Salmon is such a great, meaty fish. It has the body and flavour to carry off some really bold and rich accompaniments and sauces.

This recipe always reminds me of parties and celebrations at home. My mum would make a huge stuffed salmon, using the fillets of a whole fish, it would be the star of the buffet table, coral pink and stuffed full of fat prawns and rich savoury cream.

This recipe is for four people but could easily be multiplied to make the larger party sized version that inspired this recipe.


Ingredients:

2lb/900g salmon fillet- you can get this at the fishmonger section of the grocery store, they will even debone and skin it for you if you don't fancy doing it yourself!
6oz/170g cooked small prawns/shrimp
1 small bunch of scallions/spring onions- about 8 or 9
4oz/110g  cream cheese
1 teaspoon fresh chopped dill
1 teaspoon fresh chopped tarragon
juice and zest of half a lemon
salt and pepper
drizzle of olive oil

Method:

Remove the skin from your fillet if it's not already been done for you. Lay the fillet skin side down and use a very sharp knife to slice horizontally where the skin meets the fish flesh. Use little nicking cuts until you have released a section of skin from the fillet large enough to grab hold of with your thumb and forefinger.

Hold the skin very firmly and drag the knife in long smooth cuts against where the skin meets the flesh, the skin is really rather tough so use it as a guide. Almost cut at the skin, as long as the knife is held horizontally you shouldn't cut through the skin, it will just guide your knife along the length of the fillet.

When you have a skinless fillet you will need to decide how to cut it- this will be entirely based on it's shape. If you have a longer, skinnier fillet you will want to cut the fillet in half from 'spine' to 'belly' creating two rectangular pieces of fish that are roughly the same shape.
If your salmon is shorter and fatter then divide it into two portions of equal size by slicing it, holding the knife horizontally to the the surface, creating two slabs of fish that are the same length and width as your original fillet but thinner.




You should end up with two pieces of fish that are relatively equal in size- the bread to your sandwich so to speak. Set the salmon aside to prepare the filling.

Finely chop the scallions and add them to the cream cheese, lemon juice, zest, herbs and a good seasoning of salt and pepper then mix together into a soft paste.

Lay one of your sides of salmon into a baking dish and spread with all of the cream cheese mixture, lay the remaining piece of salmon on top and give it a little press down so it's packed together well and won't slide off when baking.

Season the top of the salmon with salt and pepper and a little olive oil and cover with foil. Place in a preheated oven at 350F for half an hour. After this time, remove the foil and bake for a further ten minutes to give a little colour to the top of the salmon.

Allow to rest for a minute or two before serving, then serve with steamed green vegetables or a light cucumber salad for a great party dish.