Salmon Pinwheels

Looking festive, these salmon pinwheels are great for a holiday table. Beautiful, they are easy to make and are perfect candidates for "do-it-ahead" cooking.

Blog's Category: My Own Fast and Easy

Intro

I made them recently for a Thanksgiving table and had a lot of compliments on it. The best about this recipe is that it's can be made in advance. Just before serving you have to pop them in an oven for about 20 minutes and, voila, you have an impressive entrée for your guests.
All you need is fresh skinless salmon fillet and couple more easy-to-find ingredients.


What is it?

Salmon fillet, split into two large fillets, rolled up with a simple cream cheese filling. Then it's sliced into pinwheels and baked.

Taste Description

Natural creaminess of farm-raised salmon fillet is amplified here with a creaminess of cream cheese filling. Green onion and dry garlic flakes give to a filling a lot of flavor. It's heavenly delicious, delectable entree with a soft, buttery and juicy texture.

How to Serve

Serve hot or warm, with lemon or lime on a side.

Salmon Pinwheels

• 1 large salmon fillet, skinless
• 1 (8 oz) pack of cream cheese
• 3 tbs mayonnaise
• 5 green onion sprigs, chopped
• 4 oz queso blanco cheese (or any other cheese of your choice - parmesan, cheddar, mozzarella, etc), grated
• 1/2 tsp dry minced garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tbs olive oil
• lemon wedges (to serve)

- In a bowl, mix ingredients for filling - cream cheese, mayonnaise, green onion, queso blanco cheese, pepper, dry garlic flakes and salt. Reserve a little bit of green onion for garnishing.

- With a sharp, thin, long knife, split fillet into two thinner fillets (see pictures below).

- Spread cream cheese filling onto salmon fillets.

- Cut each fillet across into two pieces and roll each piece into the roll. Wrap up each roll in a plastic wrap, place on a baking sheet and place it in a fridge for a few hour or in a freezer for 30-50 minutes - filling will harden and it will be much easier to slice rolls into neat pinwheels.

- When rolls harden a little bit, working one roll at a time, unwrap them and slice into 1" thick pinwheels (again, using sharp thin knife) and place them in a greased with olive oil baking dish. At this point you can cover the dish with plastic wrap and keep in a fridge for up to two days. Bake in a preheated to 375F oven for about 20 minutes.

- Before serving, drizzle with lemon juice and garnish with green onions. Serve with lemon wedges. Enjoy!

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IN PICTURES

Run over fillets with your fingers to catch any bones, pull them out. Many chefs do it with tweezers. I find doing this with small pairing knife is faster and more convenient (just catch and pull the bone holding knife blade against your thumb). :)

This is that thin, long and, yes, very sharp, knife I'm referring to in the recipe above. You have to have sharp knife.. Do you sharp your knifes by yourself? I do ;)

..before oven..

..and after..