Serves: -4
Cost: ~€8.50
Preparation and cooking time: ~1 hour
Calories: ~474 per parcel
This post has been a long time coming. I made this dish… well, I forget, but it was a long time ago. It was actually inspired by something we ate on New Year’s eve. Our “farewell-to-2012” dinner was a quiet affair. My wife was taking care of everything this time around. I’m often the one who will do the cooking on special occasions but this year I got to put my feet up. Little William had just passed 3 months and we wanted something easy, so we actually got pre-made food which just needed to be popped in the oven. Neither my wife or I are big drinkers, so we rounded it off with a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling “wine” and saw in 2013 that way – just the three of us. Very calm, very relaxing, very nice.
The main course is what inspired this dish though. We had a quite delightful parcel of assorted seafood, wrapped in salmon and I figured that this wouldn’t be at all difficult to make myself, and what’s more, it looks and sounds very “gourmet” as well. Perfect for dinner parties when you want to impress your guests. I’d received a slicer for Christmas as well, which I’d already used on my wonderfully tasty brined roast beef and I was itching to give it another whirl on something else. Suffice to say, the slicer made short work of the salmon piece I had. Wafer thin slices, perfect for wrapping around my filling. Don’t be put off however if you don’t have a slicer. A long, sharp filleting knife can be used, although it will be somewhat slower unless you’re very adept at the process. In any case, the slices needn’t be “wafer thin”. As long as they’re fine enough to drape and fold somewhat without breaking it should be fine.
The filling you decide to use is really open to your imagination. I decided to stick with shrimp and white fish as a filler, along with some onion, celery, and ginger for taste and texture. You can equally add mussels, scallops, crab, broccoli, red pepper, chopped dill – all or any of which would be wonderful!
I thought I’d share with you a photo of my haul from my recent trip to the fruit and vegetable market as well. I’m ashamed to say that I used to buy a great deal of my fruit and vegetables from the supermarket. For many years it just seemed so much easier, to be able to get everything I need all in one place at once. We recently decided to make a concerted effort to buy our produce from the local market though on Sundays now. It always lasts longer (I lost count of the number of times I would buy strawberries from the supermarket, only to see them moulding the very next day!), it’s tastier, and heck, it’s more fun. I head out on the Sunday morning… get a bit of fresh air, fill up my bags and then head back home. The vendors are so knowledgeable and friendly and are always giving you tips and advice. Likewise, you never get the impression that they’re just trying to push produce on you to make a profit. If they tell you the clementines are sweet and juicy, you can bet your life they will be! I wouldn’t say the produce is cheaper than supermarkets, but it’s certainly not prohibitively expensive, and the difference in quality makes it well worth it.
From left: Clementines, runner beans, lemons, chard, lamb’s leaf lettuce, flat-leaf parsley, coriander, cucumbers, green peppers, blood oranges, white onions, mango, potatoes, cherry tomatoes.
Isn’t there something so satisfying about spreading such wonderful things out and gazing upon the fruits of mother earth? On to the recipe though – enjoy the rest of the post and I’ll be back in a few days with something new!
Shrimp and Ginger stuffed Salmon Parcels
Ingredients
- ~600g de-boned Salmon fillet
- ~250g white Fish (plaice, cod, Alaskan pollock etc.)
- ~200g Shrimp (ideally raw, in which case allow an extra 100g for the heads/peel)
- 1 large stick of Celery
- 1 large knob of fresh Ginger
- 1 large Onion
- ~3 cloves of Garlic
- 40g of Butter, softened
- 1 Egg
You’ll also need
- ~3 sticks of Celery to act as a trivet for cooking
- 1 Lemon
Instructions
- We’ll start off by making the filling. Peel and chop the onion and celery finely and place into a large bowl. Peel and mince the onion and garlic and add this in as well. Peel the shrimp if necessary and then chop the shrimp and the white fish into small chunks, being sure to remove any bones if you encounter them. Add to the bowl with the onion and garlic before finally adding in the softened butter and the egg. Mix well until everything is well combined.
- Using a slicer or very sharp filleting knife, slice the salmon into 8 good slices. You’ll need two slices per parcel.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and then line a baking tray with foil. Slice the extra celery stalks into three pieces each and arrange them over the foil. Take a slice of the salmon and place a quarter of the filling mixture into the centre. Bring the edges together and then drape another slice of salmon over the place where the edges meet. Tuck the edges in and place the parcel on top of the celery sticks. Repeat the process until all four parcels have been made.
- Cut the lemon into wedges and sprinkle the wedges, along with a liberal squeeze of juice over the parcels. Sprinkle on some salt and cover the tray with foil, before placing into the oven for ~35 minutes.
- Plate up and serve with your side dish of choice. I personally recommend a good hollandaise sauce and some asparagus!
Wow Charles! This looks so pretty! I’ve seen many stuffed dish before, but never seen stuffed salmon and I’m just impressed by the look! I love the filling too!
