Swedish Salmon Stew

Possibly not Swedish at all, but I got the inspiration for a creamy salmon soup from an excellent Modern Swedish Cuisine book I have.

I love reading cook books, rarely following any of the methods or even recipes, but I get a lot of inspiration - the reason I don't post with the traditional recipe and method combination is, I hope to inspire, not to instruct.

So, this 'ere stew ... how?

We're going to drop all manner of seafood goodies into a broth of vegetables.

The order is, veggies, salmon, shellfish, spices, finally, cream ...

First, the veggies ...

In a wide skillet, get some chopped onions softening in a little butter.

Make up a fish stock however it is that you do. I reserve all manner of heads and tail to boil up and keep a reduced stock in the freezer. I say that, but this time, it was a stock cube. Pour the stock into the skillet.

Slice some carrot and potato, get them boiling in the stock.

Once softened, add in some peas and asparagus.

Now, the seafood ...

Drop in whatever you want, but certainly salmon - a good fillet cut into large cubes. I got a wonderful piece of salmon just before Christmas and it's been sitting in my freezer waiting for a meal like this.

I also had some mussels, scallops and prawns, so these went in along with the salmon.

Watch the dish! We don't want things over-cooking, so once the salmon has gone fully opaque and just started to open, it's time to finish up the dish.

Finally, the spice and cream ...

Sprinkle over some turmeric and ground coriander, along with some black pepper. Ensure that the spices are combined.

The stock will, by now, be quite reduced and concentrated. Pour in a little full fat cream just go opaque. Cream helps to offset saltiness and lend a deep, sumptuous and warming character to the stew.

Steak, Chips & Samphire

The steak and the chips speak for themselves, but what is samphire?

Sometimes known as glasswort or sea asparagus, samphire, a corruption of Saint Peter the patron Saint of Fishermen, is a vegetable that grows in the marshes along seaside river estuaries.

Beginning their growth season in the autumn and continuing through the winter until the start of the warm season, whether sautéed, steamed or blanched, samphire is perfectly seasonal and such a treat for eating with simple seafood.

Nutritionally, samphire is packed with goodness - strong in iodine and in vitamins A, C, B2 and B15, amino acids and minerals, such as iron, calcium and particularly magnesium.

Presenting, samphire ...

Let's put this together ...

First, the chips ... peel and slice up a good sized potato per person into thick chips.

Par boil by placing into cold water and raising the water to the boil. As soon as the water begins to boil, drain and set the chips out to steam off - we want them dry, so pat them with a kitchen towel, too.

In a large skillet, soften a good helping of goose fat. Goose fat is perfect for frying, with a high smoke point and a great flavour.

But, chips?

Yes, that's Fries, French Fries or Pommes Frites in other popular languages - the key difference is, the English Chipped Potato (Chip) is cut much thicker than its European and North American counterparts.

Chips represent a huge pack of carbohydrate and fat energy with a potentially high glycemic load ... unless they're eaten with fat. Simply put, fat slows the digestive process dramatically lowering the glycemic load.

Want to know more? Check out J Stanton's article on Fat and the Glycemic Index: The Myth of Complex Carbohydrates.

Normally, chips are deep fried - I'm shallow frying them here so they're more like sauté potatoes, but still have that outside crunch and powder softness in the middle.

Meanwhile, fry the steak - I set mine on a cast iron griddle pan, turning after a couple of minutes. I like my steak rare.

Just before serving, immerse the samphire in boiling water and remove immediately, drained and onto a plate, accompanied with the steak and chips.

What a meal! Right ... time to go ... I'm Fencing tonight.

En Garde!

Pork Tenderloin with Sprouts and Hasselbäck Potatoes

... yet more of those damn sprouts to use up!

Thankfully, this is the last of the Christmas sprouts - they are gorgeous, but you can have too much of a good thing. We'll give it a break for a while.

That's the sprouts, what are Hasselbäck potatoes? Simple - they're just roast potatoes done a little differently, Hasselbäckspotatis in Swedish, from the Hasselbäcken restaurant in Stockholm.

Let's put this together ...

First, the potatoes and the onion since these are going to take the longest to roast - set aside an hour for the cooking.

The onion is easy - simply cut in half, sandwich a good slice of butter in the middle, wrap tightly in tin foil and bung it in the oven set to 200C for the hour.

Toss in a dish of goose fat as well, to warm through.

Meanwhile, prepare the potatoes. Peel and half a number of medium sides potatoes. Lay a couple of spoons, chopsticks or whatever you have to have down on the chopping board and place each potato in turn  between the sticks. This is so that when the cut through the potato it does not cut all the way through.

Slice each potato through, down to the chopsticks, about a millimetre or so apart. As they bake, they will open up. For a neat twist on this, cut also longways to make a hedgehog!

Retrieve the dish of goose fat from the oven and place the potatoes in, spooning over the fat to get the cooking started. In they go, 50 minutes will do fine.

So, about half an hour from the end, get the pork started.

I had a loin about a foot in length, so cut in half and browned off in a skillet on the hob for maybe 10 minutes in total, turning when necessary. Place a good few sage leaves between the two pieces and put the skillet into the oven ... we've 20 minutes to go, but we'll want to get the pork out in 10-15 minutes. After 10-15 minutes, retrieve the skillet with the pork. Careful! Hot! Cover with foil and set aside to rest.

Meanwhile, the sprouts. Cut the bottoms off the sprouts and remove some of the more bitter outer leaves. There is no need to mark an X in the bottom of each - this serves no purpose in my mind, if anything leaving the sprouts too cooked. We want crunch! Boil for 5-10 minutes.

Now, the jus - take the pork out of the skillet and place the skillet back on the hob. Add butter and whisk like the clappers with a little white wine. Get all those pork and sage flavours released and into the liquid. Set to reduce, then strain. That's your jus.

Ready to serve?

Cut the pork into slices just shy of an inch each, arrange around the plate, likewise, the potatoes and the sprouts. Place the onion alongside and spoon the jus over.