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

Artichoke and preserved lemon dip

This brilliant storecupboard dip was taught to me by my friend cookery writer Trish Deseine who rustled it up in no time when I was staying with her recently.

I’ve made it - or roughly how I think she made it - twice since then and everyone has loved it

You need to be flexible about the quantities which will vary depending on the ingredients you’re using. Keep tasting!

Serves 4-6

30g mature parmesan cheese, broken into chunks

1 large clove of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

a small (around 290g) jar of grilled artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped or about 175g loose grilled artichokes from a deli

1 small or 1/2 larger preserved lemon, pulp and pips removed and chopped

A small handful of parsley leaves - about 10g - roughly chopped + a few extra parsley leaves to decorate

Extra virgin olive oil - about 100ml

Good squeeze of lemon juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the parmesan and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the consistency of coarse crumbs. Add the drained artichokes, the preserved lemon peel and parsley and whizz again. Gradually add the olive oil in a steady stream until the mixture reaches a dippable consistency. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Spoon into a bowl or onto a plate and sprinkle with extra parsley. Serve with pitta bread, breadsticks or crisp Italian-style flatbread.

What to drink: artichokes are supposed to be tricky with wine but I’ve already found two that pair well: a citrussy sauvignon blanc and a verdicchio. Other dry Italian whites would work too.

Warm lamb salad with a pea, mint & feta cheese dressing

A fabulously summery recipe from the very appealing Great British Farmhouse Cookbook - perfect for this time of year.

Unusually it's sponsored by a company - the enterprising Yeo Valley dairy in Somerset - but you don't find their branding all over the recipes which have been put together by Sarah Mayor, the Cordon-Bleu trained daughter of the company's founders Roger and Mary Mead and a farmer's wife herself.

Sarah writes: "We’re not normally huge fans of frozen veg, but with peas we make an exception. They’re normally frozen within minutes of being picked, so they’re actually far tastier than fresh peas that have been hanging around in the fridge for a while."

SERVES 6

1 x 2.5kg leg of lamb, butterflied

2 little gem lettuces, broken into leaves, washed and dried

1/4 cucumber, halved and thinly sliced

salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE MARINADE:

6 tbsp olive oil

the leaves from 2 rosemary sprigs, finely chopped

the leaves from 2 large thyme sprigs, roughly chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

finely grated zest and juice of 1 small lemon

FOR THE PEA, MINT AND FETA CHEESE DRESSING:

3 small shallots, very thinly sliced

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/4 tsp caster sugar

250g frozen peas

8 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

the leaves from a 20g bunch fresh mint, chopped, plus extra

whole leaves for garnish

200g feta cheese, crumbled

FOR THE GARLIC AND MINT YOGURT:

250g wholemilk natural yogurt

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together in a large shallow dish with 1 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the lamb and turn it over in the mixture a few times until it is well covered. Cover and leave to marinate for at least 4–6 hours, ideally overnight.

2. To make the dressing, put the sliced shallots into a mixing bowl and stir in the vinegar and sugar. Set aside for at least 30 minutes so that the shallots can soften. Cover the peas with warm water and leave them to thaw, then drain well and set to one side. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6.

3. Pop a ridged cast iron griddle over a high heat until smoking hot, then lower the heat to medium-low. Lift the lamb out of the marinade, shaking off the excess, then place it on the griddle and cook for 5-7 minutes on each side until well coloured*. Transfer to a roasting tin, spoon over any remaining marinade and roast for 20-25 minutes. Transfer the meat to a carving board, cover with foil and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, tear the lettuce leaves into smaller pieces and scatter them over the base of a large serving platter along with the sliced cucumber. Mix the yogurt ingredients together and season to taste.

5. Add the oil to the shallots and swirl together. Stir in the peas and mint and season to taste.

6. Carve the lamb across into thin slices and pop it on top of the lettuce. Spoon over the pea and mint dressing, scatter over the feta and sprinkle with a few more small mint leaves. Eat straight away with the garlic and mint yogurt.

* the recipe doesn't state this but you could cook the lamb on a barbecue if you had a kettle-style barbecue

Suggested wine match: You could go several ways with this - a light red, a crisp white or a strong dry rosé. Red-wise that could be a Saumur Champigny or another Loire Cabernet Franc, a pinot noir or a juicy red like Mencia from the Bierzo region of northern Spain. Because of the yoghurt and spring vegetables a crisp white such as Sauvignon Blanc would work for those who prefer a white or a crisp dry rosé like Bandol from the South of France would also be delicious.

Extracted from Yeo Valley: The Great British Farmhouse Cookbook by Sarah Mayor (Quadrille £20). Photograph: Andrew Montgomery.

Cured brill with mint and peas

Chefs' recipes are often complicated but you couldn't ask for a simpler, more summery dish than this fabulous fish recipe from Nathan Outlaw's Fish Kitchen*.

Nathan writes: "Brill isn’t a fish one would generally expect to find cured, but while experimenting as I do (though not always with great success), I discovered that it was really well suited. Usually much oilier fish fit the bill, but in this minty cure brill is perfect. It goes without saying that peas and mint pair well and here they team beautifully with the cured fish."

Serves 4

500g brill fillet, skinned and trimmed

400g freshly podded peas

Cure

100g Cornish sea salt

100g caster sugar

40g mint leaves

70ml water

Dressing

100ml cold-pressed rapeseed oil

40ml cider vinegar

5g mint leaves, chopped

Cornish sea salt

To finish

A few mint sprigs

Handful of pea shoots or tendrils

For the cure, put the sea salt, sugar, mint and water in a food processor and blitz together for 1 minute.

Lay the brill fillet on a tray and pour the salt cure over it. Make sure the fish is evenly coated all over. Cover with cling film and leave to cure in the fridge for 2. hours.

Now wash off the cure well with cold water and pat the fish dry with kitchen paper. Wrap the fish tightly in cling film and place in the fridge for an hour or so. (At this stage, you can freeze the fish for up to a month.)

Add the peas to a pan of boiling water and blanch for a minute or two until just tender. Drain and refresh under cold water; drain well.

For the dressing, whisk the rapeseed oil and cider vinegar together, add the chopped mint and season with salt to taste.

Unwrap the brill. Using a very sharp knife, slice the fish on a clean board as thinly as possible, laying it straight onto serving plates. Spoon the dressing evenly over the fish and sprinkle with a little salt. Scatter over the peas and finish with the mint sprigs and pea shoots.

What to drink: Given that Nathan has used local ingredients for the dressing I'd be inclined to serve a crisp Cornish white like Camel Valley's Bacchus. Otherwise a Loire Sauvignon such as Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé or even a good Sauvignon de Touraine would be lovely

Recipe extracted from Nathan Outlaw’s Fish Kitchen (Quadrille, £20) Photograph © David Loftus