The Mille-feuille of fresh salmon au beurre rose. By the Chef on Safari
The Mille-feuille is based on three
essential ingredients – Fresh smoked Salmon Pastrami, a subtle pastry crème and fresh
cranberries.
I had just finished tiding the
kitchen of a client with whom I had just cooked an evening meal for. The number of guests was 6 mainly family but
also some colleagues from his place of employment, when the host came in
and asked if I could tell him how to recreate the entree that they all just
enjoyed. Well I said that if he would
like to join me over a coffee I would explain the creation of the Mille-feuille
of Fresh Salmon.
Well for a start there is no
premixes used in the dish it’s all fresh ingredients, although with the fresh
cranberries you could use whole free-flow frozen.
Mille-Feuille of
Fresh Salmon au Beurre
(Mille-Feuille De
Saumon Frais au Beurre Rose)
6 Serve.
Cut some thinly rolled puff pastry into rectangles measuring
10 x 7 cm and bake them in the oven.
Arrange some thin slices of fresh salmon pastrami on 3 of the pastry rectangles
and place them on top of each other, spreading each layer with a mixture of
fresh pastry crème and lemon juice seasoned with chopped tarragon, salt and
pepper. Cover with fourth rectangle of
puff pastry. Blend some butter with the crème and gently mix with cranberry compote. Coat
the cold mille- feuille with this butter.
Pastry Crème
Crème Patisseriere
Split a vanilla pod (vanilla bean), boil it in 2 cups milk,
and then take it out. Beat 3 egg yolks
with 80g caster sugar; when the mixture has turned white, add 40g
Cornflour. Then gradually add the
boiling vanilla flavoured milk, whisking all the time. Put the mixture in
saucepan over a gentle heat and boil for 1 minute, whisking vigorously. Pour the crème into a deep bowl and leave to
cool.
Cranberry Compote
12oz Fresh Cranberries zest
of 1 orange
¾ cup Caster Sugar ½
tsp Vanilla
3 Cups Water Pinch
of Salt
Pinch of Cayenne 1/8
tsp Cinnamon
2 Tsp Cornflour ¾
cup Fresh Orange Juice
Place the cranberries and zest in a pan. Peel, seed and coarsely chop the orange. Add to the pan with the sugar, water,
vanilla, salt, cayenne and the cinnamon.
Bring to the boil over a medium heat; reduce the heat to low, simmer for
10 minutes. Dissolve the Cornflour in
the orange juice. Add the mixture to the
berry mix and stir to blend. Simmer 20
minutes until thick. Cool completely. This will keep for 3days in the refrigerator.
When
serving make sure the plate is either at room temperature or slightly
chilled. Place the Mille-feuille
slightly off centre of the plate and add a pinch of green salad and thinly
sliced red onion to one side.
Well after a bit more of a chat,
another coffee and the securing of another night to look after his family and
friends, I stepped out into the cool of the evening. Driving home I thought
about how much chefs are respected in this world and how much of a gypsy
lifestyle we all live.
Where will I be tomorrow, I don’t
know somewhere out there cooking for someone who needs it I guess, maybe I’ll still
be looking for that perfect dish. Who
knows, because I don’t?