Smoked Salmon Parcels with Cucumber Ribbons and Melba Toast

The inspiration for this recipe was a Christmas present, the salmon being the ‘parcel’ and the cucumber strips the ‘ribbons’. Quite rich and very spoily, it made the perfect starter to our Christmas Day feast, and was terribly simple to make too, allowing for optimum present opening time. None of the flavours overpower the salmon, instead complimenting one another, and it looks suitably celebratory on the plate. With Valentine’s Day coming up there really is no excuse not to make this starter, perhaps in heart shaped moulds.

Serves 6

700g high quality smoked salmon slices 

300g creme fraiche

100g cream cheese

1 tbsp finely chopped fennel

1tsp caster sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

fresh dill, finely chopped, plus sprigs to decorate

1 lemon, cut into quarters

olive oil, to grease the ramekins

5 slices of white bread

1 cucumber, peeled into ribbons

1. Whizz 200g smoked salmon in a food processor briefly, so that it remains bitty and hasn’t turned to mush. Add the creme fraiche, cream cheese, and whizz briefly again.
2. Put into a bowl and add the fennel, sugar, lemon juice, chopped dill (to taste), salt and pepper.
3. Grease 6 ramekins (which can hold about 100ml of water) with the oil, then line with the remaining salmon.
4. Spoon in the mixture, and then seal by turning over the edges of the salmon, and adding a further piece to ensure there are no gaps.
5. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge overnight.
6. To serve, turn out on to plates (they should come out with a little coaxing using a knife), and surround with the cucumber ribbons. Add a dill garnish to the top, and scatter around, and add the lemon quarters. Serve with the melba toasts.

To make the melba toast, toast sliced bread in a toaster, then when it pops up immediately slice the toast again and cut off the crusts. Place in the oven, middle, non toasted side up, and leave until the toast starts to curl and brown. This will take about half an hour, but keep an eye on it!! Carefully remove, and store in an airtight container until ready to serve. 

Whole Sea Bass with Roasted Fennel and Salsa Verde

Yesterday, Ben ran 26.2 miles for Hope and Homes for Children. So far he has raised £351.20, much more then expected, and he is a very happy, if a little sore, boy. I am a very proud girlfriend too!! As a big well done I decided to cook one of Ben’s favourites, Sea Bass. 

The inspiration for this dish comes from the Circus Cafe and Restaurant in Bath, where I have worked as a waitress off and on for around 4 years now. They serve a fish special each day, and over Easter one such special was fillets of Sea Bass served with Salsa Verde and Roasted Fennel. I decided to recreate this deliciously fresh and tasty flavour combination, baking the fish with fennel, black olives and lemon, before drizzling over my take on the herby and slightly acidic Salsa Verde.

-For the Fish and Roasted Fennel-

2 small sea bass, descaled and gutted by the fish monger, and rinsed and dried

1 fennel bulb, sliced

a handful of black pitted olives 

1 lemon, sliced

a handful of fresh basil leaves 

Seasoning

Olive oil, to drizzle

-For the Salsa Verde-

large handful of flat leaf parsley

large handful of basil

tbsp capers

6 anchovy fillets

clove garlic, peeled and chopped

tbsp lemon juice

dessert spoonful of white wine vinegar

large glug of olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Stuff the sea bass with half the sliced fennel, lemon, and some of the basil. Scatter the rest of the ingredients in a roasting tin, then place the fish on top. Season the fish with salt and pepper and drizzle over some olive oil. 
2. Bake for around 30 minutes, until the fish are cooked through and starting to brown. 
3. Whilst the fish is cooking, make the Salsa Verde. Chop large handfuls of parsley and basil, add the capers, anchovy fillets, lemon juice, garlic and white wine vinegar. Add a large glug of olive oil, and blitz to make a sauce (alternatively, if you do not have a mixer you can chop everything up finely and mix by hand to make a coarser salsa verde).
4. Serve the fish, fennel, olives and lemon on a plate, and drizzle over the salsa verde. 