Thanks Nami – it’s a very fun dish to make, and really easy too, and yet the end result is quite impressive. I wanted to “tie” something around it, like some herbs, but I completely forgot to get any sadly 🙁
ok so good – Right up my street! I am going to have to make these (with the addition of baby scallops, my favourite:) Looks stunning and I am sure tastes divine. Total dinner party winner!
Thanks Anneli – I’m not such a big fan of scallops for some reason, never have been, but with other seafood I bet it would be great! Might try some finely chopped red pepper next time too, for a bit of a flash of colour!
This does look gourmet, Charles! I LOVE it. I’ve seen some blogs suggest to pop the fish in the freezer for 30 minutes to slice thinly with a knife (if you don’t have a lovely slicer, which I don’t) I haven’t tried it but I think I may. This is definitely a recipe I want to have for a dinner party.
About the strawberries, you can preserve them fresh in the fridge simply by washing them in a bowl of water and vinegar (I think I read that on Chgo John’s Blog From the Bartolini Kitchens, but I cannot find the reference now). One blog suggests 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water. I’ve tried it and it does work, without imparting a vinegar flavour to the berries. I suspect it would work with raspberries too.
You cash from the market looks fabulous. I love going to my local green grocers for my fresh vegetables rather than a grocery store. You have to figure they would care about what they sold.
Hi Eva, great idea. I usually put beef in the freezer when I have to cut it finely, but I didn’t think that this would be a good idea with the salmon too! I was lucky that I was given a slicer for Christmas, but even then, putting it in the freezer would have made it even easier still!
Thanks for the tip about the strawberries! 1:10 Vinegar:Water eh? Got it! I’ll give it a try. Any specific vinegar I should be looking at using? Spirit vinegar? Cider? 😀
Hi Charles, I just used plain white vinegar and it seemed to work.
We made a version of your recipe on Friday night for dinner and what a wonderful dinner it was! I only had Tilapia filets, so I butterflied them and wrapped them around the filling like a rouladen-style and it worked out very well. I didn’t take any measurements for the filling so I’m going to remake it this week and document the recipe. Thanks so much for the inspiration, it is a keeper for sure!
I love your presentation, Charles! “Parcels” is such a nice name too :).
Thank you Laura 🙂
Such an elegant party dish presentation, Charles. And I’m amazed how thin you cut those salmon slices. You’re ‘the man’ with the filleting knife. 🙂 What happened to the hollandaise though?
Hi A_ – I actually used a meat slicer which I’d been given for Christmas, as I mentioned. 🙂 I’m not *that* good with a knife.
for the hollandaise, it was an afterthought sadly; I didn’t eat the dish with it at the time but really wish I had afterwards!
This looks like such a fresh, healthy and delicious recipe… you have included all my favourites 😉 Salmon, prawns and ginger YUM!!! I would love to be eating this right now 🙂
Oh, I just added you to my Foodie Friends Blogroll 🙂
Thank you GG! 🙂
Hi Charles, the dish looks so elegant, perfect to prepare in advance, and I’ll second Eva, 30 minutes in the freezer will make it much easier to cut the fish 🙂
Hi Gourmantine. Definitely! You can easily have them done the day before and then just heat them up for an instant treat! Takes the hassle out of dinner parties! 🙂
Perfect for a special night or to entertain friends. I love this!
Thank you Maureen – I hope you’re keeping well 🙂
well how beautiful is that? I think I could get these slices using my jamon knife which would work well. I agree with you about buying fruit and veg at the market. In Spain (and in the little local store here in Bexhill to) you can pick out exactly what you want which makes it better, I don’t always want a huge pack of something, just one or two….
Thank you Chica! Tomorrow it’s market day again for me… it’s always so exciting. I’m looking forward to wandering down there tomorrow to see what I can find 🙂
This dish looks amazing and I love this idea. Brilliant. I guess the hardest step is getting those fish fillets cut into thin strips.
Hi Bam – absolutely… the rest is super easy, but the slicing could definitely cause some problems 🙂
This was a yummy meal <3 Reminded me of eating New Year's dinner in bed, with Willy rolling around next to us. I like the new site layout too. Oh, and speaking of the market; time for you to get up and get going! 😉
<3 Thanks dear!
A lot of us had salmon on the brain this week it seems. I just LOVE this idea of stuffing the salmon. What a happy surprise upon cutting into this lovely parcel of goodness. Very gourmet and it just couldn’t be anything but very delicious, Charles! 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Hi Betsy, indeed we did it seems :). Hope you get a chance to give this a go, it’s very tasty and looks quite fancy too 🙂
What a wonderful, impressive way to serve salmon! I bet my husband would love it (he is a big fan of salmon). I have never tried stuffing fish in this way. I must try it one day. Thanks for the inspiration! (Don’t tempt me with the slicer! I have been meaning to buy one and completely forgot about it…).
