Teriyaki Salmon

This is a nice quick dinner that my boys love. 

By scoring the fish the marinade goes deeper into the flesh and it reduces the cooking time, these fillets were 5+cm thick so if yours are thinner reduce the cooking time!

Serves 4.

Ingredients

2 x 300g salmon fillets, skin on

75mls gluten free soy sauce

2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon sake

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Method

In a non reactive dish, combine the soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil, sugar and sake.

Take each fillet and lightly score with a knife, but not through to the skin.

Place the salmon, flesh side down, into the marinade and marinade for 20 minutes.

While the fish marinades preheat the oven to 220 degrees Centigrade or get you BBQ heated. If using the oven, line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Gently remove the salmon from the marinade, place skin side down on the baking parchment, drizzle over a little more marinade and then sprinkle over the sesame seeds. If using a BBQ, I just pop the salmon skin side down onto the flat plate, sprinkle over the seeds and close the BBQ, it’s normally done within 5 minutes.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow to rest for five minutes before serving.

Smoked Haddock with Spinach

I recently got my hands on some beautiful smoked Haddock from Scotland. Any firm fish, smoked or not, works really well here.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

800g baby potatoes, cooked and halved

400g baby spinach leaves

A little freshly grated nutmeg.

50g shallots, peeled and finely sliced

500g fresh of smoked fish

150ml cream

150mls mascarpone

40g fresh chives

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.

Place the spinach in a large colander, pour over a kettle full of just boiled water, set aside.

Butter the inside of an oven proof dish.

Once the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze out the water and chop roughly.

Place the potatoes in the bottom of the prepared dish.

Sprinkle over the chopped spinach and grate over a little nutmeg.

Top the spinach with the shallots and then place the fish on top, I break it up a little.

In a jug, combine the cream, mascarpone and chives, pour this over the fish.

Sprinkle over a few more chives and then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the sauce has thickened a little

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

This is easy to make, has tonnes of flavour and is a huge hit with my boys.

Uses wise, I have slow cooked pork and beef with it, brushed it onto meat and chicken on the BBQ, stirred it through noodles for a quick after school feed and middle son uses it as pizza sauce!

I triple the recipe to give me four jars of sauce as it keeps well if you sterilise your jars and lids.

Ingredients

15mls oil

1 red onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

50mls balsamic vinegar

75g brown sugar

250mls passata

50mls gluten free soy sauce

50mls gluten free Worcestershire sauce

1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped roughly

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Method

In a medium pan, heat the oil over a medium heat and add the onion, cook for 7-10 minutes and then add the garlic.

Cook for two minutes and add the balsamic vinegar, scrape any caramelised bits off the bottom of the pan and simmer the vinegar until it has reduced by half.

Now add the sugar, passata, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, chilli, cumin and oregano.

Bring up to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until thickened and darkened.

Sterilise your jars now if you are making extra.

Use a stick blender to whizz to a lump free sauce.

Pour into sterilised jars if you have made extra.

Tuna Mornay

The weather is beginning to turn autumnal here in Western Australia and with that comes the return of comfort food.

There is something very soothing about tuna mornay, memories back in the seventies and eighties of this being a bit of a go to dish in my childhood home, minus the capsicum/bell pepper and certainly not gluten free. 

Now that I make it for my boys it has become gluten free, has the corn  and capsicum in it and a few good dollops of whole grain mustard to give it some kick.

This makes 12 serves, now that may seem excessive but it freezes really well so I use the make one freeze one mantra for an easy meal possibly through the coming school hols?

Ingredients

150g butter

1 large onion, peeled and diced

250g capsicum/bell pepper, diced

3 large ears of corn, kernels removed

120g gluten free plain flour

1 litre milk

3 level or heaped tablespoons whole grain mustard

200g cheddar, grated

Salt and pepper

2 x 425g tins of tuna, drained and loosened to form chunks.

340g gluten free penne pasta, cooked as per the label

TOPPING

50g cheddar, grated

65g gluten free bread made into breadcrumbs

Method

Cook the pasta as per the label. Drain and cover.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees centigrade.

In a large pan, melt the butter over a medium heat, add the onion, capsicum and corn kernels and cook until the onion is translucent.

Add the flour to the pan and cook, stirring for 1 minute.

Pour the milk into the pan, still stirring. Bring the sauce up to the boil gently, stirring all of the time.

Take it off the heat as soon as it has come to the boil and thickened.

Now stir the mustard and cheese through and season with salt and pepper.

Add the drained pasta to the pan and the tuna, stir briefly.

Spoon into your oven proof serving dish or dishes if you are making a spare one for the freezer.

Combine the cheese and breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the top.

Pop the pasta dish into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Seedy Salmon

This is a fab quick dinner that sneaks some healthy seeds and nuts into the kids without them even realizing.

I have used gluten free bread here, crusts and the heel of a loaf, it’s so expensive to buy I don’t like to waste any of it! Regular bread will work just as well.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

6 salmon fillets, around 150g each

75g gluten free bread

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

1 tablespoon chai seeds

1 tablespoon nigella/koolanji seeds

2 tablespoons dukkah

salt and pepper

olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Check the fillets for bones and line up, skin down on the baking sheet.

In a food processor, blitz the gluten free bread to form crumbs.

Add the sunflower seeds and blitz again.

Pour the crumbs into a bowl and add the chai, nigella, dukkah, salt and pepper.

Spoon this crumb over each fillet and then drizzle each fillet with a little oil.

Pop the tray into the oven and bake for 15 – 20 minutes.

Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Cheats Salmon Tikka

I love all Indian cooking and sometimes it’s nice to mix it up a little as salmon wouldn’t usually be used for a tikka curry but for a quick dinner option this is fab and doesn’t have a huge long list of ingredients.

