Warm Potato Salad

This recipe is another we've made for years...it's a different take on potato salad.  We serve it year round but it was first made as a barbecue dish.

The ingredients required are -
For the dressing
1 Tablespoon (15ml) grainy mustard
75ml Red wine vinegar
75ml Olive oil
For the salad
3 spring onions, sliced
Potatoes - boiled or steamed (we used about 5 medium sized, skin on and quartered)
One pack (about 90g) Pancetta or cubed bacon, fried

This serves 3 people, although the dressing can be stored in a fridge and will be too much for a small quantity of potatoes - how long it lasts will depend on how large a salad you make!

Place dressing ingredients in a jar, attach lid securely, and shake well.  The mustard will act as an emulsifier which allows the vinegar and oil to combine.

The spring onions were sliced whilst the bacon bits were fried until crispy.

Having steamed the potato pieces, skin on, they were placed in a bowl and the bacon bits and spring onions were added.  Next, whilst the potatoes and bacon were still warm, some of the dressing was poured over (the amount of dressing made will be enough for 2 or 3 salads - but, as mentioned earlier, this depends on the quantity of potatoes used) and combined.  Aim to coat the potato mix in the dressing - less is more to start with, add more if you need to.

We love serving this warm salad with barbecued or griddled meat.

Salmon in a parcel

This is a speedy salmon recipe which can be baked in the oven on cooler days or cooked on a barbecue if it's summery weather.

Simple, as ever, needing just salmon (either a piece or fillets - up to you), some English mustard powder, demerara sugar, lemon juice and black pepper.

We lined a baking tray with a large piece of aluminium foil - overlapping the ends well (this needs to be used this to enclose the salmon before cooking.)

Next the salmon fillets were placed on the foil and some mustard powder was sprinkled on the fish (about half a teaspoon per fillet), we followed this with the sugar (about 1 teaspoon a fillet) and then added a good amount of lemon juice (we used half a lemon for 4 fillets).  Finally, the salmon was topped with a good grind of  freshly ground black pepper.


Then the foil was folded over the fish and scrunched up to make a sealed parcel. 

The parcel was placed in a pre-heated oven (180C) on baking tray for about 20 minutes.  If cooking on a barbecue, place the foil parcel directly on the grill once the coals are hot and cook for 15-20 minutes.

After cooking, we opened the foil parcel and served.  The mustard, sugar and lemon juice had made a lovely sauce to accompany the fish.