Salmon wrapped in a crispy potato crust

Salmon in a crispy potato case – Salmon en corteza crocante de papas

Taken from Mallmann’s Siete Fuegos, Mi Cocina Argentina, this recipe is great for entertaining because it’s fairly quick, original, and very impressive to look at (plus, I mustn’t foget, it is truly delicious!). When making this I substituded the recommended trout with salmon as this is easier to come by in BsAs but I think both work fairly well. The following ingredients are enough to serve four people.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2 large oven potatoes

2 trout or salmon fillets with their skin on (deboned)

1 handful of rocket leaves

Salt

Pepper

Method:

(Please note that this has been altered from the original recipe as I found it easier to follow a different order to the one recommended by Mallmann)

1.  Grate the two potatoes and place the gratings of one potato in one bowl of water and the remaining gratings in a separate bowl of water. Make sure these  are covered to prevent the potatoes from turning brown.

2. First we make the potato cakes. For this, drain the water from one of the bowl of potatoes. Fry half of the butter in the pan and then add the grated potato to the pan. Spread this out to cover the pan, the mixture should be about 2,5cm thick.

3. Cook this for 1o minutes (no need to move or turn these), until it looks golden and the bottom starts to form a crust. Then remove and slide onto a plate.

4. Now take the remaining grated potato and drain the water. Fry the remaining butter and add the grated potato to the pan to create the second potato cake.

5. Cook the potato for a few minutes before placing the salmon or trout fillets on top of the potato cake. Add the rocket leaves on top of the fish. Then slide the potato cake you set aside earlier on top of the fish, soft side down so that the crispy side is on top, sealing the fish in the middle.

6. Cook for 12-15 minutes or until cooked. Take out from the pan, season and then cut into portions before serving.

Corinne’s serving suggestions and notes:

This is good to be served on its own. My only recommendation would be perhaps to add more seasoning along the way as it did seem a little bland. Of course, this dish could work just as well with meat in the middle instead of fish.