Tag: salmon

Rick Stein’s Escalopes of Salmon with a Champagne and Chive sauce

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

Got you at Champagne right?

Classic Rick Stein at his best, Nat and I served this at a lunch with our parents and it was a homerun; ditto the meeting of parents.

Apart from the delicacy and taste of this recipe, best is that you can make most of the sauce in advance, giving plenty of opportunity to fend off the continual barrage of humiliating stories being gleefully shot across your bows by parents:

“I remember when Robert wrote off a car…”

“Ha, that’s nothing, I remember when Natalie wrote of a yacht…”

“Tiny compared to when Robert…”

Die.

750gm salmon fillet
2 tbsp sunflower oil
Salt

Champagne and chive sauce

30g unsalted butter
1 French shallot, finely chopped
100ml champagne + 1tbsp
600ml fish stock
½ tsp caster sugar
50ml double cream
2 tsp chopped chives

Method

  1. Cut the salmon fillet into 12 escalopes; slices length ways, around half a centimeter thick. Brush each one with oil, season with a little salt and lay on a slightly oiled tray.
  2. Melt 10gm of the butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Add 1 finely chopped shallot and cook gently without colouring, until soft. Add 100ml of champagne and boil for 2 minutes. Add the fish stock and the sugar and boil rapidly until reduced by three-quarters. Add the double cream, bring back to the boil and then simmer until it has reached a good sauce consistency.
  3. Keep warm (whilst defending your reputation).
  4. Whisk together another 50ml double cream with 1 tbsp champagne and the chives until it forms soft peaks.
  5. When you are ready to serve, pre-heat the grill to high and bring the sauce back to the boil, whisk in 20gm butter, then the whipped cream mixture.
  6. Grill (or pan fry) the salmon for 30 seconds per side until just firm.
  7. Overlap the escalopes in a center of each warmed plate and pour the sauce around. Sprinkle with a few chopped chives and serve immediately while the sauce is still foaming.

Salmon with mustardy celeriac mash

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2

All I can say here is don’t judge a recipe by it’s cover.

Because what this recipe seemingly lacks in ingredients it quite commensurately makes up for in flavour and of course, ease of preparation.

Celeriac might be a bit hard to find – as hard as finding a Harris Farm – though that really is the hardest thing about it all. And at about 300 calories each for the celeriac and maybe another 200 for the salmon, it is a healthy dinner to boot.

This dish really surprised us. Very pleasantly so.

Ingredients

2 salmon fillets
700gm celeriac, peeled to remove all the skin and cubed
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
2 tsp lemon juice
100g baby spinach leaves
Pinch of sugar
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly cracked pepper

Method

  1. Brush the salmon lightly with olive oil and season. Set aside ready to grill.
  2. Boil the celeriac until tender; about 12 to 15 minutes and drain, reserving 1 tbsp of the water.
  3. Whisk together the mustard and lemon juice, sugar, 1 tbsp olive oil and season.
  4. Heat the grill or a pan and cooked the salmon on both sides for a few minutes and cooked to your liking.
  5. Return the celeriac to the pan and mash; alternatively, use a food processor or a ricer. Heat the celeriac over a low heat, adding the spinach until it is wilted. Stir through 1 tbsp mustard mixture and reserved water and season.
  6. Spoon the mash onto two plates, place a salmon fillet on top and splash with the remaining mustard mixture.

Tandoori Salmon with Fragrant Rice

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

If you’re ever short of time, money and find yourself surrounded by 6 hungry people, the fastest ‘gourmet dish’ you can prepare is a tandoori chicken, or lamb. Put yoghurt and tandoori paste into a plastic bag with the meat (chicken strips, lamb cutlets etc), shake it all around and then BBQ.

People will think you’re a genius.

This particular dish is great not only because it’s  just as simple, and not only because it is tandoori salmon but because of the rice. It is worth every effort.

