Tag Archives: smoked salmon

Smoked Salmon, Celeriac Remoulade and Toasted Rye Bread

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16

Smoked salmon and remoulade

Apologies for the tardiness in recent postings; it’s been an exciting and busy time both…..

“What you doing?”

Sorry all, one second….

“I’m writing a very mediocre intro for a post on my blog”

“A bog?”

“Yes, a blog”

“What’s a bog?”

“It’s where I write about food I’ve made and post the photos I’ve taken of it”

“Why?”

(In fairness, good question) “I enjoy it”

“Why?”

(An even better question) “I just…do”

“Can I push the buttons?”

htfTFTU…… mjfeokhkoegwp@@LPKIJ{P J.

Apologies again. *Urges little one to go and find Mummy as she may have an ice cream and shuts door*

I know this is another smoked salmon post, but it’s based on a dish we both thoroughly enjoyed a while back albeit with some roast beef. It’s a classic celeriac remoulade with some griddled rye bread and good smoked salmon. I’ve tweaked the remoulade a little but it works nicely.

Criminally under used, in the UK at least, celeriac is brilliantly versatile and this is a superb way of using it – just make sure you don’t drown the delicate flavour in a tidal wave of mayo. I actually added a bit of creme fraiche, courtesy of a tip from Nigel Slater that I liked. I think it worked.

As before, this borrows heavily from recent Scandinavian influences so even though the calorie count is moderately high, it darn well does feel like it. Besides, the festive season is round the corner and this feels just about right I think. Plus, it’s cold outside. The glass of Prosecco, whilst doing nothing for my sense of masculinity was nevertheless a great pairing too.

  • 4 slices of good smoked salmon.
  • 1 medium/small celeriac
  • Juice of a lemon
  • 4 heaped tbsp mayo – make your own if you can. Try to avoid ‘lighter’ versions
  • 1 heaped tbsp full fat creme fraiche
  • 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
  • 2 tsp Dijon mustard (English mustard is too strong)
  • 4 tsp capers, chopped
  • Small handful of walnuts, chopped
  • 1 tsp chopped dill
  • 4 slice of rye toast
  • Olive oil
  • Salt

Juice the lemon and place half of it in a bowl large enough to eventually hold the celeriac. Keep the rest for later if you feel it needs it.

Peel the celeriac well (remove all traces of the knobbly skin) and julienne into strips – don’t be too exact about it.

As you make the julienne celeriac, mix it into the lemon juice to stop it browning.

Julienne celeriac

When done, chop the capers and walnuts.

Celeriac capers walnuts

Throw them into the bowl with the two mustards, mayo and creme fraiche.

Celeriac remoulade

Mix thoroughly, season with a little salt and taste. Tweak the mixture to taste – add some more mustard if you like, or a little more lemon. Leave to rest for 20 minutes or so.

Lay out the salmon to bring to room temperature.

Smoked salmon

Heat a griddle on a high heat until smoking hot. Slice the rye bread and brush well on each side with olive oil. Season with sea salt and griddle until nicely charred on each side.

Layer the celeriac remoulade on the rye bread, followed by the salmon and sprinkling of the chopped dill.

Smoked salmon rye bread celeriac remoulade

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A Simple Breakfast and Helen’s Bright Idea

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19

Smoked salmon and egg with tartarte sauce

I must admit, I’m not a morning person and definitely not a ‘breakfast person’. The last thing I need as I drag myself around the house in the morning is a plate, or bowl, of food. Coffee, however, is another matter entirely.

The problem is by mid morning at work I’m famished and with a deficit of cafes around selling anything other than heart-attack-inducing hot sandwiches, I tend to take those God-awful microwave porridges into the office. People of Scotland: please don’t judge me.

So come the weekend, with a little more time and a kitchen at hand, I try and make something properly. Ironically, Saturday tends to comprise the aforementioned heart-attack-inducing sandwich, or even the delicious but deadly “full English”. I see it as a reward for navigating yet another working week without killing anyone (I’m of the opinion that deceased clients are bad for cashflow and expired staff rather less productive).

This breakfast dish is typically something we have on a lazy Sunday. It’s quick, filling and actually inexpensive – a little smoked salmon goes a long way. I actually prefer it with some nice freshly hot-smoked salmon, but this is nearly as good. I made a ‘kind-of’ tartare sauce with home-made mayo, gherkins and finely minced picked onion. It was nice and sharp against the egg and salmon.

It’s not normally something  I’d post about, especially as I wrote about something similar a while back, but there were a number of reasons for doing so today:

  1. We have a new dining table
  2. It’s the first time I tried making Mayo in the mixer therefore NOT getting it everywhere.
  3. This morning, for the first time in living memory, it wasn’t CHUCKING IT DOWN WITH RAIN and therefore had some decent light. Oh, now wait, it’s started chucking it down…..

