Thai Red Salmon Curry

I had doubts about blogging this as it is fairly similar to the Panang fish curry I have previously posted but in the end decided that it was different enough to warrant it.

We had this on a Sunday evening when I was back from visiting mum and bf (as was) from dropping off the boy so I what I wanted was speed. To that end I used ginger & garlic pastes but of course you can just use a crushed garlic clove and an equivalent amount of grated ginger instead. Galangal & kaffir lime leaves are purely optional although they will lend a depth and complexity of flavour, and if can’t get Thai or Holy basil use some of the normal Italian stuff.

Curry pastes differ wildly in strength & heat so adjust accordingly. I used 2 tablespoons as I like it strong and spicy but do adjust according to taste. Mae Ploy is a particularly good brand to get if you can. The tubs are quite big but they last well in the fridge and most closely resemble, to my mind, what a pounded Thai curry paste would look like if you made it yourself. If you use Mae Ploy it will also matter less if you don’t have galangal, kaffir and thai basil as they are already so well flavoured.

We used salmon obviously but you could just as easily use a white fish such as cod or haddock or in fact quite easily use chicken instead of fish, although obviously it will require a longer cooking time. Similarly I have added sugar snaps, mushrooms and baby corn but you could add whatever veg you like really


Quick Thai Red Salmon Curry
serves 2

½ tbsp rapeseed oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
½ tsp galangal paste (optional)
1½ -2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
165ml coconut milk
150ml vegetable stock
½ lime, juiced
½ tbsp Thai fish sauce
½ tsp palm (or brown) sugar
75g sugar snap peas, sliced in half on the diagonal
100g baby corn, sliced lengthways
75g mushrooms, chopped
200g salmon fillets, cut into 2.5cm (1in) cubes
½ tsp Thai basil paste
½ tsp sliced kaffir lime leaves
small handful coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Heat the oil in a frying or sauté pan over a medium heat and add the shallots. Fry for 3–4 minutes until softened. Add the garlic, ginger & galangal pastes and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant.

Add the red curry paste and fry for a further minute or so, stirring to coat the shallots.

Pour in the coconut milk and vegetable stock and bring to a steady boil then turn down and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar. Stir in the vegetables and simmer for 3 minutes.

Add in the fish pieces and simmer for 3–5 minutes until just cooked.

Stir through the basil and limes leaves, simmer for 1 more minutes then serve over rice in bowls, garnished with the coriander.

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Smoked Salmon & Sunblush Tomato Quiche

Having had a fairly successful attempt at Quiche Lorraine I armed myself with a new quiche tin and tried another. The inspiration for this was, I think, found here where the photos are beautiful and make me want to buy a new camera and lighting set up. Oh well, I can but dream: new babies kind of put paid to that sort of thing.

This is pretty good but remember that smoked salmon is pretty salty so don’t be tempted to season the filling with anything other than black pepper and nutmeg. I used sunblush tomatoes; those semi-dried ones that are stored in oil that you find on deli counters but you can use normal dried sun-dried tomatoes with no bother. I’d actually quite like to try this again with plain poached salmon in lieu of the smoked as I think it would be really good.


Quiche with Smoked Salmon & Sunblush Tomatoes
serves 4

ready-made shortcrust pastry, chilled
2 eggs + 1 yolk, beaten
100ml double cream
2 tbsp quark (or creme fraiche)
pinch of black pepper
pinch of ground nutmeg
150g smoked salmon, sliced into small strips
60g sunblush tomatoes in oil, wiped of oil & finely chopped
50g parmesan, freshly grated
pinch of cayenne
a few fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped

Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a 20p piece and line a nine inch quiche or loose bottomed tart tin. Leave the pastry overhang as it is and chill for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Take the pastry tin out of the fridge and line with baking paper. Fill with baking beans (if you don’t have any dried chickpeas or beans will work just as well) and “bake blind” for 15 minutes.

Remove the beans and baking paper and brush lightly with a little beaten egg (or spray with commercial egg glaze) before returning to the oven for 5 minutes. The egg glaze will help form a moisture-proof seal.

Reduce the oven temperature to 175C and carefully trim off the excess pastry with a sharp knife.

Beat together the eggs, milk, creme fraiche, pepper and nutmeg. Stir in all but 1 tbsp of the grated Parmesan.

Evenly distribute the salmon and tomatoes over the quiche crust and scatter the basil on top.

