Speedy Salmon Supper

Another long standing recipe to share with you today.  This meal has been something I have cooked for many, many years... and, luckily, it's something Sous Chef J likes to eat.

The ingredients were assembled, as usual... 

2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced
300g salmon (poached/steamed and skin removed if fresh - or drain a 418g tinned salmon)
Juice of one lemon
400g can of chopped tomatoes

This time we were using fresh salmon, so it was steamed whilst the onion and peppers were being cooked.  To start with, the oil was heated in a large frying pan and the onion was gently fried for about 5 minutes.   At this point, the salmon was removed from the heat and left to cool.  Then the sliced red pepper was added to the frying pan with the onion and the mix was cooked for a further 5 minutes. 

Having flaked the salmon, it was added, with the lemon juice and tomatoes to the frying pan. 

After generously seasoning the mix with freshly ground black pepper, it was cooked for another 5 minutes. 

We served it with green salad and a few potatoes but you can also serve with rice.

It's a great dish to 'make salmon go further' and can be expanded to feed more than 4 people by the addition of more sliced peppers and a couple more salmon steaks.  As Sous Chef J observed "if you multiply the salmon pieces by 2, you find out how many you can feed".... and if we make it using yellow and orange peppers instead of just red ones, we call it Colourful Salmon Supper.

Crispy Croutons

We are always looking out for ideas for easy things to make... even better if they use up cupboard items that may be nearing their 'use by' date.  These croutons are dead easy...

Checking our 'Justin' case bag, the Dietary Specials white Ciabatta Rolls were due to be used up.





So, we cut them into cubes (roughly and inch/2cm in size) and placed them in a mixing bowl. 



They were seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper.   Two tablespoons of oil was mixed through thoroughly.

The bready bits were added to a hot frying pan (we did ours in two batches) and moved around to minimise catching.

Once they'd toasted through, the croutons were turned out onto a piece of kitchen paper to cool.

They can be added to salad, eaten with chilli or just snacked on.  We sometimes add spices or garlic into the mix and they never last long.  However, if you need to store them, put them in an airtight container and they'll keep a couple of days.

Thrifty Tip

An 'issue' that's faced us a couple of times recently has been egg wash for scones.  Being of a thrifty Northern persuasion, I hate 'wasting' an egg on this task.  Sous Chef J commented that we rarely use a whole egg's worth for use with the amount of scones we bake.  So, our thinking on the matter began.  Last year, we'd learned that eggs can be frozen and, when we see some reduced in the supermarket we will buy them and freeze them, beaten, in one or two egg amounts (we just place the beaten egg in a labelled plastic bag and freeze).  These are great for using, once de-frosted, in recipes. 

Our lightbulb moment happened when we spotted our silicone mini muffin cases.  They're the perfect size for a small amount of egg.  What we did was beat an egg, divide it between the silicone cases, place the cases in a container and then froze them.  The next day, we removed the egg 'portions' from the cases, bagged and labelled them and returned them to the freezer for use next time we need a small amount of beaten egg for our scones.








 To use, remove frozen, beaten egg from freezer and allow to defrost at room temperature.  Use as normal.