Fresh salmon with apple, capers, lemon, and white wine
Alton Brown is one of our all time foodie heroes! He explains complicated culinary tasks so that home cooks can successfully prepare something we’d never have imagined possible and he is so much fun to watch! When I watched The Pouch Principle, I knew this would work perfectly in our camp Dutch oven and have wanted to give it a try ever since. So today, I’m going to try the Pouch Principle with salmon and a combination of flavors that I love, baked in my favorite 16″ camp Dutch oven.
Ingredients:
- Four 8 ounce filet of salmon
- 1 Granny Smith apple
- 4-6 shallots
- Fresh horseradish
- 4 pats of butter (about 1/4 of a cup)
- Lemon
- 4 tablespoons capers
- 4 tablespoons dried chopped chives
- 1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
Directions:
- Prepare parchment paper. Cut four lengths about 24 inches long and 15 inches wide. Fold in half (12 x 15) and cut out a big heart. The length of middle of the heart should be about 11 to 12 inches.
- Prepare lemon, shallots, horseradish, and apple. Slice the lemon into 8 thin pieces. Thinly slice the shallots. Peel the horseradish root and grate. Cut the apple into quarters, remove the core, and slice into about 8 thin pieces.
- Lay the heart-shaped parchment out and place sliced apples on the RIGHT side of the middle crease. (Left-handed friends, please reverse these directions so that you are using your dominant hand to complete the task.)
Place the salmon filet on top of the apples, then add 1/4th of the shallots, grated horseradish, butter, capers, lemon, and chives. 
Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Repeat for remaining filets. - Here is the hard and messy part! Some of the wine will spill out so just be OK with that while doing your best to hold as much wine inside the parchment heart as possible. Quickly sprinkle on several tablespoons of white wine, and fold the LEFT side of the heart over the salmon and starting at top of heart shape, fold up both edges of parchment, overlapping folds as you move along. Once you reach the end tip, twist several times to secure tightly. Here’s a quick video of how I folded up the package.
- Place each pouch in a 16″ camp Dutch oven. Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes by placing 14 hot charcoals in a circle underneath and 20 on top around the rim.
Remove the pouches, serve, and enjoy the look of amazement as everyone opens up the parchment paper!
Lesson learned! Next time I make this, I will construct each pouch 0n top of a plate that will help to hold in the wine while closing up the parchment.