Ingredients

1 tbsp tandoori paste
¾ c (210g) thick Greek-style yoghurt
4 x 175g skinless salmon fillets
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Grated zest and juice of ½ lemon, plus wedges to serve
3 green cardamom pods, bruised
3 whole cloves, bruised
2 tbsp chopped coriander
1 ½ c (300g) Basmati rice

Method

  1. Combine the tandoori paste and ½ cup (140g) yoghurt in a bowl. Coat the salmon and set aside until ready to cook.
  2. Heat oil in a pan over medium-low heat. Add onion, garlic, zest and spices then stir for 3-5 minutes until softened. Add rice, stir once to coat in oil mixture the stir in 2 ¼ cups (560ml) water and a little salt. Bring to the boil, then cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 12 minutes until liquid absorbed.
  3. Remove from the heat and set aside, covered for 5 minutes until rice is tender. Stir in lemon juice and coriander.
  4. Meanwhile, pre-heat the grill to high. Place salmon on a foil-lined tray and cook under the grill for 6-8 minutes, turning once, until lightly charred and cooked through.
  5. Serve with rice, extra yoghurt and lemon.

Smoky Chipotle Salmon & Coriander Dressing

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2

This is seriously, so good. Like, so good.

You’ll know it off by heart the first time you cook it. It is incredibly healthy, especially when served with cauliflower rice. It looks great. The fish can be marinated in-advance. It’s hot and filling and the contrast of the cold yogurt with the hot, smoky salmon and the rice is just awesome.

This is why it is seriously so good. So good, I have cooked it twice in two weeks and I won’t feel bad cooking it a third time. There is no shame. This should be a staple.

Thank you to Suskizzled where I sourced the original recipe…)

A quick note on the dry rub.

Unlike in the States, Chipotle Chilli Powder is not a staple of our stores. I sourced it from Herbies though only because I was in the area. There would be reasonable substitutes and as an alternative, I saw a chipotle dry rub in Coles which essentially had the same ingredients and would probably be alright also.

Ingredients

2 salmon fillets (skin off)
1tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chipotle chilli powder
1 tsp garlic powder
pinch of salt and pepper

Coriander Dressing

4 heaped tbsp fat free Greek yoghurt
1 Habanero chilli, finely chopped
Large bunch of coriander, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

  1. Combine the dry-rub ingredients in a small bowl and rub all over the salmon. Set-aside or refrigerate if using later.
  2. Heat a heavy pan and pan cook the fish on both sides until still slightly rare and flaking.
  3. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl.
  4. Serve the salmon with the coriander dressing drizzled on-top; serve with cauliflower rice and a small side salad of greens, sliced shallots, avocado and a squeeze of lemon.

Salmon Salad with Vinaigrette

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2 – 4

Another sub-300 calorie dish that I have adapted.

And so good.

Alternate the number of pieces of salmon you cook (2 – 4) depending on how many meals you wish to prepare. Served the next day from the refrigerator, it is just as good as warm the night before so even if it is just you, I’d do two pieces of salmon: dinner and a fabulous, healthy lunch at work.

(And swap a boiled, sliced egg for the potato if you wish.)

Ingredients

400gm green beans, trimmed and cut into 5cm lengths
¼ c red wine vinegar
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp mince shallots
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper
2 – 4 salmon fillets, skin off
4 c salad greens
¼ c sliced red onion
1 tbsp capers
2 tbsp black olives, chopped
4 baby potatoes (or 2 hard-cooked eggs, sliced)
Handful of parsley, chopped

Method

  1. Steam the beans until al dente, refresh and drain. Combine the salad greens, capers, olives, beans and red onion and set aside.
  2. Steam the potatoes until cooked and slice. Set aside.
  3. Combine the vinegar, mustard, olive oil, shallots, 1/8 tsp salt and pepper in a small bowl and whisk until combined; set aside.
  4. Heat a pan to medium hot, spray both sides of the fish fillets with olive oil, season with the remaining salt and pepper and cook both side until fish flakes easily.
  5. Put a good handful of the salad/bean mixture in each bowl, sprinkle a few slices of potato (or egg) and flake the fish on top. Dress with the dressing and serve with a garnish of chopped parsley.