Roast salmon, with dill and mustard sauce, garlicky beans and a kind of pilau - for Moulin Rouge!

Many Saturday's we have movie night, and I try to theme dinner with the movie.  This week it was Moulin Rouge! so I took a French take on dinner.  It's not restaurant quality presentation, but though I say it myself I was very, very tasty.

Double peeling the broad beans is tedious, but the resulting beans are worth it, as you don't have to chew the rubbery green coatings.






Broad beans
Green beans
Tomatoes
Garlic
Olive oil

Salmon fillets
Olive oil

Butter
Shallot
Dill
Dijon mustard
Juice of half a lemon
Flour
Natural yogurt

Olive oil
Shallot
Rice
Stock

1.  Prep the broad beans by podding and peeling grey layer.  Chop green beans and finely chop tomatoes.  Sautee gently in olive oil, with A LOT of crushed garlic.  Add a little water/stock and simmer, with a lid on for about 30 minutes.
2.  Drizzle salmon fillets with olive oil, cover with foil and roast for about 20 minutes.
3.  Melt a good bit of butter, and add very finely chopped shallot.
4.  Start the pilau, sautee finely chopped shallot in olive oil.  Add rice, turn in the oil until every grain is coated with a film of oil, then fry a little longer until the rice starts to cook slightly.  Now add flavourful stock, stir in, turn the heat right down and put the lid on.  Should be ready in 15 minutes.  Turn the heat off and let it just sit there and keep warm in the steam.
5.  Finish the sauce by adding dill, a teaspoon of dijon mustard and a spoonful of flour.  Whisk in lemon juice.  It might look a bit split but just keeping whisking.  Just before you are ready to serve stir in natural yoghurt, keep it on a very low heat.
6.  Serve, scoff ... it was delicious.

Burritos - or something similar

 Tonight we felt a bit of an American vibe, so I thought we would go with burritos.  Probably not terribly authentic, but they tasted good and we were all filled up.

I cheated with microwave rice and shop bought wraps -but why ever not?!

There were two versions - one for the pescatarian and one for the veg dodger.  That's the beauty of things like this, people can pick and mic.

Onion
Garlic
Olive oil
Cumin
Red kidney beans
Red onion
Courgette
Red pepper
Fajita spice
Lettuce
Radish
Tomatoes
Avocado
Lime
Red chilli
Cooked rice
Salmon
Steak
Wraps
Sour cream

1.  Chop 2 red onions - one into small dice for the refried beans and one in strips for the spiced vegetables.
2.  Sautee the onions in olive oil, in 2 separate pans.
3.  Crush garlic and add to both pans.  Add a good pinch of cumin to the refried beans pan, and a pinch of fajita spice to the veg pan.
4.  Drain and rinse a tin of red kidney beans and add to the onion and cumin, add a splash of water and heat through.
5.  Chop courgette and red pepper into strips, add to the veg pan and stir fry.
6.  Chop the salad bits and present on a tray, spritz the avocado with lime juice.
7.  Roast the salmon in the oven for 15 minutes.
8.  Remove the beans from the heat and mash them gently, spritz with lime juice.  Keep warm in the oven.
9.  Sprinkle wraps with a little water, wrap in foil and put in the oven to heat through.
10.  Cook the steak - to your preferred level of done - ours was medium rare - 3 minutes on each side, leave to rest for 5 minutes.  Cut into strips.
11.  Serve, with sour cream and hot chilli mayonnaise …. scoff

Salmon salad wraps

 The hottest June day in 40 years!  Well!  Actually, it wasn't that hot in Tod in comparison with the rest of the country - but it was a lovely summer's day - so what better than a light salady (is that even a word) dinner (the veg dodger was not home, so that made it easier).   We had some broad beans in the fridge too, so a garlicky bean medley joined the steamed salmon and salad in the wraps - delicious.

Broad beans
Green beans
Olive oil
Garlic
Salmon
Lettuce
Cucumber
Red pepper
Baby plum tomatoes
Spring onion
Avocado oil
Balsamic vinegar
Tortilla wraps
Garlic mayonnaise

1.  Double peel the broad beans, and steam with green beans.
2.  At the same time steam the salmon - put it on some greaseproof paper in a second layer of the steamer.
3.  Crush a big clove of garlic and heat gently in olive oil.
4.  Splash wraps with a tiny splash of water - just to create a little steam - wrap tightly in foil, and put in a medium oven for a few minutes to heat through.
5.  Make the salad - shred the lettuce, chop the other bits and toss.  Dress lightly with avocado oil and balsamic vinegar.
6.  Serve, build wraps ... like this ....

7.  Roll the wrap over, and scoff .... with lots of filling most of it falls out, so this can end up being a delicious messy event!

Salmon (almost) tacos with potato wedges and coleslaw

I fancied something a bit spicy, but it's also a firmly established tradition to have fish and "chips" on a Friday - so a bit of a deconstructed salmon taco, with wedges, was invented.

