Salmon on a board

Food, like music, is something that can instantly transport me to a time or place, intricately associated with feelings - usually happy ones, I have to say - I don't have many bad memories associated with food (apart from tripe).

My memories of 2 trips to the States, for example, are chiefly those of the $10 lobster dinners, corn dogs, and frozen margaritas the Husband and I enjoyed on our first proper holiday together to New Orleans, and of a fabulous salad with deliciously cold white wine my friends and I ate on a roof top garden in Manhattan - very Sex and the City, although we were none of us searching for love, only enjoying each others company for a long weekend...

France is enmeshed with a series of memories for me - lusciously ripe peaches and tomatoes purchased from road side stalls on the south west Mediterranean coast, the freshest tower of fruits de mer eaten in a restaurant on a harbour wall somewhere on the Cherbourg peninsula - the crabs being fished to order out of the sea, snails eaten in various guises, the first - and only - meat fondue I've ever had, at the age of 16, the day after I arrived for an exchange visit with a family that I am still in touch with nearly 30 years later... And salmon, nailed to a board and cooked over a fire, Finnish style, when I was an au pair in my late teens, early 20s.

The salmon always fascinated me. The family I was helping out had moved to an old farmhouse that was being renovated. The kitchen was out of action and we were BBQ-ing most days. The father of the family, Bruno, would appear home from work with various delicacies, and one evening, announced we would be having saumon Finlandais. I can't remember what it tasted like (unusual) but the mere fact that it was cooked in such an unconventional manner and was edible, amazed me. At that point, I hadn't done much in the way of camping...

So it's always been on my mind to recreate this, and it turns out the Husband wanted to try it too, and eager to create some memories (not necessarily food-related) for the kids, we headed down to our local beach, Mwnt, for some late afternoon bodyboarding and a cookout on the beach. I'd like to say we caught our fish but we didn't, but you can't have everything, can you...

And literally, all you do is get a decent piece of wood - we had some oak board, nail your piece of salmon to it,

and wedge it next to your fire while it cooks.

You can always cook some sausages while you're waiting...

I'd love to be able to include beautiful shots here of the food on the beach, perfectly styled, but this is what really happened, - beach food, that we ate...

And another food memory - 6 months pregnant with Blue, in Winchester with the Husband's amazing Great Aunt visiting from Australia, eating juicy cherries in the Cathedral grounds on a blazing hot day. Every time I've eaten cherries since, I've thought of that moment. But we had cherries this evening, after the salmon, bought from a local market garden, Glebelands, this morning. We ate them as the sun finally dropped behind the 'mwnt' itself...

I think perhaps cherries will trigger a new memory from now on.

Atkins & Potts Buttery Hollandaise

It's lovely when brands get in touch to ask if I want to try their products - even better if they come back to you a second time.

I've already enjoyed some of the Atkins & Potts range of savoury sauces/marinades including a lovely Mexican chipotle chilli sauce, a smoky BBQ marinade which we enjoyed smeared on pork in the summer and is a great addition to quick homemade tomato soup, and a beer & horseradish sauce. So when they got back in touch and asked if I'd like to try some of their festive products, well, it was a no-brainer really, and I was delighted to be sent a jar of buttery hollandaise, a small bottle of pomegranate syrup, and a cranberry, port and orange zest finishing sauce.

After my gin-soaked evening out the other weekend, I have high hopes for a little gin/pomegranate syrup and prosecco combo (watch this space) - and the finishing sauce is destined for a piece of roast ham, but for now, let me tell you about the Buttery Hollandaise Sauce.

As I said, I haven't been feeling that brilliant recently, and that's permeated pretty much everything I do. Like so many people, I juggle quite a lot of things, and so when I'm feeling off colour, there's some definite prioritising that happens, and thinking of interesting and inventive dinners drops to the bottom of the list pretty quickly. Still, I wanted to cook the Husband and I a decent meal on Friday night that we could share together after a hard week, so the easy option in these circumstances is always fish. Some salmon and some dill, wrapped in foil and in the oven for 20 minutes, left over potato and celeriac mash portioned up and fried in cakes, and some peas and Bob, as they often say, is your uncle. Or in this case, your quick easy dinner - and especially so with a blob of this buttery Hollandaise on the side.

Now you purists may say you should make your Hollandaise, but I've had a go in the past, and really - really - when time is of the essence, and you can get sauce like this in a jar, why would you? I thought it was lovely. Yellow and lemony, enough flavour to complement the salmon but not so much to overpower it. Delicious. I'm starting to think Eggs Benedict for Christmas Day morning.

And I can't wait to try the rest of the goodies.
  

Salmon in a parcel

Well, the weather is still glorious - without wishing to jinx it, it feels like we've had weeks of blue skies and sunshine. Cooking has been quick and/or easy and I've had to be flexible, menu planning, then throwing the menu plan out of the window and knocking up something with what I bought which takes into account the fact that we spent longer than planned at the beach.

