make lower fat and lower calorie alternatives to both old favourite sweet and savoury dishes. I posted a recipe for my cheese and onion pasty on an earlier blog post – click here if you’d like the recipe for that one but another of our favourites is a ‘salmon en croute’ dish – I make ours with reduced fat pesto which is absolutely delicious with the salmon and really easy to make.
Ingredients – to make 2 portions
– 2 salmon fillets (skin off)
– 2 sheets of filo pastry (I get mine from Tesco – pictured below)
– 1 level tablespoon of reduced fat pesto (I normally use Asda’s own)
– Low calorie cooking spray
Method
– wrap your salmon fillets in kitchen paper to dry them off as much as possible (this helps avoid a ‘soggy bottom’)
– lay out two pieces of filo pastry on a chopping board or flat surface, being careful not to tear them and place one of your salmon fillets in the centre but touching the top of the pasty (see picture below)
– with a sharp knife, trim off the bottom of the pasty sheets carefully, don’t discard the off cuts as you’ll use that shortly
– measure out one tablespoon of reduced fat pesto and carefully spread on the top of your salmon fillet.
– carefully place your second salmon fillet on top of the first, aligning them as closely as possible
– now its time to wrap them in the filo pastry, there’s no fancy method to be honest, so try the way you find best works for you. For me, I first take the two strips that were cut off the bottom and place them over the top of the fillet, tucking them in the sides
Top tip: Spray the layers with a low calorie spray oil helps them stick together.
– Fold over one layer of the filo pasty like wrapping a parcel and then repeat with the second layer, spraying the end with the spray oil to seal it
– Put some tin foil on a baking tray, give a quick squirt of your spray oil and place the en croute on top and give a quick squirt of spray oil
– Place in a pre-heated oven 190ºC / gas mark 5 for 20 mins (the filo pastry should be lightly browned), I turn they tray around half way through to ensure an even cooking
– With a sharp knife, carefully slice in two down the middle (you want to be gentle as to not crack the filo pastry and send it flying around your kitchen!)
– And voila, its done and ready to eat!
Serving Suggestion
Some boiled new potatoes and a big pile of veg, last time I made it, I just roasted whatever we had left in the fridge / cupboards before shopping day but have it with whatever you fancy – but remember, getting that veg on your plate is important for your health and nutrition.
I checked the average nutritional value of a shop bought salmon en croute and did a working out of my version – based on a quarter of a Sainsburys one which is 334 calories, has 19.3g of fat of which 10g is saturated, my version (which is slightly bigger!) has 290 calories, 13.2g of fat of which 3.2g is saturated.
Salmon is something that we eat once a week most weeks, the NHS guideline is to eat one portion of oily fish a week due to its high volume of Omega 3s, vital for our heart health as well as many other health benefits so if you are looking for a tasty way to increase your Omega 3 intake, then I do hope you give this a go!