Crispy Salmon Tartlets with Gremolata
Filo pastry, brushed with melted butter and laid into a muffin tin in two crossed layers — that is what makes the crisp shells. A creamy salmon filling with dill, and the fresh hit of a lemon gremolata. A dish with restaurant presentation that comes together in 45 minutes.
The salmon is poached in milk, and that milk then becomes the sauce. Everything the fish gives up as it cooks stays in the dish instead of going down the drain.
Filo pastry dries out in minutes. Keep the sheets you are not using under a slightly damp cloth — dry, they crumble as soon as you touch them.
🔎 What is filo pastry? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.
Ingredients
- 2 fresh salmon fillets (350 g)
- 3 sheets of filo pastry
- 65 g butter (40 g for the pastry and 25 g for the filling)
- 300 ml milk
- 6 scallions (spring onions), white part only
- 25 g all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 2 tbsp pouring cream
- 2 tbsp dry white wine or vermouth
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Method
- 1
Brush the sheets of filo with melted butter, cut them into squares and line muffin tins with them (two crossed layers per hole). Keep the sheets you are not yet using covered with a barely damp tea towel: filo dries out in minutes and dry it tears as you lift it. Bake at 180 °C for 5 minutes until golden and set aside.
- 2
Poach the salmon in the milk with salt and pepper over low heat for 10 minutes. Drain, keeping the milk, and flake the fish, discarding the skin and bones.
- 3
Soften the chopped scallions in butter, stir in the flour to make a roux and pour in the poaching milk along with the cream and the wine. Stir until the sauce thickens.
- 4
Fold the salmon into the sauce, warm it through and fill the tartlets.
- 5
Finish with a scattering of fresh dill and lemon zest — that is the gremolata. Serve at once, while the pastry is still crisp.