Salted Salmon with Tarragon Butter

This recipe comes from a fascinating book by award-winning food writer Sybil Kapoor called Sight Smell Touch Taste Sound which reveals the role our senses can play in the way we cook and eat.

This simple delicious recipe from a chapter on taste shows how salt can highlight taste and texture of fish like salmon.

Sybil writes: "Fish and meat in European cooking are traditionally salted to help preserve them – for example, smoked salmon or duck confit. In countries such as China and Japan, salting is also used to change the texture of food and, equally importantly, to remove fishy or meaty odours, partly by extracting blood and bitter juices.

Dry salting, such as here, is used for oily fish such as mackerel, herring and salmon. The longer any ingredient is salted, the more liquid is extracted and the saltier the ingredient will taste. The art is to allow just enough salt to develop the umami tastes, but not so much that all the tastes are submerged beneath the salt. The tarragon butter adds a tempting rich texture and depth of flavour."

Serves 6

6 x 175 g/6 oz salmon fillets with skin

3 tsp fine sea salt

2–3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

For the tarragon butter

1 tbsp finely chopped tarragon leaves

1 lemon, finely grated, plus 1 tsp juice

55 g/2 oz/scant 4 tbsp

unsalted butter, softened

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place a plate or tray large enough to hold the fish on the work surface. Evenly sprinkle the surface of the plate/tray with half the salt. Lay the fillets skin-side down on the plate/tray, then sprinkle the remaining salt over the fish. Chill for 40 minutes.

Make the tarragon butter by beating together the chopped tarragon, lemon zest and juice and butter in a small bowl. Very lightly season to taste, as the fish is already salty. Spoon the butter onto some greaseproof (wax) paper to roughly form a sausage shape – roll up the paper and gently roll it under your fingers until it forms a smooth cylinder.

Chill until needed.

Preheat 2 non-stick frying pans (skillets) over a medium-high heat. Once hot, add 1–1½ tbsp olive oil to each pan, then add 3 salmon fillets, flesh-side down, to each pan. Fry briskly for 3 minutes, or until seared and golden, then turn and cook for 3–4 minutes, or until the skin is crisp and the salmon is just cooked through. Plate the salmon, topping each fillet with a round slice of tarragon butter. Serve immediately.

What to drink:

I particularly like chardonnay with tarragon (see What wine should you pair with herbs) so I'd probably go for a Chablis or other subtly oaked chardonnay but a crisp sauvignon blanc from the Loire such as a Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé would also work well.

For other salmon pairings see 10 great wine pairings with salmon

Recipe from Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound: A New way to cook by Sybil Kapoor, published by Pavilion Books. Image © Keiko Oikawa

Yogurt & spice roasted salmon

A new Sabrina Ghayour book is always a treat, especially her most recent one Simply, which is packed full of her trademark flavourful recipes. I've tried a couple of them now but particularly liked this ridiculously easy, tasty salmon dish.

Sabrina writes: I love to cook salmon in the oven. It’s lazy, quick, works really well and you don’t need any oil, as salmon is naturally fatty and delicious.

These little salmon bites are something I’ve made time and time again over the years and this method of roasting them at a high temperature ensures you get a little charring on the outside yet perfectly cooked salmon on the inside. Leftovers also make a great addition to your lunchbox the next day.

Serves 4

500g skinless salmon fillet, cut into 4cm cubes

For the marinade

4 tablespoons Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon garlic granules

1 heaped tablespoon rose harissa 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon paprika

finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lime and a good squeeze of juice

1 teaspoon olive oil

generous amount of Maldon sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

tortilla wraps

sliced tomatoes

finely sliced onion

coriander leaves

Greek yogurt

Preheat your oven to its highest setting (with fan if it has one). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add the salmon and turn until well coated in the marinade.

Spread the salmon out on the prepared baking tray and roast for 10 minutes until cooked through. Remove from the oven and serve immediately with tortilla wraps, tomatoes, finely sliced onion, coriander leaves and Greek yogurt.

What to drink: A crisp zesty white like a Rueda or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc would be perfect with this or a lime Australian riesling

And for other salmon pairings see 10 great wine pairings with salmon

Simply: Easy Everyday Dishes from the Bestselling Author of Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour is published by Mitchell Beazley, £26.00,www.octopusbooks.co.uk. Photography: Kris Kirkham

Salmon in pastry with currants and ginger

This is one of my favourite recipes ever - made famous by the late, great George Perry-Smith and faithfully reproduced by one of his most talented protegés Stephen Markwick.

Aware that he thinking of stepping down back in 2009, I persuaded Stephen to share his best-loved recipes in two small books 'A Very Honest Cook' and 'A Well-Run Kitchen'. The first has unfortunately sold out but you can still buy the second which also contains Stephen's Scallops with Shellfish Risotto, Roast Chicken with Cream and Tarragon and Summer Pudding from the Culinaria website.

Stephen says: "The marrying of sweet ginger and currants with fish must go back to medieval times. George’s unique twist was to serve it with a light herby sauce, (sauce messine, below) which lifts what could be thought of as a slightly heavy dish to one that is so pleasurable to eat. We had customers who asked to be phoned up when we had it on the menu!

Although the recipe is incredibly simple the trick is to wrap the salmon in the thinnest of pastry and cook it in a sufficiently hot oven to keep the pastry crisp while keeping the salmon slightly pink in the middle.

The salmon should be wild or organic farmed if possible (Glenarm, Clare Island or Loch Duart I find the best of the farmed). I remember when we started at Bistro 21, late February always brought the first of the wild Wye salmon at a price you would laugh at now. It is best to use the middle or thick part of the fish - if you have a whole side of fish you can cut off the tail end and use it for another dish like fishcakes. It needs to be filleted, skinned and pin boned.

