I’m curious about charcuterie!
I’ve collected a few interesting recipes for curing fish with sugar or salt, but haven’t been game to sit a big fat fish at the bottom of our fridge for a few days, only to result in fishy apples, fishy milk, and a booched dinner.
A few weeks ago, we wandered into The Inglewood, and I was beside myself when I saw their FoTD: beetroot-cured salmon.
Our meal was lovely, as always. It’s nice to have a local within walking distance that plates superb meals all nights of the week. The bistro staff provide excellent service and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. Dessert was something simple, Frangelico syrup drizzled over vanilla ice cream. Hubby had a dessert that can only be described as a whipped cloud. Bliss!
I normally don’t order anything I know I can make at home (open bottle, pour over tub, insert spoon…) but in this case I figured the chef had put so much thought and effort into such a beautifully crafted salad, that the simple dessert selection was quite complementary.
Anyway, on a whim, I decided to “reverse engineer” the salad at home two days later. I hadn’t had the time to test my curing recipes, but made do with smoked salmon instead. Here’s the result, what do you think?
Ingredients and preparation (serves 2):
Buy a small (150 to 200g) packet of smoked salmon.
Blanch strips of one large zucchini, handful of yellow squash and one or two bunches of broccolini.
Use the slicing attachment on your food processer, a mandolin or a quick peeler to get thin strips.
Use stock to blanch your veggies; mine was chicken with a thumb of ginger and cloves of garlic thrown in. Remind me to post about poaching whole chickens. Being an ex-vegetarian, I’ve always been abit squeamish about carcasses, but it was just so easy!
Wash and halve your cherry / grape tomatoes. Use only half the punnet if your dining companion isn’t that fond of tomatoes.
Add thin slices of ‘fridge pack’ or tinned beetroot if using smoked salmon. Again, quick ‘n easy, nobody said they had to be fresh! If you have the time though, boil the fresh beetroot and then just steam your veggies over the top in the last five minutes. The beets will happily cook through 1.5 sitcoms. Peel it (ow ow hot hot), grate it, drain off excess water, squeeze in some lemon or lime, and finish off with a course grind of salt.
Croutons – thinly slice a French stick on an angle, sprinkle on some course sea salt and toast lightly under the grill.
Decide on the fat content by spreading on some butter, brushing on olive oil or using a low-fat spray; to me it’s about adding texture rather than flavor so I just did a mini spritz.
Make dressing by whipping mayonnaise with horseradish and/or whole grain mustard to taste.
(I think crème fraiche and herbs would work as well, or a really mild whipped feta dressing…)
Construction:
Layer the beetroot, smoked salmon, zucchini and squash. Scatter tomato halves, broccolini and croutons on top, drizzle dressing over and dust lightly with smoked paprika and cracked pepper.
Ta daa! Not bad for a laid-back Tuesday night dinner at home, eh? ;)
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