 Pour over the egg mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes the sprinkle the reserved cheese & cayenne on top and continue baking until top is golden and middle is just set.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to come down to room temperature. If you use a loose-bottom tin the easiest way to remove the quiche from the tin is to place it on an upturned jar, which will allow you to ease the sides away.

Using a palette knife or a fish slice, slide it underneath and ease the tart carefully on to a plate or board, ready to serve.

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Lime & Soy Salmon Bowls

This was really very lovely indeed - and if I hadn’t used brown rice, and particularly if I hadn’t used the rice cooker, it would have come together very quickly indeed - probably 30 minutes max.

Keep an eye on the salmon, you really don’t want to overcook it. Take it out if necessary and cover with some foil while you get on with everything else - you’ll be rewarded with really succulent and extremely tasty salmon. Also you don’t need to toast the sesame seeds (and while I’m at it if you don’t have black ones just use the usual kind) but doing so will give a really nutty flavour that contrasts beautifully with the rich sweet sour umami sauce and tender fish.

Adapted from an Epicurious recipe.


Lime & Soy Salmon Bowls
serves 2

125g brown, basmati or jasmine rice
10g unsalted butter
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp minced ginger
½ tsp red pepper flakes
3 tbsp agave nectar or maple syrup (failing either, honey)
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
3 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp cornflour
2 salmon fillets, skin removed
½ tsp sesame oil
150g baby spinach
1 tsp black sesame seeds, lightly toasted

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Cook rice as directed (I liberated my rice cooker and cooked it in that - yay!).

In a small frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat and sauté the garlic, ginger and pepper flakes for about a minute until the garlic is lightly golden.

Add the agave or maple syrup, lime juice and soy sauce and simmer for 3 minutes. 

Meanwhile mix the cornflour with 1 teaspoon of water in a small bowl and then stir that into the sauce. Continue to cook until it has slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

Arrange the salmon on a foil-lined baking sheet and spread 1 tsp of the sauce over each fillet.

Roast in the oven until just cooked through which will take around 12 minutes.

While the salmon is cooking warm the sesame oil in a frying or sauté pan over medium heat and then add the spinach. Sauté until just wilted. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Divide the cooked rice between 2 bowls and top each with half of the spinach and a salmon fillet, broken into large pieces.

Drizzle with remaining sauce and sprinkle over the sesame seeds.

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Asian Salmon with Greens & Garlic Shiitake Rice

Very simply, salmon is marinated then grilled with a flavoursome glaze and served with some healthy greens and super tasty rice. And it’s quick too so perfect for a mid-week meal. If you marinade ahead of time then this comes together later at just about half an hour.

Saying that, I personally think this is good-looking and delicious enough that it would be great for a dinner party, particularly if you used a whole side of salmon.


Asian Salmon
serves 2

For the salmon

2 pieces Salmon, rinsed and patted dry
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
2 tbsp light soy Sauce
2 tbsp sake
1 tbsp Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp grated ginger
2 spring onions, green parts only, sliced thinly
For the glaze

2 tbsp honey
½ tsp toasted sesame oil
½ tsp light soy sauce
¼ teaspoon freshly grated ginger
½ tsp toasted sesame seeds

In a bowl whisk together the olive & sesame oils, soy sauce, sake, garlic, ginger, mustard, vinegar and brown sugar. Pour into a freezer bag along with the salmon fillets and put in the fridge. Leave to marinate for at least an hour, preferably around 4 (or more).

Mix the sauce ingredients together in another small bowl and set aside.

Preheat the grill and put the salmon, seasoned with a little salt & pepper, on a wire rack under the grill.

Cook for 10-12 minutes, depending on the salmon’s thickness, basting with the marinade every now and again. The salmon is done when it is opaque and flakes easily with the tip of a fork.

Remove from the grill and serve immediately with some sauce poured over and a sprinkling of spring onions.


Stir-fried Greens
serves 2

baby leaf greens, finely sliced (about 125g once sliced)
birds eye chiili, deveined and deseeded and sliced into strips
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
olive oil

Sauté the garlic slices with a tsp of olive oil in a sauté or frying pan until softened then throw in the chilli slivers and greens. Stir fry for a couple of minutes then add a tbsp of water, pop a lid on the pan and leave to steam gently for another 5 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.