Serves 6

Ingredients

375g (13 oz) shortcrust pastry (Stephen's own recipe is on p. 61 of A Very Honest Cook)

110g (4 oz) butter, at room temperature

3-4 pieces stem ginger in syrup

2 tbsp currants

A thick piece of wild or top quality farmed salmon (at least 700g/1 1/2 lbs) filleted, skinned and pin-boned

1 egg, beaten

Salt and pepper

You will also need a thin baking tray with slightly raised sides so that any leaking butter doesn’t go all over your oven!

Method

First make your shortcrust pastry and rest it.

Cut up the butter and put into a bowl to soften. Chop the stem ginger finely and add to the butter with the currants and some salt and pepper and mix well. (I find the easiest way to do this is by hand so it is well mixed and soft enough to spread over the salmon but you can obviously use a wooden spoon.)

Cut the salmon fillet in half lengthways so you have two pieces. (There is even a natural line marked on the fish indicating where to cut!) Season one piece with salt and pepper and spread half the butter mix onto the side that was next to the bone. Now make a sandwich with the other piece by putting it top-to-tail so the salmon is an even thickness. Season the outer top half and spread the remaining half of the seasoned butter on it.

Now roll your pastry as thinly as you can into a rectangle. (I usually roll a piece slightly larger than I need, then cut it to size and discard the edges which are usually thicker.)

Place the salmon at one end of the rectangle leaving an edge of just over 1 cm (1/2 inch) for the seal. Brush all around the four edges with the beaten egg. Now lift the pastry over the salmon and press the edges firmly together to seal. A very slight overlap is OK because you can trim it. (The ends do not have to look pretty as they will be cut off too. Mind you, they do taste pretty good as the butter and salmon juices tend to leak into them!).

Your salmon parcel is now ready but needs time to rest in the fridge - at least an hour but preferably longer. It is best to put it on a double thickness of well buttered tinfoil. (A useful tip that works like magic to stop the salmon from sticking to the foil while it is cooking: When you bring it out of the fridge peel the salmon off the foil, then, with your hand just smooth the foil before replacing the salmon - it sounds a bit far-fetched but it does work!)

Place the salmon and foil on a thin baking tray. Brush the surface of the pastry with egg wash and cook in a preheated oven at 220°C/425°F/Gas 7 for 20 minutes (slightly longer if there is anything else in the oven though it’s best to cook the salmon on its own to keep the pastry crisp). You’ll need to turn the baking tray round half way through to cook the pastry evenly unless you have a fan oven. Rest the baked salmon for 5-10 minutes on top on the stove so that the residual heat will finish cooking it. If you cut it straight away without resting it the middle might still be too pink.

To serve: Carefully peel off the tinfoil and trim the excess pastry off the ends of your salmon parcel. Divide the salmon into six thick slices (a bread knife is good for this). Serve with sauce messine (below), new potatoes and a cucumber salad (thinly sliced, salted and pressed then rinsed and dressed with dill vinegar and oil).

If you'd like to know what kind of wine goes with salmon check out 10 Great Wine Pairings with Salmon

Sauce Messine

A really fresh and vibrant herb sauce.

Serves 6

Ingredients

25g (1 oz) parsley

25g (1 oz) chervil

20g (3/4 oz) tarragon

2 small shallots or 1 large shallot, chopped

1 egg yolk

300ml (1/2 pint) double cream

1 dsp Dijon mustard

Juice of half a lemon

Salt and pepper

Method

Wash the herbs and pick the leaves off the stalks then put them into a blender with the other ingredients and blend well. Check the seasoning then tip into a heatproof bowl. Stand the bowl in a pan of boiling water and heat the sauce gently to avoid curdling it. (This should take about 10 minutes.) Serve with salmon or other fish.

What to drink: The butteriness of the salmon and the slight sweetness of the currants and ginger means you want a want a wine of some weight. Personally I think it's a great excuse to crack open a good white burgundy or other top class chardonnay but Viognier would work well too. If you wanted to drink a red I'd go for a Pinot Noir, probably burgundy again.

Smoked salmon and radish salad

If you loathe the thought of diet food Fast Days and Feast Days by my mate Elly Curshen (aka Elly Pear) is just the book for you!

Based on the 5:2 diet it combines recipes for fast days and feast days of which this beautiful looking dish is only 91 kcal per portion. The thing I love about Elly's food is that even when she's working with minimal calories the food is colourful and delicious. As the posters all round London are saying 'healthy eating just got interesting'.

Elly writes: "A few delicate, peppery, crunchy garnishes on top of the best-quality smoked salmon you can afford, this dish is as pretty as a picture and every mouthful really packs a punch. It’s also one of the few fast-day recipes that I’d do in exactly the same way if I was serving it on a feast day."

Serves 1

60g smoked salmon

20g radish

3g spring onion, sliced on the diagonal

10g China rose radish sprouts

1/8 tsp poppy seeds

1 tsp lemon juice

freshly ground black pepper

1g fennel fronds

Lay the salmon out on a serving plate, creating a neat circle.

Slice the radish very thinly, using a very sharp knife or a mandoline.

Lay the radish slices evenly over the surface of the salmon. Sprinkle over the spring onion.

Scatter the sprouts and the poppy seeds over the top and sprinkle with the lemon juice.

Season well with black pepper and finish with the delicate fennel fronds.

What to drink: Sparkling water with a slice of lemon or cucumber (it's a fast day, isn't it?!)

Recipe extracted from Elly Pear's Fast Days and Feast Days published by Harper Collins and currently available in branches of Sainsbury's for £8.99. Photography © Myles New