Smoked Mackerel and Grapefruit Salad

I dreamt this recipe up whilst on a run around suburban Gothenburg. I set off in a quandary about what to have for supper, knowing that after a run I would be hungry but not want anything too heavy. I knew I had a grapefruit in the fridge along with a bag of salad and some smoked mackerel. And somehow I landed up with the dish you can see above. And to make matters even better it not only tasted fantastic and was healthy but has also go the thumbs up from my Swedish colleagues!

Ingredients:

I smoked mackerel
½ a grapefruit
6 dessert spoons of crème fraiche
1 avocado
Half a bag of salad
4 teaspoons of caviar
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
A dozen mussels (optional)
Scandinavian crisp bread

Method:

Remove the flesh from inside the grapefruit and cut the fruit into segments. Squeeze the juice that is left inside the skin into a bowl but don’t mangle the skin.

Shred the mackerel fillet. Roughly chop your mussels and add. Then mix with the crème fraiche and the grapefruit juice. Stir through 2 teaspoons of caviar. Season with pepper and a touch of salt. Then spoon the mixture into the grapefruit half and top with another teaspoon of caviar.

To make the salad empty the leaves into a salad bowl and dress with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (or you could use the juice from the other half of the grapefruit). Then add the individual grapefruit segments and sliced avocado. Then add another teaspoon of caviar and mix together.

Serve with some crispy Scandinavian bread.

It was just what I wanted. And tasted even better for not only using everything in the fridge but also being healthy. To make it even better you could add some horseradish to the crème fraiche and make the salad a lot more interesting. The combination of acid from the grapefruit and smoky, creaminess of the mackerel turned out to be a great match. It makes for a fun change from the normal squirt of lemon and parsley with smoked mackerel pate. And I felt very intelligent the next day thanks to all the fish oils. Apart from when I sent an email to a client and called them the wrong name!

When I told Cowie what I’d made, I realised that I am cooking for her even though she’s not here.

Sumac Salmon and Apricot Tart

Cowie and I have caught Ottolegnhi fever. It’s a rare condition where the victim exhibits symptons of boredom with normal food and a craving for exotic sounding spices like sumac and Za’atar. Other tell tale signs are a new found love of vegetables and an addiction to scorched broccoli.

So when Cowie and I planned our latest dinner party it was only natural that it took on an Ottoleghi feel. Feeling confident having followed some of his recipes carefully, we decided to branch out and use the book as inspiration rather than treating it like a copy of the ten commandments. Our menu was:

Starter: Communal watercress salad with griddled nectarine, goats cheese and mandarin oil dressing

Main: Whole sumac BBQ salmon with fregola and sumac yoghurt

Dessert: Apricot semolina tart

For the salad we simply griddled some nectaries assembled a large salad of watercress, soft goats cheese and slices of prosciutto. We then sprinkled it with a dressing made from Nudo mandarin olive oil and white balsamic and a few turns of salt and pepper. It looked stunning and was wolfed down with great enthusiasm.

Kicking off dinner parties with shared salads like this where everyone can help themselves whilst having a drink is a great way of taking some of the strain out of being a host. It saves washing up and can be prepared really easily. It allowed us to concentrate on doing justice to the salmon…

As a result of our excellent turbot, we decided to source our wild side of salmon to feed 12 from Moxons. It costs more. But when it is the star of the show, it’s worth it.

I whipped up a marinade of olive oil, sumac, salt, pepper and sumac and left it to rest for half an hour whilst we got the BBQ up to heat. The logistics of BBQing a whole side of salmon are simple. But daunting. One wrong move and the fish falls apart and everyone goes home hungry. Having collected lots of advice from various books and websites I dived straight in with Cowie almost shouting at me to play it safe and cook it in foil… Pah…

Here’s what to do:

1. Clean the grill and then oil it so it’s nice and slippy
2. If you aren’t marinating the fish, then make sure you oil the skin
3. Disperse the embers so that you aren’t cooking directly above them – it’s much better cooking on indirect heat as it avoids burning
4. Place the fish skin side down
5. Attend to your fish with unwavering concentration
6. When the time is right, use two spatulas/fish slices and use quick jabbing movements and turn he fish quickly
7. Only turn your fish once
8. The fish will only need a short amount of cooking on the flesh side
9. Remove from the heat and serve

Our salmon took around 15-20 minutes of gentle cooking before it was ready. The smell of heat on fish skin is one of my favourites.