Lastly, Helen’s bright idea was a simple and foolproof way of getting leftover mayo into the squeezy bottle – a greaseproof paper cone. Just top it up every now and again and let it drip through. She was very pleased with herself:

May in a bottle

The mixer-mayo was actually brilliant: just beat one egg yolk, one tbsp white wine vinegar, one tsp of dijon mustard on the highest setting with the beater attachment.

making mayonnaise

Gently pour in the oil

Mayo - pour in the oil

A few minutes later, season with a little salt, et voila:

homemade mayo

For the breakfast, I simply added some chopped pickled onion and gherkin (about a tablespoon of each) to a ramekin of the mayo to make the ‘tartare’ sauce.

Scramble some egg with a little butter and season to taste. Keep it soft if you can. Stir in the smoked salmon and allow to warm a little. Serve it on toast or potato cakes if you have them.

Scrambled egg and smoked salmon on toast

Homemade Pasta

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Homemade pasta

I can’t tell you the tantrums I’ve thrown making my own pasta over the years. I just could not get it to work. I used a pasta machine, but the strands always stuck back together in a clump, or when I did get them as far as the pan, it turned out blubbery and unappealing.

Then there is the mess of course. I’m not the tidiest cook I admit, but the kitchen looked a disaster zone and after getting such disappointing results, I wasn’t sure it was worth it. I’m also a fan of dry pasta, being much better for the types of dishes I prefer (tomato or oil based). I gave it another go though, being a little more experienced (read: older) these days.

In theory, it’s simple of course being a mixture of flour and water, or eggs. I went for a fresh egg pasta style based on Jamie Oliver’s recipe which basically comprises 600g ’00’ flour and 6 beaten eggs. I basically reduced the amounts down to 200g flour and 2 eggs for two servings. Very generous servings in fact.

The difference I found this time though was in kneading it thoroughly – at least 5 minutes before leaving to rest in the fridge. The result was drier, much easier to cut and more importantly, much better to eat with a definite bite. It was a bit paler than convention dictates but then this is down to the colour of the eggs themselves. Next time, I’m going to try using just yolks to improve this though.

Veggie January has relaxed a bit to include fish, I just couldn’t do without. So I made a quick (low fat) creme fraiche based sauce with smoked salmon to go with it and it actually worked very well! I confess to using a small knob of butter though, essentially adding the fat that was removed from the creme fraiche, but it was a little bit ‘sharp’ and was better for it. Unlike my waistline….

Ingredients:

Pasta

  • 200g (just under a cup) ’00’ grade flour
  • 2 eggs beaten

Smoked salmon and creme fraiche sauce.

  • 2 tsp rapeseed oil
  • 1 tbsp whole capers, then chopped.
  • 150g smoked salmon
  • splash of white wine
  • 3 heaped tbsp creme fraiche (I used low fat but…..)
  • 1 small knob of butter – very much optional!
  • Salt (if needed) and black pepper.

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Making the pasta

I used a small food processor for speed. Simplicity itself really, just blitz the eggs and flour together until you get ‘crumbs’. Then take it out and bind it together with your hands into a ball.

Then the hard bit – knead it! Five minutes minimum, but you do notice when it’s ready, becoming very smooth and pliable. Wrap it thoroughly in cling film and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes at least.

Put a large pan of salted water on to boil now as it may take a while.

I used a pasta machine to roll it out, starting at the widest setting and finishing a number 2. To make it more manageable, I split the dough in two. Use a little flour to prevent the sheets sticking.

Rolling pasta

After the first roll, it’ll be a long oval shape, so just fold it up, like you would a tea towel and put it back through. It’s tricky but practise makes perfect I’m guessing.

Finally, I used the smaller cutter on the pasta machine to make spaghetti sized strands. Technically I believe its spaghetti alla chitarra (thank you Wiki), being square rather than round, but after cooking you can’t really tell.

Cutting pasta

At this point I recommend you make the sauce, as the pasta cooks in a couple of minutes:

Simply fry the smoked salmon and capers in the oil in a small sauce pan for a minute then add a splash of wine. Reduce it for a couple more minutes and stir in the creme fraiche. Heat through and season with black pepper and salt if it needs it – the smoked salmon was salty enough for me. Stir in the butter if you want to ;).

The water should be rapidly boiling so drop the pasta in, separating it with your fingers as you do. Stir well with a spaghetti spoon to ensure they stay separate. It’ll only take a couple of minutes to cook and slightly underdone is much better than well overdone so you need to keep attentive.

Once done, drain it and return to the pan. Stir in the sauce and mix well with the spaghetti spoon.

Sphaghetti with smoked salmon and creme fraiche

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