Roast salmon with warm fennel and potato salad

Having had very little sleep and struggling to keep my eyes open toward the end of the day, I sought out an easy but tasty little morsel for our dinner tonight, naturally I turned to The Gourmet Traveller and found this little beauty, quickly sent a shopping list via email to my gorgeous girl and we were in business.

Roast salmon with warm fennel and potato salad filled all requirements of my desires and went down a treat, Jo Girl has asked that I do it again, so that to me says everything!

You’ll need a few potatoes, a fennel bulb, a lemon, some capers, a handful of flat leaf parsley, some EV olive oil and of course a couple of nice salmon filets.

Potatoes and fennel coated with a little olive oil and pepper and then baked at 190 C for 20 minutes, whilst they are cooking away prepare the sauce by combining EV oil, rind and juice of lemon and the capers, whisk it all together and let it sit. Then prepare the salmon, take the skin off, debone if necessary and coat with a little of the prepared sauce a little salt and pepper, add to the roasting dish at the 20 minute mark and continue roasting for 7 minutes.

With the fish under way, quickly prepare the flat leaf parsley in a bowl, add the fronds from the fennel, and the remainder of the capers (remove from sauce) drizzle with a little sauce.

Once the salmon is cooked, remove the dish from the oven, remove the salmon, set aside and keep warm. Transfer the roast veg to the bowl and toss gently to combine with the greens, add sauce to taste. Plate up the veg, place the salmon over the top and drizzle with any remaining capers or greens.

Bon appétit

Clayton’s roast chicken and veg

Monday night, late home from work with very little in the fridge, what to do?? I had envisaged doing a Red Chicken Curry whilst I was driving home, thought about what I’d put in it and the process I would take to get to a place where we would sit down to a simple but nourishing dinner. Then on arriving home and noticing the bin at the end of the drive, thought I best do a quick clean out of the fridge, which ended up being a bigger job than I anticipated, but at least there is lots of room in the fridge now, and with the Italians coming for dinner Saturday night, I figure I am going to need all the room I can get. The beer fridge, which is usually great to fall back on, is already laden with Peroni’s for the boys and Asti Riccadonna’s for the girls, so I may be a bit pushed! It is amazing how much the Italian’s can eat, considering how much talking they do, can’t figure out where they find the gaps to shove the food in!! I am joking of course, Jo and I are both very excited and so looking forward to the event.

Anyway, I have rambled on a bit and gone off track a little, probably because I really was not intending to blog this at all, but then Jo girl was like, how can I best describe this?? Picture Meg Ryan sitting across from Billy Crystal in “When Harry met Sally” ... you’ve got the idea, and well really all I plated up was a Clayton’s Roast Chicken and Veg. I started out with preparing the Potato’s and Sweet Potato with a light oil coating followed by a sprinkling of French Onion Soup powder, the Potato’s went in a pre warmed oven to 190C for 40 minutes, the Sweet Spud’s being added to the roasting dish with 25 minutes cooking to go. I dusted a couple of Chicken Breasts with some Moroccan Spice which I then pan fried for 3minutes each side, before they too, went into the roasting dish. Steamed some peas and beans and made gravy, which didn’t taste too good so I cranked a heap of pepper into it and it turned out KICK ARSE! I love my wife, she can be so easy to please!!

Opps
1. sorry should have mentioned, when the chicken breast has been pan fried for 3 minutes either side, it is then placed in the roasting dish with the veg, for 10 minutes, then remove and let it rest whilst the veg is finished off.
2. I have come to realise at 3:30 AM this morning, that Morrocon Spice has the same affect on me as does No Doze on litttle Benny!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nNhOH4Y0bI

Pork sausages, polenta and mataró

Every once in a while you’ll come across a recipe and you’ll think, yep got to try that! Now and then when this does happen all the sensational flavours you had hoped for and anticipated, just are not there! Well I am pleased to say the recipe I happened upon a few weeks back and have longed to cook since, came through with every mouthful experiencing that “WOW”, mouth watering, smack in the mouth full of flavour, man o man give some more of that, this is to die for, yeah baby!! What more can I say to describe this dish? And it was so simple! I found it on one of my favourite foodie sites The Gourmet Traveller, a site I have come to love and thus far has delivered every time.

Pork sausages, Polenta and Mataró, the Mataró is actually a reference to a wine variety, which the author suggests goes brilliantly with this dish, unfortunately I could not source a bottle, being Sunday did not help, so I had to settle for a 3 Amigo’s GSM, of which the M part was at least Mataró, and it was not a bad drop.

The dish was basically Italian pork sausages baked on a baked tomato and onion sauce, which took about the same time it took to make the polenta which was creamy and full of cheese and butter, ad oh so to die for, can’t wait to have a leftovers lunch tomorrow, albeit without the wine!