To our delight the salmon was perfect. The skin was so crispy and fragrant that fish skin haters lapped it up with glee; the flesh teased apart and made serving it a doddle; and It was still thrillingly medium rare. Phew!

The yoghurt dressing with sumac, lemon zest, chilli and clutch of herbs from the garden offered a fresh creamy counterpoint to the vibrant fish. The exotic, lemony flavour of sumac was very subtle, but utterly delicious. It’s got us hooked!

A bowl of fregola mixed with cous cous hazlenuts, tomatoes and herbs wasn’t half bad either! Another doff of cap to Ottolenghi.

After the success of a semolina rhubarb tart earlier in the year we decided to make the most of a glut of apricots by making them into a tart. It’s very easy and tastes great. The night before simply make a semolina cream by heating 1 1/2 cups of milk spiked with vanilla and when it gets hot add 45 grams of fine semolina and 55 grams of caster sugar. Stir this as it heat and bring to the boil. Cook for a little longer and when it is smooth and thick remove from the heat. Allow it cool a little and then beat in 3 egg yolks. Set this aside in plastic bowl and cover with cling-film that hugs the cream to avoid a skin forming. Then on the night of the dinner party blind bake some dessert pastry, allow to cool and then spoon in the semolina cream. Now you can get arty. Arrange your slices of fresh apricot in geometric patterns and paint with apricot jam. Then bake until the apricots have become soft and the top has turned golden.

We served it warm with some vanilla ice cream. But it is probably better (and easier to serve) cold. The tart apricots had turned sweet with their juices combined with the smooth semolina cream. The only disappointment was that there wasn’t enough for seconds! You could do the same thing with gooseberries or raspberries…

It was one of our most fun dinner parties to date. We managed to balance cooking interesting food whilst also taking as much stress and time consuming preparation out as possible. It’s a great formula, and one we are going to repeat.

Cowi-lenghi

As sad as it may sound, salads really do excite me. When made properly they ooze creativity and can be as saintly or sinful as you like. Salads are vastly underrated and whilst the sun is shining its little heart out during these summer months, Browny and I have decided to embrace the noble salad for what its worth.

Whether a salad is hot or cold, meaty or fishy, full of grains or pulses, veg or fruit, spicy or cooling, for me, the combination of freshness, lightness, differing flavours and textures can only be a good thing. Plus if you’re lucky, if you delve the serving tongs into the bottom of the salad bowl, token goodies will always come out of hiding.

It was a glorious sunny Friday lunchtime when I was introduced into the world of Ottolengi. How on earth had I a) not heard of this venture before and b) why hadn’t I feasted my taste buds on their fantastic grub until now!

As I walked into Ottolenghi on Motcombe Street in Belgravia my eyes were on stalks as I took in all the marvels in front of me, not to mention the incredible but wicked looking pastries, bakes and meringues. On this occasion I was so absorbed by the food I ordered a majority of the salad selection in front of me, plus a delightful and tasty salmon kebab, the bill was embarrassingly large, especially owing to the fact that I wasn’t paying.

I craved more Ottolenghi action and wasted no time in ordering their superb cook book. We were in for a treat. With my new book in hand I trawled Sainsbury’s to find all the vital ingredients… this was only 60% successful and was tipped off by Helen that the recipes must be followed word for word. To accompany two delicious rainbow trout I decided a selection of salads would work nicely. Once I had finally decided which salads to prepare I set to work on supper.

Now, its fair to say that I am somewhat of a nerd when it comes to a tidy kitchen and spotless work surfaces. If I have finished using a knife.. I wash it up. If I have chopped up an onion, I put the remnants and its skins straight into the bin.. But not on this occasion. The Ottolengi recipes require so many processes and ingredients to create the tasty wonders, my kitchen looked like a child’s playroom in no time. But it was so worth it. Here is the evidence:

Scorched broccoli with nuts, garlic and chilli

Pomegranate, fennel and goats cheese salad

Bulgar wheat with orange zest and tomato

Aubergine salad with pomegranate, spinach and saffron yoghurt

Baked trout with lemon and herbs

I urge everyone to go out a buy this beauty. It’s exciting, different, creative and believe or not, healthy!

Salad: The Silent Killer

Cowie… you’re not going to like this. But we aren’t allowed any more salad. Apparently it’s deadly because it is full of toxins. From Serious Eats.

Steaks and kebabs it is. Norris will be delighted!