Serve with rice and dhal, on top of a crunchy salad or I sometimes make this for nibbles and just pop a little salmon onto baby cos lettuce leaves which works beautifully too

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients

150g Greek yogurt

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 teaspoons garam masala

3 teaspoons paprika powder

1/2-1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder

8 teaspoons chickpea flour

juice of 1 lime

salt and pepper

600g skinless salmon fillets, around six small fillets

Method

Combine the yogurt, garlic, garam masala, paprika, chilli powder, chickpea flour, lime juice, salt and pepper in a zip lock bag and mix well.

Add the salmon, gently squish it around to make sure that it is all covered in  marinade and then pop back in the fridge for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven or BBQ to 200 degrees Centigrade.

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment if using the oven.

Place the salmon onto the baking tray, spreading it out so the fillets aren’t touching and then top with the remaining marinade and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Salmon And Sour Cream Bake With Chives

This is one of those fab dishes that you just stir everything together, top it and bake, so, no sauce to thicken and gluten free to boot!

Feel free to use regular breadcrumbs if you don’t need to do the gluten free thing, if using gluten free bread, I whizz up the crusts as well, GF bread is too expensive to throw away the crusts.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

400g fresh salmon, skinned, boned and cut into 2 cm cubes

160g hot smoked salmon, skin removed

400mls full fat sour cream

juice and zest of one lemon

salt and pepper

1 large bunch of chives, two tablespoons set aside

60g gluten free fresh breadcrumbs

60g finely grated Gruyere cheese

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.

In a bowl combine the two salmon, sour cream, juice and zest of the lemon, the chopped chives, keeping two tablespoons to the side, salt and pepper.

In another bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, cheese, reserved chives and pepper.

Spoon the salmon mix into and oven proof of dish, I use a dish that’s 23x18cm.

Sprinkle over the breadcrumb mix.

Pop the bake into the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

Dukkah

Dukkah, what can I say, one of my favourite ingredients for so many things!

On its own with bread and olive oil, as a crust for chicken and fish, spooned over salads, sprinkled over rice, popped into soups, sprinkled over a mashed avocado, added to an egg for breakfast and even sprinkled over the top of barbecued meat.

This is a totally non traditional recipe, no hazelnuts and no roasting of spices but it works for us and keeps in a jar for a couple of weeks so this is the minimum quantity that I make.

Ingredients

60g macadamia nuts

50g pistachio nuts

4 teaspoons sesame seeds

3 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

a pinch of ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons nigella seeds

a really good grinding of fresh ly ground pepper

salt to taste

Method

In a frying pan, toast the nuts until just beginning to colour. Tip onto a plate to cool.

In a large mortar and pestle, crush the nuts so that it’s mostly powdery with a few bigger pieces, don’t over do it or it will be oily and stick.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Taste and add a little more salt if needed.

Store in an airtight container.

Pasta With Cherry Tomatoes And Salmon

Fish is expensive compared to other meats here in Western Australia so I love a recipe that allows for the fish to go a bit further! By popping the cooked salmon on top of the pasta it doesn’t disintegrate and disappear and I think looks rather pretty with the smoked paprika covering.

I buy salmon with the skin on, it tends to be cheaper and as it is baked first it’s easy to remove the skin and scrape off the fatty brown meat. The skin also protects the surface of the salmon while it bakes.

The salmon can be cooked ahead of time which is what I do when the weather is so hot!

Serves 6. Use gluten free pasta if needed.

Ingredients

500g dried pasta

400g salmon, 2 fillets, skin on, bones removed

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

salt and pepper

30ml oil

1 red onion, sliced

6 anchovies, drained

a pinch of chilli flakes

350mls passata/sieved tomatoes

300g cherry tomatoes, halved

1-2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Centigrade.

Take a large piece of foil and top it with a sheet of baking parchment.

Place the salmon on the parchment, season the salmon with salt and pepper and then sprinkle over the smoked paprika.

First wrap the fish in the paper and then the foil so that it’s completely sealed in the paper.

Pop this package onto a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave the parcel sealed for 10 minutes.

Once you are ready to cook dinner…..,,

Bring a large pan of water up to the boil and cook the pasta as per the packet instructions.

In a large, I use a 32cm deep frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat, add the onion, anchovies and garlic, cook until the onion is soft, stir in the chilli flakes.

Pour in the passata and cherry tomatoes and stir over a high heat until the tomatoes are beginning to go squishy, around three minutes.

Pour the cooked pasta into the tomato mix, stir well.

Break the salmon up over the pasta and sprinkle with parsley.

 

 

Steamed Salmon And Lemon Mould

I have made my Grannie’s salmon mould many times over the years but it’s time to update it a little. I should maybe change its name too to something fancy like a terrine!

This is served at room temperature or chilled, fantastic for picnics and leftovers are great in sandwiches!

Serves 8.

Ingredients

450g tin of red salmon, skin and fat discarded

300g smoked salmon, cut into thin strips

75g fresh gluten free breadcrumbs

5 eggs, beaten

zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley

freshly ground pepper

50g butter

Method

In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients except the butter.

In a heat proof pudding bowl, melt the butter in a microwave. Swirl the butter around the bowl to grease it and pour the excess butter into the salmon mix, stir well.

Spoon the salmon mix into the greased bowl.

Cover with foil and tie with a piece of string to seal it.

Take a pan with a lid and fill it a third deep with water, pop the pudding bowl in and bring up to the boil.

Simmer for 50-60minutes. Keep an eye on the water level and top up with freshly boiled water as needed.

Allow to cool and serve at room temperatures or chilled.