PHYLLO WRAPPED WILD SALMON WITH SPINACH

I recently hosted a birthday dinner party for my girlfriend and wrote about it in this post.  With the arrival of spring, I planned my menu to include iconic spring-like dishes:

• Lima Bean Dip with Garlic & Feta Cheese
• Creamy Asparagus Soup
• Ribbon Salad
• & Rum Cake for Dessert 

Today I will be sharing my recipe for the main course that we enjoyed that evening:  Phyllo Wrapped Wild Salmon with Spinach.

This is a dish I invented, probably 20 years ago, and make for special occasions. It’s elegant looking but surprisingly simple to make.  Here’s how you do it:

Preheat oven to 400º F.  Start by adding a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to your largest saute pan.  Add a 16 ounce package of fresh baby spinach, then sprinkle in some Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Cook the spinach over medium heat until it is wilted.  What started as a huge mound of spinach is reduced to seemingly far less in a matter of minutes.

Next, you will need a package of Phyllo Dough.  You can find commercially prepared phyllo dough in the frozen food section of most grocery stores. Phyllo is a dough that is formed into very thin and delicate sheets. The sheets are then brushed with butter and layered to produce a flaky pastry.  Phyllo is commonly used to make a number of typical Greek dishes, both savory and sweet, the most common of which is probably the sweet pastry known as Baklava.

You will notice in the photo above that they have used two spellings for the name of the dough, “FILLO” and “PHYLLO.”  As I understand it, either spelling is correct.  That leads me to wonder what the correct pronunciation is.  I have always pronounced it “FEE-LOW”, but I often hear people pronouncing it “FI-LOW”. HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE IT?

Anyway, to get started, you should thaw your phyllo dough in the refrigerator. Remove it from the box and unroll the stack of sheets, laying them on a flat work surface.  Cover the unwrapped sheets with a damp dish towel to keep them from drying out and getting brittle as you work with them.  Also, melt a stick of butter and, using a pastry brush, gently brush the surface of one sheet of dough with melted butter.

Lay a second sheet of phyllo over the first and again brush it with melted butter. Repeat a third time until you have 3 layers of dough.  By the way, I like to work on a sheet pan because it gets a bit messy and oily.

Now you will need 6 filets of salmon, deboned with the skin removed.  I prefer wild salmon for its color and taste, and I also believe it to be healthier.  Sprinkle each piece of salmon with Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

Place a salmon filet in the middle of the prepared layers of dough.  Top it with 1/6th of the cooked spinach.

Carefully pick up one side of the dough and fold it over the salmon.  Then fold over the other side.

Phyllo dough comes in a variety of sizes.  Depending on the size available to you, it will probably be necessary to cut off some excess dough in order to avoid having the wrap become too bulky.  I do this using kitchen shears.

Fold under the sides of the dough, creating a compact little pouch.  Repeat this process for all 6 filets of salmon.  Place the Phyllo Wrapped Wild Salmon on a baking sheet, spinach side up, folded ends down.  Bake at 400º F for about 15 minutes until the phyllo dough is golden brown.

 

I served my salmon over a bed of sauteed kale.  It is a bit redundant with the spinach, but hey, it looks pretty.  And I happen to love kale.  I make a homemade tartar sauce that I also served along side.

So, what do you think: is it FEE-LOW or is it FI-LOW??  That is the question!

Weigh in by leaving a comment below.  YES, I BELIEVE MY “COMMENT SECTION” MAY FINALLY BE WORKING!!!  I’d love to hear from you!

PS – Stay tuned and in my next post I will be sharing an iconic “throwback” recipe for Rum Cake.

 

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