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.

Garlic bread

Garlic bread

Well, having made the garlic butter it would be a shame not to make garlic bread! Be warned though, once you have made your own, you will never want to have that poor greasy and bitter tasting shop bought alternative again. Imagine the wonderful aroma as you open this up at the table for your guests to tear at with their meal.

Simply take a french stick or baguette and cut it three quarters through, every 2cm all the way along its length. In  each cut place a generous helping of garlic butter, wrap in foil and bake for 10 minutes until all the butter is melted, serve and enjoy. 

See the pictures, simple to make and a pleasure to eat.

Garlic Butter

Garlic butter

Everyones favourite, yet seldom made well today. Garlic butter can be made in advance, frozen in little cylinders ready for later use, all you need to do is to remove it from the freezer a few before you slice it and place it carefully over your fish or steak or even to flavour a sauce. It is of course a great base for making garlic bread too.

500g Butter, retain both wrappers

Good bunch chopped parsley

Garlic to taste, use your own discretion!

Sea salt,

Black pepper

Place the butter in the bowl of a mixer and turn on to beat. Leave beating whilst you prepare the remaining ingredients, the butter needs about 10 minutes to become soft and very light in colour.

Meanwhile, chop your parsley finely and place to one side.

Peel the garlic by placing a clove on your chopping board, then cover with a wide flat implement (we just use the knife blade place flat on the clove) and strike it quickly with the side of a clenched fist. The skin should split open and then peel away easily, you can also achieve this by striking down on the clove with the base of a tin can.

Place garlic in a mortar and pound into a paste along with a good pinch of salt and a generous helping of ground black pepper.

The butter is probably ready by now, so stop the machine, and fold the garlic into the butter, followed by the parsley.

Place the some butter mixture onto a butter paper and roll carefully, twist each end to form a christmas cracker shape and gently press each end to help even out the mixture.

The butter can be placed in the fridge to set, or frozen for later use, it keeps well and gives you a wonderful standby ingredient that add depth and flavour to your food.

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.

Bacon butty

Bacon butty

                                                       A simple treat, an old time favourite.

A perfect winters day out was followed up with a simple bacon butty, but this is no ordinary bacon. Available only from Huddlestons in Windermere, by mail order if needed, is the outstanding Treacle cured back bacon and the equally impressive oak smoked variant too. The Oak smoke is delicately present throughout the whole slice, complimented by the crisp bubbly rind, giving a warm and full flavour with that wonderful crunch, whilst the Treacle cured has a deep sweetness accentuated by the deep aromatic treacle and dark colour that this imparts to the meat, absolutely stunning.
This was simply grilled until crisp then set upon a thick slice of buttered warm sourdough, no sauce needed, just let the bacon do the talking! Definitely be back for more soon.
If Windermere is too far to travel then check out www.cumberlandsausage.co.uk

Enjoy.

How To Chop Parsley

Hello it's Lad here, sorry we have not posted in a while but as from our last post Dad went to Paris and as it is now the school holiday I have been biking and stuff like that.
Anyway back to the food. We have got another video tutorial on How to chop Parsley. As the video tells you, you first pick the stems off, the secondly you screw it all up into a golf ball size piece and chop through it, you then rotate it 90 degrees and do the same, next you chop through it with "The Guillotine" motion. After you have chopped the Parsley you can use it on loads of things like garlic bread, on top of soup, sprinkle into sauces for colour or simply sprinkle over finished items for decoration.

A visit to Paris

Smoked Duck, Confit and Foie Gras

Just returned from a visit to Paris, and well, whilst in France its great to sample some classic dishes and then be able to bring some home too. Some years ago we were fortunate enough to stay in the South West of France in a small town called Aiguillon, where many of the local farms produced Foie Gras. So a great pleasure to find these familiar offerings in Paris too, of course theres more to food in Paris than i had time to enjoy, but what i sampled was superb. From crepes in Versailles through the range of local breads, croissant and pastries to the homemade noisette ice cream in Montmartre it was a pleasure throughout. Then theres the markets laden with delicacies, honey, macaroons, cheeses and spices reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of the area, or maybe a chance to try the smoked pigs ears or chicken gizzards that are so good on salads. The flavour of Fleur de del adds delicate compexity to any food that you season, being hand harvested, sun dried and unique in qualities, its all here to sample. Most visits to Paris will understandably take in the museums, galleries and shops on offer, enjoy these but remember to refuel regularly on at least some of the above.  If you are lucky enough to visit then go try, you'll be pleased that you did, and don't forget to bring something home to remind of the visit.

Bon appetit