I had some lovely salmon from my friendly fishmonger, and have been thinking generally about fish. Even though we're just over the county border in Ceredigion, next week is Pembrokeshire Fish Week, and there has been a lot about it coming up on my Twitter feed, so fish has been on my mind more than usual. I've become acquainted with a couple of people involved in the fishing industry here, and you wouldn't believe how little of the fish & shellfish caught round here ends up on our plates. Mostly it heads off to Europe. And that, if you ask me, is a crying shame.

But I'm not here to go into the politics of the local fishing industry - it's an emotive subject and round here it would be more than my life's worth to try and tease out the complexities. Let's just say I'm trying to buy more local fish. In fact, a great local alternative to salmon here would be sea trout - also known as Sewin in these parts, fished from the beautiful River Teifi. It would work brilliantly in this recipe. Speaking of which...

So, we were going to have salmon fishcakes from an old Good Food mag, but by the time we got home from the beach, I just wasn't in the mood to do anything, and it was quite late, so I wrapped the salmon up in a foil parcel with some butter and dill, banged it in the oven, and bingo. Dinner. 

It probably took just as long as the fishcakes would have done, but it was loads less faff, and all in the oven (I used the fishcake-destined potatoes to make wedges in the oven) other than a bit of steamed asparagus and mange-tout peas, so could do post-beach clear up and get the kids through the shower, at the same time it was cooking.

Salmon (or Sewin) in a parcel

500g piece of salmon
small pack of dill, thick stalks removed, finely chopped
around 25g unsalted butter
salt & freshly ground pepper
tin foil

Pre-heat your oven to 220C. 

Pull out enough tin foil to make a double layered parcel around your salmon.

Place the salmon in the middle, scatter with pieces of the butter and the dill, grind over some salt and pepper, then seal up the parcel and pop in the oven.

Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon.

If you open the parcel and the fish needs a little longer, just scrunch it closed again and pop it back in the oven. 

Creamy, Sweet Chilli Salmon Pasta

What! Another guest post - I hear you cry? Well, frankly yes. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this quick easy comfort food type of meal. Elle at Nutritionist Resource approached me and asked if I'd be interested in sharing the recipe on my blog, and so here it is. Quick, easy, comforting and yet low on calories. 


Creamy, Sweet Chilli Salmon Pasta
When you've had a busy day and you're overtired, overworked and underfed, you need some comfort food. Now, I am not talking about fatty pies in buttery pastry or your usual from the local Indian takeaway. I am talking about a meal that is so quick, easy and comforting that you will have made it, eaten it and washed up in the same time it would take you to wait for the takeaway delivery. Plus, it is a fraction of the calories and price – win win! To make one meal, you will need:

• 1 salmon fillet
  
• Around a tablespoon of Light Philadelphia
  
• A glug of sweet chilli sauce (no time for measurements when you're this hungry!)
  
• A portion of pasta
  
• A large handful of mangetout
  
  
  
  
  
  1. Preheat your oven to meet the needs of your salmon. (For the purposes of this recipe, mine was at 180°C) and bring a large pan of water to the boil.
     
  
  
  2. Drizzle some sweet chilli sauce over the top of your salmon, pop it into the centre of the oven and set your timer (15 minutes for mine). Add your pasta to the boiling water and cook according to packet instructions. When it is about three minutes from being cooked, add your mangetout to the pasta. You want these to still have a little bit of bite to them so be careful not too overcook.
     
  
  
  3. Drain your pasta and mangetout and toss in boiling water to get rid of any starch. Add your Philly to the pan with a glug of sweet chilli sauce and start simmering on a low heat. Just before your salmon is ready, chuck the pasta and mangetout into the warm Philly mixture and whack up the heat.
     
     
  4. Take your salmon out of the oven and keep going back to the pasta to give it a good stir. Use a fish slice to remove the skin from the salmon in the baking tray, check your pasta and sauce is hot enough and pile it all on to your plate. 
     
     
  5. Ta- daa! All done! This recipe took me twenty minutes to make including the time it took to preheat the oven. 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     Creamy, tasty comfort food at just a snip of the calories!
     
  
   Tips and Variations
  
  • You could try other tasty seafood such as trout or prawns or even go for chicken pieces.
    
  • I used fresh rigatoni in this recipe as it's so quick to cook but feel free to use your own personal preference. If you want to be really healthy and smug, use wholemeal pasta.
    
  • I really like mangetout but brocolli, sugar snap peas, frozen peas, green beans, sweetcorn, pretty much anything works with this. Just use whatever you have in the fridge/ cupboards.
    
  • The ratio of philly to pasta may look a bit mean in the pan but please trust me, you really don't need a lot. I thought I'd try and be really greedy once and just add loads in but it was far too rich.
    
  • You could try any of the philly flavours or keep the original one and add diced fresh chilli for a real kick.
    Double, triple or quadruple this recipe till your hearts content but please check on the cooking times for your salmon. Different sizes and quantities will mean different time frames.
    
    You kind find out more about Nutritionist Resource on their website - here