wellington – OwlCat Designs

I have been eyeing these recipes for Beef Wellington for months now, but never had an occasion to try myself at it. But since this was going to be a Friday meal, fish seemed like the more appropriate (and quite honestly also quicker to prepare) route to take, and boy was it a good choice!

It looks so fancy and tastes super yummy! Shhht! don’t tell your guests just how easy it was to make! Just a heads up folks, this is not going to be an exact recipe, you might or might not use all the dough, depending on the size of the fish fillet. It took me a while to get this post done, because frankly, I don’t really know how much fish it was 🙁 I had three fillets, one long and narrow, but quite thick and the other two a bit more ‘regular restaurant piece of fish’ shaped. My best guess is that is was about two pounds? I am going backwards off of the half pound per person It easily feeds four, if you want to make less, you only need one sheet of puff pastry. I froze the rest, since there were two people eating but there was about half leftover. Will update on whether or not baked puff pasty freezes well, once I try it out.

What it looked like coming out of the oven…

Fish Wellington, fancy was of saying: Fish in Puff Pastry, either way it is totally worth the time hunting the frozen food aisles for puff pastry. In Switzerland you can get this fresh in the dairy section, so it took me a few years of looking, hoping and experimenting with making my own until I found it, by chance sitting there in the frozen aisle. You can make your own and I do on occasion since it tastes soooo fantastic. And yes, there are versions that use the entire GDP of a small developing nation in butter, but there are also versions using various other dairy products that are not quite as ridiculously high in fat. Although I have to say to make croissants, the butter is a must. But back to our subject… Fish. For this recipe, you could most likely use salmon, (adjust cooking time according), haven’t had a chance to try that, so if you do, let me know how it works out!

Ingredients

1 pack frozen puff pastry (you might not use all)
2 lbs (about 3 pc) firm white flesh fish fillets such as pollock, cod or similar
1 cup Spinach Artichoke Dip
1 sweet onion
3 tbsp bread crumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten
2-3 tbsp whole grain Dijon mustard (such as Maille à l’ancienne)

Directions

Chop onions and cook over medium until translucent, then turn up to medium-high and cook until starting to brown. Set aside
Pad fish dry with paper towel. Salt and pepper fillets all over, set aside
Roll out pastry on a floured surface, sprinkle the center with bread crumbs then place the fillets on top. This depends on the shape and size of your fillets. If they have thinner and thicker ends, overlap the thin ends, and cut the third fillet in half, place on top. (What you are trying to do is make the fish layer uniformly thick, so it will all cook at the same time)
Spread the mustard on top of the fish, then top with 1 cup Spinach Artichoke Dip, and layer all with the cooked onion.
Brush edges of pastry with egg, the top with the second sheet of puff pastry, crimp edges using the tines of a fork to seal. (If your parcel is rather small after layering the fish, just fold up the edges of the pastry and crimp on top, or top with just part of a second sheet making sure you seal all the seams
Preheat oven to 425ºF.
Brush top of pastry with egg, cut several vents in the top to allow steam to escape while baking.
Bake 30-40 minutes or until fish is cooked and contents are bubbly.