Start with the potatoes, then gently chop stuff for the salads, make the dressing and fry the salmon ... easy peasy really.  Takes about an hour from walking in the door.

Potatoes
Olive oil
White cabbage
Carrots
Spring onion
Fennel seeds
Limes
Radish
Avocado
Cherry tomatoes
Natural yogurt
Chili sauce
Nachos
Salmon
Cajun seasoning

1.  Cut potatoes into wedges, toss in olive oil and microwave for 10-15 minutes.
2.  Roast wedges until they are crisped and browned - about 30 minutes.
3.  Shred cabbage, peel and grate carrot, finely chop spring onions - mix together with a good pinch of fennel seeds, the juice of a lime and a splosh of olive oil.  Chuck some finely sliced radish on top.
4.  Halve the avodacos, remove the stone, scoop out the flesh with a spoon, and slice into wedges.  Mix with halved/quartered cherry tomatoes, spritz wiwth a little lime juice, to prevent avocado from turning brown.
5.  Put nachos in the bottom of the oven, turn the potato wedges over.
6.  Mix natural yogurt and a splash of hot sauce (to taste), and juice of half a lime to make the dressing.
7.  Sprinkle cajun seasoning on the salmon, and pan fry in a hot pan - about 3 minutes each side.
8.  Shout troops from wherever they may be, serve, scoff.

Pan fried salmon with spinach and hazelnut salad and beetroot

This is actually quite a quick dinner - as long as you bake the beetroot the night before!

Beetroot
Garlic
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

New potatoes

Salmon

Red onion
Hazelnuts
Spinach

1.  The night before, ie. bunged in the oven while that dinner was being made, put scrubbed, but unpeeled beetroot in a baking pan with whole garlic cloves, and a drizzle of olive oil.  Cover tightly with foil.  Roast for an hour or so, until the flesh is soft to a sharp knife.  Leave to cool.
2.  Cut new potatoes into "chips" and place on a baking tray, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt, and bake for about 30 minutes.
3.  Peel and chop the beetroot, add balsamic vinegar and toss.
4.  Finely chop a red onion, crush some hazelnuts and sprinkle both onto baby spinach.
5.  Pan fry the salmon, skin side first, in a hot pan - 2-3 minutes each side.
6.  Scoff.

Baked salmon with tomatoes and capers, braised leeks and celeriac with little roasties.

The veg box presented leeks and celeriac, and we had some great salmon.  So, pulled this little number together.

Potatoes
Olive oil
Cherry tomatoes
Capers
Lemon
Salmon
Leeks
Celeriac
Fennel seeds
White wine
Black pepper

1.  Parboil the chunks of potatoes, drain and roast in olive oil.
2.  Halves tomatoes, add drained, rinsed capers, zest of half a lemon, and its juice.  Put into roasting tin with olive oil.  Plonk salmon on top, cover with foil, and roast for about 25-30 minutes.
3.  Gently sautee chopped leeks and peeled and strips of celeriac, add crushed garlic, a sprinkle of fennel seeds and some white win.  Simmer until celeriac is soft.
Grind of black pepper, and scoff.

Salmon fishcakes, stir fried radish and pak choi, steamed green beans

I don't much like tinned salmon - but I think it's fantastic in fishcakes.

These fishcakes are gluten free, and very simple.

There was radish, pak choi and cucumber left from the veg box, and I didn't actually quite fancy salad, so I did a bit of a stir fry.  I would recommend it.

So,  from start to finish...

Potatoes
Tinned salmon
polenta
olive oil
green beans
Onion
Bunch of radishes
Pak choi
cucumber
fennel seeds
chili flakes
celery salt
garlic
white wine


1.  Peel and boil potatoes.  Mash.
2.  Stir in drained tinned salmon and season.
3.  When cooled, squish into patties and toss in polenta.  (Put them in the fridge if you have time).
4.  Fry in olive oil, keep warm in the oven while the other stuff is finished off.
5.  Steam beans.
6.  Stir fry chopped onion in light olive oil, add pak choi stems, fennel seeds, radish, cucumber, garlic and chili flakes.

Yum. Light, fresh and filling and somehow suited today's autumnal sunshine.

Fish pie with steamed vegetables

onion
bay leaf
soya milk
mixed fish (cod, salmon, smoked haddock)
cornflour
potatoes
olive oil spread
parsley
salt and pepper

green beans
carrots

Fish pie

Poach the fish, in bite sized pieces, in the soya milk flavoured with the onion and bay leaf, for about 7 minutes.
Peel, boil and mash potatoes.  Season well, add butter/olive oil spread and soya milk to taste.
Pull fish from soya milk with a slotted spoon, put into oven dish.  Discard onion and bayleaf.  Thicken sauce with slaked cornflour in soya milk/water, over a lowish heat.  Add loads of chopped parsley and freshly ground black pepper.
Add sauce to fish (shake oven dish to distribute evenly).  Top with mashed potatoes.  Keep any spare sauce to have with the veg for extra luxury.
Bake at 180 for about 25 minutes until golden.

Steam vegetables.

Scoff