I’m glad you have discovered the pleasures of buying on markets. It’s especially great when the weather is warm and if there is a nice café nearby, with outside tables where you can go after the shopping and have a cup of coffee or a glass of white wine (in my case 😉 ). I always loved buying on markets, but in France vendors are particularly dynamic, smiling and pleasant, so I prefer French markets and rarely buy here. The only vegetables/fruits I ever buy at supermarkets are organic, but it’s quite rare since I buy organic produce in organic shops. The choice is not as wide as on the outdoors market and of course the pleasure is much bigger when I go to the market, so I still do my fruit and vegetables shopping at both.
By the way, I love the new website theme!
Hi Sissi, I was lucky to get the slicer from a friend for Christmas. I’d been wanting to buy one, but it’s really one of those things that is really a luxury and not super necessary, and then suddenly this huge box from Amazon arrived at my door :D.
I went to the butcher and bought a good piece of beef to roast last weekend. I think it was filet mignon actually and it was absolutely incredible. I brined it (even though it’s not so necessary with such a good cut, but I wanted to try it brined anyway, and then sliced it thin with my slicer. Oh my God… the sandwich I had the next day!
I’m glad you liked the look of the salmon – it can be quite visually impressive! I don’t think I quite nailed the “wow” factor with the presentation this time around, but next time for sure :). As for markets – sadly, there’s no bar or brasserie near mine – it’s quite small – but I know what you mean. I was in St-Germain-en-Laye the other day on Sunday. They had a large, wonderful market, and lots of people sitting outside this wonderful bar in the sunshine enjoying a post-shop drink 🙂
Charles – this is a very decadent dish! I love it! What a process but what fabulous results. Definitely worth doing for a special occasion. I can see that the stuffing quite versatile and limited only by one’s imagination. I love your stuffing! I’m so jealous of the bounty from your market. Our growers’ market don’t open until May so I have to really on what gets shipping in to the local co-op. Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!
Thank you MJ – I was quite pleased with how they turned out for the first time, but of course there’s definitely room for improvement.
We’re lucky – we have markets all year round. The one near me is every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday, open from ~7 – 12. It’s just a little one but it’s lovely to have it there, even in driving rain and deep snow, hehe. The vendors surround their stalls with large plastic sheets and have little gas-powered heat lamps behind them to keep them warm!
I’ve always loved buyign from markets. There’s soemthign just so wonderful about browsing the shelves laden with colourful produce that’s not wrapped up in plastic bags. Your haul is only half of mine when i go marketing hehe, and I live alone!
The salmon looks AMAZING charles!Wonderfully moist and flaky. I hate overcooked fish. And great idea to stuff it this way, with shrimp and ginger omg. PHWOAR. I think I would do this only for a very special treat, though. Or maybe if I have special friends over.
Hi Shuhan – well, you would say that of course… since you work at one (or did you stop that now?). I know what you mean though. It’s a very satisfying experience. Surrounded by smells, flavours, so many colours, shapes and textures, it’s a feast for the senses and like I said – stuff ALWAYS lasts longer and is higher quality!
If I move to Sweden one day I think I will really miss this “market culture”. They don’t really have the same thing in the north of Sweden so for the most part supermarkets are the source of everyones’ vegetables and fruits.
I hope you have a chance to try the salmon parcel some time – it’s really tasty and fun to make too 🙂
Charles, great new look to your website. For a moment I thought I must have clicked on the wrong address; it’s like entering a new home :o). I really like the idea of these parcels – creative, adaptive and yes, fancy schmancy looking. It sounds like you had a lovely new year’s celebration evening just the 3 of you. Those are my favourite types of evenings even today…(although I might have opted for real sparkly stuff ;-).
Thank you Kelly, I’m glad you like it… I figured it was time for a change. I’d hacked the old theme so much that it didn’t really load very well in Internet Explorer and I wanted to make everything fairly… clean.
I hope you have a chance to try the salmon parcels some time… they’re really tasty and super fun to make too!
i am loving the new blog look. so fresh and fun. Love the stuffing. lip smacking good
Thank you KB – it was a very enjoyable meal 🙂
Wow this looks awesome and delicious
Thank you for your kind comment Raymund, and thank you for dropping by. I’ve heard Sissi speak of you before… I must go and check your blog out later 🙂
Awh I’ve been craving salmon recently 🙂 I would love to try this idea.. but I don’t know how confident I am with slicing the salmon so thinly.. and tips?
Hi Fati, if you have a filleting knife it’s actually not too difficult. If you don’t have a dedicated one then you just need a long, thin knife, and make it really sharp. Place your hand on the salmon and slice into the flesh under your hand. Cut it slowly, keeping it pressed down with your hand. You should be able to cut it quite finely!
This looks absolutely delicious Charles! I love seafood. Does it get any better than seafood stuffed with more seafood?! I’m so happy you guys had a nice quiet, relaxing New Year. Sometimes those are the best (oh who am I kidding – those are always the best for me). 🙂
Thanks Kristy – it’s funny how priorities change isn’t it? Now I’m all about the family time. Holidays like Christmas… in the past I wanted to spend them with friends. Once you become a “real” family… i.e. more than just a husband/wife team then you just want to spend the day with your close family, grandparents etc, and the friends can be fitted in around the main days.