Garlic Mushroom Rice
serves 2

5g butter
1 tsp olive oil
2 clove garlic, crushed
a few shiitake mushrooms, halved and sliced
100g jasmine rice
236ml chicken stock (twice the volume of the rice)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp white pepper
squeeze of lime juice
½ tbsp coriander

Heat the butter and olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the rice and cook, stirring often so the rice doesn't stick to the pan, for 3-4 minutes. Add the chicken broth and season with sea salt and white pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium low. Cover and let cook 20 minutes.

Remove the rice from the heat without removing the lid and let it sit for 5 minutes. Carefully remove the lid and fluff rice with a fork, stir through the coriander and serve.

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Miso Sake Salmon with Bean Thread Noodles

I'm the first to admit that this doesn't look very pretty. At all. And honestly? Bean thread noodles (or glass noodles or Chinese vermicelli) are a pain in the butt to cook with. But this is a good recipe and other than the pain-in-the-buttness of the noodles is easy, quick and full of flavour.

If you don't have wasabi paste, you can use English mustard: you want that sinus-clearing heat you get from those two, but only a whiff of it, you don't want to be blowing your head off. 

Miso & Sake Salmon with Noodles
serves 2

2 skinless salmon fillets, cut into 2cm pieces
100 g bean thread noodles, soaked & snipped into smaller lengths
4 tbsp chopped chives
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
for the marinade
1 tsp wasabi paste
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp garlic oil
1 tbsp sake
for the sauce 

1 tsp garlic oil
1 red chilli, finely sliced

½ tsp grated ginger
2 tbsp miso paste
2 tbsp light soy sauce
zest of 1 lime & juice of ½
½ tsp sugar
4 tbsp sake
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp wasabi paste

3 tbsp water
1-2 tbsp coriander, chopped, to serve

In a freezer bag, combine the mustard or wasabi paste, Worcestershire sauce, soy, oil, and sake and add the salmon. Leave to marinate for about half an hour.

While the salmon is in the marinade get the sauce ready: in a frying pan heat the oil and add chili and grated ginger and fry them a few seconds. Turn up the heat and splash in the sake: when it has reduced slightly add the remaining sauce ingredients apart from lime zest and juice and stir for a few minutes until the ingredients are combined.

Add the salmon pieces to the sauce and cook for a couple of minutes until they colour and lose translucency. Stir in the lime juice and zest.

Stir in the bean thread noodles and when they are well combined add the sesame seeds and chives and stir through.

Serve immediately sprinkled with chopped coriander and some wedges to squeeze over.

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Pan-fried Salmon with Sorrel Sauce

My veg patch is looking a bit sorry for itself at the moment: the peas and broad beans have all been picked, the chilli plants looking a bit sparse due to the lack of actual summer and the beetroot has bolted quite spectacularly (“boltardy” indeed). The sorrel on the other hand is looking incredibly healthy and clearly ripe for a bit of harvesting.

Dark green with leaves resembling a cross between a dock leaf and spinach, it is a perennial herb with a lemony tanginess which comes from a high oxalic acid content. This acidity makes it an excellent companion to oily fish.

The following recipe is adapted from one found in Raymond Blanc’s online recipe archive.


Salmon with creamy sorrel sauce

Serves 2

10g unsalted butter

2 salmon fillets (try and get wild or organic sustainable salmon such as these), about 130g each
1 pinch salt
1 pinch freshly ground pepper
¼ lemon
Sorrel sauce
5 spring onions, finely chopped
50ml dry white wine
75g sorrel, stalks discarded and leaves roughly torn
50ml creme fraiche
¼ lemon
3 small tomatoes, deseeded and finely diced
pinch salt
pinch freshly ground white pepper
On a high heat, cook down the spring onions with the white wine for about 1 minute.

Add the sorrel, creme fraiche, seasoning and the juice from the quarter lemon. Bring to the boil, stirring and cook for a further minute or so until the sauce has thickened a little. The sorrel will probably turn from a rich green to a sludgy brown green but this is normal.

Add the diced tomatoes then set the sauce aside while you cook the salmon.

Season the salmon fillets on both sides with salt and pepper. On medium heat melt the butter until it is foaming then add the salmon fillets, skinside first and pan fry for 3 minutes before turning and cooking for a further 3 minutes. The cooking time will of course depend on the thickness of the fillets.

Turn off the heat and squeeze a little lemon juice over each fillet.

Reheat the sorrel sauce then divide between each plate, atop a mound of mash with the salmon arranged on top.