Kedgeree

Aren’t food memories the best? I think probably most of my memories revolve in some way around food. Whether it be ‘Cosy Tea’ when I got home from school, eating turkey dinosaurs after Nursery, that duck we ate for my big 18^th Birthday dinner, or that first takeaway pizza on day one at University. This Kedgeree is no different, for it really reminds me of Mum and when she’s being extra lovely and treating me to one of my favourite suppers. Billed as a breakfast (and it does taste amazing the next day heated up) we always seem to have kedgeree as an early supper before an evening out, on this occasion to the theatre.

Kind of like a biryani I suppose, Kedgeree is an Indian dish brought back to England by the Victorians and enjoyed as a hearty breakfast ever since. Consisting of flaked white fish, onion, rice, peas, boiled egg, lemon juice, curry powder and turmeric, which gives it its slightly radioactive yellow colour, it really is very simple make. More importantly, it tastes amazing too, the tang of the lemon and punch of the curry powder complimenting rather then over powering the more delicate flavour of the fish. I always have seconds and I’m sure you will too!!

Adapted from The Breakfast Book

240g smoked haddock, cooked and flaked

240g cooked rice

2 small onions, finely chopped

2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp curry powder

Juice of 1 lemon

120g butter

2 hardboiled eggs

2 tbsp peas

1. Soften the onions in half the butter in a large casserole dish. Add the turmeric, curry powder and lemon juice.
2. Fry gently for a couple of minutes before adding fish, rice and rest of the butter.
3. Hard-boil the eggs. Keep the fish and rice mixture over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Heat the peas for a few moments.
4. Chop the hard-boil eggs and mix lightly, along with the peas, to the dish. Season and serve.

Whole Grilled Sea Bass with Thai Style Sauce

Three years is really a very long time - it’s actually a whole 1/7^th of my life. So what better way to celebrate such a length of time then with food. Have you ever noticed how food is at the centre of pretty much any celebration or event, from Christmas to Birthdays to Weddings, it just makes everyone happy!! The celebration in question is Ben and mine’s anniversary, a whole three years since I baked him that first Victoria Sponge and the rest, as they say, is history.

Ben always orders fish when we’re out (that or steak), he almost turned into a sea bass on our holiday to Turkey last month. Having never cooked a whole fish before it was a bit of a challenge for me, but actually turned out to be really easy to do. Served whole with pak choi and rice this dish has the wow factor, and most importantly, it tastes really great too.

Adapted from Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic

Serves 2

2 small sea bass, gutted and scaled

2 tsbp Thai fish sauce

3 tbsp sherry

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

handful fresh coriander, chopped (plus more leaves to garnish)

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 limes, juiced

1 fresh red chilli, chopped

½ firm mango, peeled and cut into matchsticks

200ml water

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp cornflour, mixed with 2 tbsp water

1. Heat the grill to a high heat.   Make three to four cuts on each side of the fish with a sharp serrated knife. Marinate the fish in a dish with the fish sauce for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Put all the remaining ingredients except the cornflour and coriander into a saucepan. Place over a medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the cornflour and coriander and stir until thickened. Keep the pan on a low heat whilst the fish is cooking.
3. Grill the fish on a baking tray for about 10 minutes on either side, being careful not to place it on too higher a shelf (you don’t want to skin to blister too much), until the skin is golden and crisp and the flesh is firm and flakey at its meatiest part. Serve whole with the sauce poured over and sprinkled with coriander.

xxxxx

Lemony Salmon with Cherry Tomato Couscous

So here’s the second installment of the meal I made for my parents last week, a Lemony Salmon Steak with Couscous, another Nigella creation, and just as good as the last. Brilliantly easy to put together, the couscous cooks itself, leaving you time to get on and fry the salmon. Frying gives you all the control that you need to ensure the salmon is cooked just right, crispy and brown on the outside, but still deliciously coral coloured on the inside (at least that’s how I like mine). Together, the salmon and the couscous make a tasty, light meal, which is perfect for those watching their waistline in preparation for the summer getaway.

The recipe can be found here, the only changes I made was to omit the paprika as I didn’t have any. (1 cup couscous = 200g, 1 pint of cherry tomatoes = 300g)

Salmon Pre-frying 

Culinary Know How: FRESHER

Budget: UNDER £4

Kitchen Requirements: WIDE DISH, NON-STICK FRYING PAN, 3 BOWLS, CLING FILM.

