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.

Lobster thermidor baked potatoes

Another run-out for Mark Hix's wonderfully decadent recipe for a lobster-stuffed baked potato from his book Hix on Baking. Such a great idea . . .

Mark writes: "This is a great way to stretch out a lobster and makes for a fantastic, luxurious baked potato. Extravagant you may think, but not really. The baked potato is making a bit of a comeback – I’m sure they'll soon be dished up in all the smart restaurants..."

Serves 4

4 baking potatoes

80g butter

salt and freshly ground black pepper

50ml white wine

1 large shallot, peeled and finely chopped

2 tsp English mustard

100ml fish stock (or a third of a good-quality stock cube dissolved in 100ML hot water)

300ml double cream

30g Parmesan, grated

80g mature Cheddar, grated

1 small egg yolk

1 x 500–600g cooked lobster

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Wash the potatoes, transfer to the oven and bake them for about 1–1 1/2 hours, until soft. Leave them to cool a little, then cut off about a quarter of the top of each potato and scoop the flesh out into a bowl. Mash as chunky or as smooth as you wish, then mix with the butter and season to taste.

Return the potato skins to the oven for about 10 minutes to crisp up before setting aside with the flesh.

Meantime, simmer the white wine with the shallots until the liquid has almost evaporated. Add the mustard and fish stock and reduce again similarly. Add the cream, reserving a tablespoon, bring back to the boil and simmer until the sauce has reduced by half or more and is quite thick. Add the Parmesan and 60g of the grated cheddar and whisk until smooth.

Season and leave to cool. (You can add a little more mustard at this stage to taste if you want the sauce more tangy).

In a small bowl, whip the remaining tablespoon of double cream until it forms soft peaks. Fold into the cooled sauce with the egg yolk.

Turn up the oven to 230°/gas mark 8. Halve the body of the lobster lengthways and remove the meat from the shell. Cut the tail meat into four or five pieces. Crack the claws and leg joints and remove all of the meat. Remove the claws from each lobster, then crack and remove all of the meat including the smaller joints.

Mix half of the sauce with the mashed potato and spoon into the crisp potato shells, leaving about a centimetre from the top of each. Arrange the lobster on top of the potato, scatter over the remaining cheese and spoon over the rest of the sauce. Return to the oven or place under a hot grill until nicely browned. Serve with a few dressed salad leaves.

What to drink: I'd suggest a good white burgundy with this like a Meursault or a similarly rich style of chardonnay from elsewhere. Or a full-bodied champagne. You could drink an aged red Bordeaux too. An excuse to crack open a good bottle, anyway!

This recipe comes from Hix on Baking by Mark Hix, published by Quadrille Publishing RRP £20. Photography © Jason Lowe

Supreme of guinea fowl with broad beans, fresh morels and herb gnocchi

A smashing recipe from Chris and Jeff Galvin's Galvin: a Cookbook de Luxe which you could make to impress on Father's Day. It's one of those books that teaches you to cook like a Michelin-starred chef - so also a great present for any Dad who fancies himself in the kitchen.

Chris and Jeff write: This is one of those delightful dishes where all the ingredients come into season at the same time. If you can't get fresh morels, use any good wild mushrooms in season

Serves 4

2 guinea fowl crowns (the main body with the legs taken off)
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 quantity of Herb Gnocchi (see below)
3 tablespoons olive oil
40 small fresh morel mushrooms
160g shelled broad beans, blanched and thin outer skin removed
sea salt and freshly ground white pepper

For the herb paste
90g softened unsalted butter
80g curly parsley, chopped
100g fresh white breadcrumbs

For the sauce
1/2 garlic clove
50ml white wine
1 sprig of thyme
300ml Brown Chicken Stock (see the book or substitute your own home-made stock)
1/2 lemon

First, make the herb paste to go under the guinea fowl skin. Put the butter, parsley and breadcrumbs in a blender or food processor and blitz until they combine. Transfer to a piping bag.

Prepare the guinea fowl. Remove the wishbone and wings from the birds (these are used in the sauce later), then push your fingers between the skin and breasts to loosen. Pipe the herb paste into this cavity on both birds and spread it out evenly.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large, ovenproof frying pan until smoking hot. Seal the guinea fowl on both breasts in the pan until golden brown. Transfer the pan to an oven preheated to 200°C/Gas Mark 6 and cook for 25 minutes, basting regularly. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Once rested, remove the breasts from the crowns and keep warm.

Meanwhile, to make the sauce, chop the wing bones into very small pieces. Heat a heavy-based saucepan, just big enough to hold the bones in a single layer, until it is very hot. Add the chopped bones to the pan with the garlic and reduce the heat slightly. There is no need to add any oil as the wings will start to release fat as they cook.

Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, ensuring the pan is hot enough to roast the bones but not so hot that they burn. You are looking for the wing pieces to turn a deep golden yellow colour. Add the white wine and thyme and cook until reduced by three-quarters. Add the chicken stock and cook for 10–15 minutes or until the mixture has reduced to a light coating consistency. Season with salt, if necessary, and finish with 1 or 2 drops of lemon juice. Pass the sauce through a piece of muslin or a fine sieve.

Just before serving, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a frying pan, add the gnocchi and sauté for 2–3 minutes or until golden all over. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm.

Heat another tablespoon of the olive oil in a small saucepan, add the morels and sauté gently for 2–3 minutes or until tender. Season with a little salt. At the same time, reheat the broad beans in a pan of boiling salted water. Drain, then sauté the beans in the remaining olive oil for 30 seconds and season with salt.

To serve, slice each guinea fowl breast into 3 and place in the centre of each serving plate. Surround with the gnocchi, morels and broad beans. Finally spoon over a little sauce and serve immediately.

What to drink: This is the perfect dish to pair with a fine red burgundy or other top Pinot Noir. Premier cru Chablis or another subtly oaked Chardonnay would also be a good match.

Herb Gnocchi
Makes 20

1 large Desiree potato, weighing about 400g
100g fine sea salt
1 small free-range egg
35g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
50g Italian ‘00’ flour
1 tablespoon of chopped mixed herbs (chervil, parsley and tarragon)
8g sea salt
freshly ground white pepper

Wash the potato well and prick it with a fork. Place the fine salt on a small baking tray, put the potato on top and place in an oven preheated to 190°C/Gas Mark 5. Bake for about 11/2 hours, until tender. Remove from the oven, cut the potato in half and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh. Pass it through a fine sieve into a bowl; you should have about 200g sieved potato.

Lightly beat the egg with the Parmesan, them work this mixture into the potato with a spatula or wooden spoon. Make sure the mixture is well combined but be careful not to overwork it. Add the flour, herbs and salt and a few twists of pepper and mix together to make a dough. Turn the dough out on to a work surface and shape into a long sausage, about 1.5cm thick. Cut it into 20 pieces.

Add the gnocchi to a large pan of boiling salted water. They will sink to the bottom initially but when they rise to the top, they are cooked. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, refresh in iced water and then drain well.

Galvin: a Cookbook de Luxe is published by Absolute Press at £25. Photograph ©Lara Holmes. For more about the Galvins' restaurants see www.galvinrestaurants.com

 

 

Sheekey's famous fish pie

Any of you who have been to J Sheekey's in the West End will probably have succumbed to their unbelievably good fish pie. Here's the recipe from their cookbook J Sheekey Fish.

"Some people add lobster, prawns or peas to their pie" says their chef Tim Hughes. "We prefer this purer version."

Serves 4

200g cod fillet (or another white chunky fish such as halibut or monkfish), skinned and cut into rough 3cm chunks
200g salmon fillet, skinned and cut into rough 3cm chunks
200g smoked haddock fillet, skinned and cut into rough 3cm chunks
Half a small bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped

For the sauce

50g unsalted butter
50g plain flour
125ml white wine
500ml fish stock
90ml double cream
1 tablespoon English mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Half a teaspoon anchovy essence
Half a lemon, juiced
Salt and ground white pepper

For the topping

1kg floury potatoes, cooked and dry mashed (e.g. King Edwards)
50g unsalted butter
50ml milk
Salt and ground white pepper
20g fresh white breadcrumbs
10g freshly grated parmesan

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a low heat and gently stir in the flour. Gradually add the wine, stirring well. Slowly add the fish stock (a good-quality cube is fine) until you have a silky smooth sauce. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 15 minutes. To finish, add the cream and briefly bring to the boil again. Stir in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, anchovy essence and lemon juice. (Add more mustard and Worcestershire sauce if you like it spicy.) Check seasoning.

Gently fold the fish and parsley into the hot sauce, and pour into a large pie dish, leaving a space of about 3cm from the top of the dish. Leave to cool, so the topping will sit on the sauce when piped.

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5. Mix butter and milk into the mashed potato until soft enough to spread over the fish mixture. Season. Pipe or gently fork to cover the fish.

Bake the fish pie for 30 minutes. Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and cheese, and bake for a further 10 minutes until golden.

What to drink: A perfect excuse to bring out a Chablis or other good white burgundy or other luscious, creamy cool-climate chardonnay.

J. Sheekey's Fish by Tim Hughes and Allan Jenkins is published by Preface Publishing at £25. Photograph © Howard Sooley.