Stunning cured salmon Christmas dish

I tried this dish last Christmas when my future Father - in - law made it and I loved it so much that I resolved to make it too. The recipe has sat open beside my bed for the best part of a year now and when we decided that I was going to do a birthday meal for my Dad, it was the first thing I thought of.

 My first problem was how was I going to get a hold of a really fresh side of salmon living in the midlands, but surprisingly the local large supermarket came up with the goods. 

The recipe is surprisingly easy, requiring you to throw the marinade ingredients together and rub on the salmon, then leave for 48 hours. All you then have to do is slice and serve, simple. The cucumber and dill salad, I feel, is an essential accompaniment and some lovely buttered brown soda bread. 

This is perfect to wow your dinner guests over the festive period. 

This is a Mark Hix recipe from Good Food magazine 

Serves 8 - 10

Ingredients:

1 Salmon fillet (with skin), about 750-1kg trimmed
80g black treacle
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
grated zest 1 lemon
50g sea salt
1 tbsp English mustard
2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Lay the salmon on a piece of cling film, skin side down. Warm the treacle slightly in a pan until it becomes runny then mix in all the other ingredients. Smear the mixture all over the flesh of the salmon until evenly coated. Wrap tightly in the cling film, place the salmon on a tray skin side down, leave at room temperature for an hour then put in the fridge for 48hrs.

When ready to serve, unwrap the salmon, drain off the excess liquid and pat dry. Slice the salmon into thin (about 2mm thick) slices. Serve with the Pickled cucumber and some buttered brown soda bread.

Pickled Cucumber:

2 medium cucumbers
2 tbsp good-quality white wine vinegar
grated zest 2 lemons
4 tbsp rapeseed oil
good pinch salt
4 tbsp chopped dill

Halve the cucumbers and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Slice the cucumber into 3mm slices then put into a bowl with all the other ingredients. Mix well and let the flavours mingle for about 45mins before serving. 

Better late than never!

Ok so I haven't got my daring baker post done on time but I've been a busy little bee recently. I've been making cakes, damson gin, working and doing wedding preparation etc! I was quite keen to do this recipe though as anything with almonds in it is basically food of the gods and we were having a leaving lunch in work for a colleague going on maternity leave and I thought this was appropriate. 

As I have been rather busy organising presents for the departing colleague and doing a cake for the same day I needed to have made the macaroons for the lunch, it was a bit of a rushed affair. The resulting macaroons were delicious but I don't think they were quite what they should have been. They were a bit soft instead of being nice and crisp. 

I filled my macaroons with Maya Gold spiced orange dark chocolate and cream. They were really lovely but I would like to have another go at making them to try and perfect them and also try different fillings.

Recipe

Preparation time: Not taking into account the amount of time it takes for you to bring your egg whites to room temperature, the whole baking process, including making the batter, piping and baking will probably take you about an hour to an hour and a half. How long it takes to make your filling is dependent on what you choose to make.

Actual baking time: 12 minutes total, plus a few minutes to get your oven from 200°F to 375°F.

Equipment required:
• Electric mixer, preferably a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
• Rubber spatula
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper or nonstick liners
• Pastry bag (can be disposable)
• Plain half-inch pastry bag tip
• Sifter or sieve
• If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off
• Oven
• Cooling rack
• Thin-bladed spatula for removing the macaroons from the baking sheets
• Food processor or nut grinder, if grinding your own nuts (ouch!)

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Daring Cook Indian Dosas

As I'm a bit light on the pocket money situation I thought this nice recipe wouldn't break the bank too much. I like Indian food and do make it from scratch reasonably often, one of my favourite books is Anjum Anand's book "Anjum's new indian". It's also quite healthy, which is what I need after a week on holiday indulging myself. I haven't made dosas before but I'll try anything once, with regards to food that is ;-).

The recipe was a little labour intensive, especially the coconut wrestling, and the pancakes took quite a few goes to get them right but they turned out very tasty in the end. Give them a go!

This is Debyi from http://www.healthyvegankitchen.com I am so excited to be your host for the September 2009 Daring Cooks challenge. It took almost a month to decide which recipe that I wanted to do. I wanted to choose something that could be easily adapted for our GF'ers and other Alternative Cooks, as well as still being tasty for everyone else. So, I finally decided on Indian Dosas from the refresh cookbook by Ruth Tal.