Salmon Parcels

I wish there was a bit more fish in my diet, but I’m put off by price and feel I don’t have the practical skills to prepare and serve most of it properly. However, this recipe appealed because I do like the occasional salmon steak and you can throw everything into the parcel and it’s all done in one, making it the ultimate lazy supper. The addition of the ginger provided just the right amount of interest without overpowering the delicate taste of the salmon and the vegetables were tender.

From the Waitrose Weekend newspaper

Serves 2

Butter (to grease the baking parchment)

1 leek

1 carrot

2 salmon fillets (preferably without skin)

2cm chunk of fresh ginger

½ lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Cut 2 pieces of baking parchment into 22cm/22cm squares and grease well with the butter. Place on a baking tray.
2. Finely slice the leek and carrot and divide between the baking parchments. Place one salmon fillet on each of the vegetable piles, season well, and sprinkle with the finely shredded ginger. Squeeze a ¼ of lemon on each of the fillets.
3. Wrap each parcel tightly and bake for 20 minutes or until the fish and salmon are cooked. Serve with noodle flavoured with a little soy sauce.

Culinary Know How: FRESHER

Budget: UNDER £7

Kitchen Requirements: BAKING TRAY, BAKING PARCHMENT, SAUCEPAN FOR NOODLES. 

Valentines Day.

Although not strictly student cooking, and not strictly cooked by me, I thought I must show you the lovely meal that Ben cooked for Valentines Day, and the recipes he followed. It was lovely to have a night off from cooking, and especially lovely to have such a wonderful feast cooked for me. We started with griddled langoustine (BBC Good Food), which were served with a hazelnut and parsley dipping sauce. The sweetness of the sauce went well with the shellfish, which were a great choice as a light starter.

This was followed by roast quail served on a bed of pureed parsnips and potatoes with buttered spinach and a delicious plum sauce. The plum sauce recipe is from the BBC Good Food website and was initially meant to accompany duck breast, but it went very well with the quails, which were a real treat, simply cooked in the oven at 190C for 20 to 25 minutes.

Pudding was a no cook Chocolate Tart, with a sweet biscuity base that offset the bitterness of the chocolate nicely, served with a dollop of crème fraiche and a scatter of raspberries. This rich dessert provided the perfect ending to an indulgent meal, as is fitting for a Valentine’s Day. The best thing about the menu, other then it tasting delicious of course, was that it was planned in a way that meant Ben didn’t have to spend too much time in the kitchen during the meal. Thank you baby.

Salmon Fishcakes

I always wish that I ate more fish, but I tend to find it expensive and I really don’t know what to do with it. This Nigella recipe was very simple to make, apart from my tin opener breaking at just the wrong moment, and I now have enough fishcakes to last me for a good few weeks. The best thing about this option is that you can make them ahead and they only take a few minutes to fry, making them perfect for those nights when you really can’t be bothered to cook. I served mine with peas and scalloped potatoes, and although they might look a little charred in the picture, they tasted delicious.

Adapted from Nigella Bites

Makes 9 cakes

For the cakes:

500g cold mashed potatoes

400g tinned salmon

good pinch cayenne pepper

grated zest ½ lemon

1 egg

For the coating:

2 eggs

200g breadcrumbs

50g unsalted butter

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1. Mix the cake ingredients together in a bowl. Form into patties and place on a baking sheet covered with cling film. Stand in fridge for at least 20 minutes.
2. Beat the eggs in a bowl, and put the breadcrumbs in another. Dip the cakes in the egg and then the breadcrumbs to coat.
3. Put oil and butter in a large pan, and fry the fishcakes until they are golden brown on the outside and heated through on the inside.

Culinary Know How: FRESHER

Budget: UNDER £5

Kitchen Requirements: BAKING TRAY, MIXING BOWL AND LARGE PAN. I USED AN ELECTRIC MIXER TO MAKE THE BREADCRUMBS, BUT YOU CAN DO THIS BY HAND.