Daring Cooks December Challenge: Salmon en Croute

This month's Daring Cooks-related feat was puff pastry! I've used frozen dough (filo) before, but never puff pasty. Why didn't I make my own, you may ask? Well, simply because amidst the craziness of the end of the semester, I totally forgot about the challenge until this past Thursday. Then I realized that was the only night I could do it. And this was the night before TWO FIFTEEN PAGE PAPERS (one in French!). So yeah, I used the frozen stuff.

The dough worked out just fine except for the fact that I didn't quite roll out to be thin enough, not because I encountered difficulty covering the fish, but because it took forever for the thick layer of dough to cook through (and by that point my poor salmon was no longer very juicy). The best part of this recipe, though, was the herbed cream cheese mixture that gets schmeared all over the fish before it gets wrapped up and goes in the oven. That mixture (cream cheese + watercress + spinach + arugula) was just DIVINE. And it totally made up for my overcooked salmon (IMHO anyway). Generally, I really liked this recipe. Other than the dough business, it was easy and fun and just plain yummy. The recipe is at Simone's Junglefrog Cooking.

salmon + cream cheese mixture on rolled-out dough

the package all sealed up and egg-washed (of course I used the extra dough to make hearts!)

Dang, puff pastry browns so nicely with a proper egg wash!

My dad and I impatiently waited for it to cool...

Here's what the inside looks like when it's all cooked and delicious.