Herb crusted Salmon

A delightful idea making for an impressively flavoured meal. Simple to prepare with everyday ingredients, can be made a little in advance then placed in the oven whilst you entertain your guests, just slice into generous portions at the table.

A side of Salmon, deboned and skinned
A bunch of herbs-fresh from the garden
100g butter
Fresh breadcrumbs made from several slices of bread
1 lemon
dried fresh chilli-to taste!
sea salt
black pepper

Butter a greaseproof sheet and place on a baking sheet.
Place the salmon on this and cover generously with sea salt and black pepper, place in fridge.
Meanwhile remove the zest from the lemon with a fine grater and squeeze the juice.
Slice and chop the chilli.
Finely chop your fresh herbs, we used parsley, sage, thyme and chive.
Put the soft fresh breadcrumbs in a bowl, add the herbs, chilli and lemon zest, season with salt and pepper and mix together with your hands. (to make breadcrumbs, simply wizz some bread in a liquidizer or food processor).
Pour over the lemon juice and turn the mixture over a couple of times, leave to soak in for a few minutes.
Remove Salmon from the fridge and sprinkle the herb and breadcrumb mix generously over the top, take care to cover the edges too.
Dot the crusted Salmon with the remaining butter.
Bake in the oven on about 170 centigrade for 20 minutes until the crust is beginning to brown and the Salmon is just cooked, ideally it will still have an almost jelly type texture, rather like smoked salmon.

Enjoy.

Sourdough Pizza

Sourdough Pizza

Thought that we could have a change from bread, so knocked out a little sourdough pizza base, then whilst it was proving nipped out for a couple of hours on the bike. Just a case of rolling out, baking off and topping then for a quick warming and thoroughly enjoyable meal. Just great on these sunny winter days....

For the bases you will need:-
200g Sourdough starter-see earlier recipe May 2012
125ml warm water
30ml olive oil
10ml maple syrup
400g strong plain flour
10g sea salt
Quarter teaspoon garlic salt

Simply place all ingredients, except for the salt, in a mixer bowl and using a dough hook, mix thoroughly for 4 minutes or until a soft very slightly tacky dough forms.

Allow to stand for 10 minutes, then add the sea salt and thoroughly knead for 2 minutes. Cover with a cloth and allow to stand at room temperature for up to 6 hours prior to use. Knock back a couple times during this period of time.

Turn oven on to 180 centigrade. Knock dough back and knead into a ball. Divide the dough equally into 4-6 pieces (depending on your chosen base size). Roll out on a lightly floured surface to make thin bases, approx 2mm in thickness. Place base on a pizza tin, bake for about 5 minutes during which time it may ballon like a pitta. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

Spread the base with provencale sauce (see June 2012) and your favourite toppings. Place back in oven and bake until the cheese is lightly golden. Remove, cut and enjoy...

Your choice of topping is dependant upon your tastes, or in this case what we had in the fridge, some Bolognese,  homemade Mozzarella, chorizo, spinach etc.

We prefer very thin bases, and have done since we experienced wood baked pizza in Sardinia some years ago. These were very effective simple pizza, topped purely with a tomato sauce, local cheese, folded and served with a quiet beer in the village square, where we ate these as the sun slowly dipped behind the horizon to end a perfect day at the beach.....just delightful.....must return one day.....soon.