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Spicy Salmon & Noodle Broth

I've had a pretty heavy cold this week - possibly brought on by the disappearance of the lovely, yet unseasonable, warm weather - so I've got a wee bit behind with posting. As I'm off to Rome soon (yay!) and will therefore get even more behind I suspect that I'll have to double-post over the next few days.

So, first up today is "Salmon part II" as I'd had some to use up after the miso salmon from the day before.

I basically fancied something light yet filling, tasty and healthy. What I came up with is in part inspired by an Angela Hartnett recipe I read a couple of months ago in The Guardian and also by something I'd seen by Nick Nairn somewhere or other. What I remember about the latter is that he wrote that the basis of his broth is usually a fresh fish stock combined with mussel juices but that he had attempted to use fish stock cubes once and it wasn’t a success. For some reason that made me want to try a fish stock cube myself. Not that I’m contrary or anything....


Spicy Salmon Broth
Serves 2

2 tsp of sesame oil
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 inch knob of ginger peeled & chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 lemongrass stalk, cut in half and crushed (whack with a rolling pin)
2 birds eye chillis, deseeded, deveined and cut into slivers
700ml weak fish stock (ie use half the amount of cube to water that the instructions suggest)
a couple of shakes of Linghams chilli sauce or Sriracha if you have it
2 tsp of soy sauce
6 tsp of fish sauce
2 salmon fillets (skin removed), cut into chunks - about 200g in total
2 spring onions, chopped
2 large handfuls of spring greens, shredded
100g fine beans, trimmed and chopped in half
6 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 nest of dried noodles (about 50g)
Juice of 1 lime and rind of ½
4 tsp of chopped coriander

Gently heat the sesame oil in a large saucepan then add the garlic, ginger, onions and lemongrass. Sauté gently for about 5 minutes without letting the contents colour. 

Add the stock and bring to the boil, then add the chilli, soy & fish sauces. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add the vegetables and simmer for a few minutes more.  

Then gently add the noodles and salmon chunks and simmer until the salmon and noodles are cooked (about four minutes).

Finally, stir in the the lime juice and the grated rind. Spoon into large bowls and sprinkle over with the chopped coriander, and perhaps some shredded spring onion and chilli slivers.

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Miso Salmon

I was zumba-ing last night with the girls, following which it is customary to go for pasta and wine. In other words there was no time to blog the other seafood meal from the weekend - miso-marinated salmon.

High on my list of "would like to try"s has long been Nobu's Black Cod with Miso. Sadly it doesn't look like I will ever frequent Nobu so long as they continue to serve up endangered Bluefin tuna.  Yes they make a small italicised note on the menu (check it out) that perhaps one could ask for an alternative but frankly that just isn't good enough.

Still, I figured that I could make the effort to try it myself but chose to use sustainably sourced salmon fillets from Waitrose instead.  What follows is a recipe cobbled together from multiple sources, all slightly adapted.


Miso Salmon
Serves 2

Note: this needs to be started at least 24 hours in advance to allow to salmon to marinade for at least that long - potentially even longer would be better should the fish be fresh enough.

100ml mirin
60ml sake
120g miso paste (this should have been white miso paste but I didn't realise and only had brown - on top of which it had little bits of "sea vegetable" in it)
60g sugar (caster sugar is a good idea so it melts easily)
2 salmon fillets
pickled ginger slices (such as used with sushi)

Firstly mix the mirin and sake in a small saucepan and bring to the boil - boil furiously for about 30 seconds so the alcohol evaporates.

Turn the heat down and add the miso paste, stirring until it dissolves into the liquid. At this point turn the heat back up and add the sugar - stirring constantly until it has completely dissolved.

Leave to one side to cool completely and when it has done slather the salmon fillets in a bowl with the mixture. Cover and keep in the fridge for at least 24 hours, turning the fish occasionally.

When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to about 200c and turn the grill on (this is what you would ideally do - my grill is, annoyingly, in my oven so I have to do the grilling bit and then put the oven on after). Wipe the miso off the salmon and put under the grill until the top is just starting to turn brownish. Remove from the grill and place in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile tip the marinade into a saucepan and simmer until it is heated through and has thickened slightly.

Serve the salmon with a drizzle of the sauce, a couple of slivers of pickled ginger (traditionally eaten after the salmon - I actually forgot to serve it completely), steamed broccoli (sprinkle a tiny bit of vegetable bouillon powder over the broccoli while it steams) and spring greens sauteed in a drop of Sichuan pepper oil with some chopped red chilli.

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