Indian Dosas
This recipe comes in 3 parts, the dosas, the filling and the sauce. It does take awhile to make, but the filling and sauce can be made ahead and frozen if need be. You can serve them as a main course with rice and veggies, or as an appetizer. This does take a little planning ahead, so make sure you read the recipe through before starting.

Serves 4

Equipment needed:
large bowl
whisk
griddle or skillet
ladle (or large spoon)
spatula
vegetable peeler &/or knife
large saucepan
food processor or bean masher

Dosa Pancakes
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed

Dosa Filling
1 batch Curried Garbanzo Filling (see below), heated

Dosa Toppings
1 batch Coconut Curry Sauce (see below), heated
¼ cup (125gm) grated coconut
¼ cucumber, sliced

Dosa Pancakes
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Curried Garbanzo Filling
This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don't be afraid to make a full batch.

5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste

1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Coconut Curry Sauce
This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same though. My picture of this sauce is one that I had made, had to freeze, then thaw to use. It tastes great, but the texture is a little runnier, not quite as thick as it was before freezing.

1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.
Happy eating!

Pan fried salmon with tabbouleh

I have in my possession yet another cookbook. This time it's "What to eat now, more please" by Valentine Warner. He's a bit mad but has some lovely recipes and one of them that I have made time and time again is his recipe for tabbouleh. Of course I can't help but fiddle with the recipe a bit  and I've added capers and anchovies to mine to give it a bit  more of a punch and served it with a lovely thick salmon fillet cooked on a grill pan. Delicious!

Daring cooks rice with squid, artichokes and mushrooms

I love seafood and was really keen to give this a go. Sadly I can't get cuttlefish round these parts so I decided on squid instead. The resulting dish, although a little time consuming was absolutely DELICIOUS! I can"t recommend it more highly. Having said that, this is definitely not first date food as the allioli is powerful stuff! The only other criticism I have is that the squid ended up a bit chewy. It either needed to be cooked for a very short time or much longer.

Hi all, this is Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes and I’m pleased to be your host at August Daring Cooks Challenge. I’ve chosen a delicious Spanish recipe, Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment.

He trained under well-known Ferran Adria at his three Michelin star restaurant El Bulli. José Andrés lives now in Washington DC and he owns several restaurants in Washington DC area (El Jaleo, Zaytinya, Oyamel…).

The recipe I bring you is from his US TV show Made in Spain. I hope you enjoy it.

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Equipment:

• 1 Chopping Board


• 1 knife


• 1 medium saucepan


• 1 Paella pan (30 cm/11” is enough for 4 people. If not available, you may use a simple pan that size)


• 1 Saucepan

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or freezed if fresh are not available)


• 12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)


• 1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)


• 1 glass of white wine


• 2 Cuttlefish (you can use freezed cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)


• “Sofregit” (see recipe below)


• 300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about 75 gr per person ( ½ cup per person) Please read this for more info on suitable rices.


• Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)


• Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder)


• Allioli (olive oil and garlic sauce, similar to mayonnaise sauce) - optional

1. Cut the cuttlefish in little strips.


2. Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttlefish in the pan.


3. If you use fresh artichokes, clean them as shown in the video in tip #7. Cut artichokes in eights.


4. Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths.


5. Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish and add also the artichokes and the mushrooms.


6. Sauté until we get a golden color in the artichokes.


7. Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed, getting a more flavorful dish.


8. Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.


9. Add all the liquid and bring it to boil.


10. Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat.


11. Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon.


12. Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”)


13. Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

Cooking time: aprox. 1 hour
Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil


• 5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped


• 2 small onions, chopped


• 1 green pepper, chopped (optional)


• 4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped


• 1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)


• 1 Bay leaf


• Salt


• Touch of ground cumin


• Touch of dried oregano

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft.


2. Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)

Allioli is the optional part of the recipe. You must choose one of the two recipes given, even though I highly recommend you to try traditional one. Allioli is served together with the rice and it gives a very nice taste

Allioli (Traditional recipe)
Cooking time: 20 min aprox.
Ingredients:

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled


• Pinch of salt


• Fresh lemon juice (some drops)


• Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)

Directions:

1. Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.


2. Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)


3. Add the lemon juice to the garlic.


4. Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.


5. Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.


6. Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.