24/03/2007

Pan-fried Salmon with Crushed Garlic Potatoes and Broccoli Puree

Garlic crushed potatoes are gorgeous!

Simply take some salad potatoes, skin on (let's live dangerously, eh?), boil 'em, then crush 'em gently with a fork, mixing in butter and crushed garlic as you go. The heat will just cook out the rawness of the garlic yet leave its strong perfume.

Meanwhile, steam some broccoli and blend to a purée which a good fillet of salmon gently colours up in good butter.

Serve out, broccoli puree as a sauce, potato garnished with dill and salmon on top ...

... and, something a little different: crème fraîche and a couple of strawberries chopped in half. Crème fraîche is a great partner with salmon and fruit, generally, works well with fish. This, curiously, worked perfectly.

12/03/2007

Smoked Salmon Scrambled Eggs with Shaved Truffle

Posh scrambled eggs!

Eggs should be free range at the very least, woodland reared are best since the chickens are left to roam, peck and scratch for grubs natural to their diet, and the taste difference is evident.

Combined with smoked salmon, heavy cream and topped with truffle the dish should be deep and sumptuous; a real treat!

Truffle is the fruiting body an underground fungus and rightly deserve their accolade as "diamond of the kitchen".

Let's get cracking ...

Crack three eggs into a bowl and gently whisk - not too much as to make a smooth liquid, but just enough to break the yolks and combine lightly. This texture will add to the overall effect of the dish.

Drop a little heavy cream into the egg mixture and just fold it gently.

Slice up some smoked salmon, sufficient to punctuate the dish, but not too much as to overwhelm the eggs - the smoked salmon will be combined into the eggs.

Wake up ... time to fry!

Drop a good portion of pastured butter into a cold frying pan and put on the heat to gently melt the butter. The pan should never become too hot - we don't want to burn the eggs. The method of scrambling eggs often has the pan off direct heat using residual heat to cook through.

Just as the butter melts, pour in the egg mixture and allow it to sit for a moment. Gently fold the cooked part back into the uncooked part.

Sprinkle the smoked salmon into the partly cooked mixture and continue to gently fold the cooked part into the uncooked, removing the pan from the heat periodically if it gets too hot.

Just before the whole dish is cooked through, remove from the heat and sprinlke a little sea salt over if your smoked salmon is not already salty enough. Salt should not be added to the initial mixture, as it breaks down egg whites and makes the eggs more runny.

Use the residual heat in the pan to cook through fully.

Turn out onto a plate and grate some truffle over.

10/03/2007

Vera Cruz Halibut & Mango Salsa

Veracruz, a State in Mexico and home to a simple style of cooking seafood.

Simply, a sauce of tomato, onion, garlic, chillies and olives. Oregano perfumes the dish, although over here in Britain, marjoram is closer to Mexican oregano.

So, two pans ...

In the first pan, soften some onions in lard, add in chopped garlic and a carton of chopped tomatoes. Enhanced the tomato flavour with some tomato purée and toss in chopped jalapeño chillies. Sprinkle over some oregano or marjoram and toss in some green olives, perhaps halved.

That's the sauce ... reduce gently.

In the other pan, gently fry off your fish. Again, lard is good. I went with halibut, a North Atlantic fish, which has a firm yet delicate texture and flavour. Perfect for this sauce.

Meanwhile, make up a simple salsa ...

Chopped mango and red chillies.

Plate up ...

Fish down first, sauce over, salsa alongside ... with a couple of slices of avocado.