Posts tagged smoked salmon
Life is full of contrasts – Lentil and marinated smoked salmon salad
Sep 25th
La vie est pleine de contrastes – Salade de lentilles et saumon fumé
It’s quite a fun way to eat lentils…lentils are very versatile and I think not popular enough especially since they’re highly nutritious. I have rarely seen them in restaurants other than in soups. In France they’re considered rustic, something you would eat during winter and with smoked sausage or meat. I like them with smoked fish like salmon or trout, it tones down the smokiness of the fish (if the fish is too smokey like my salmon, actually this salmon was too smokey and salty). Here I like the combination of a hearty rustic ingredient with a more elegant and refined one. I have always loved contrasts. They’re unexpected, interesting and always leave you a feeling of wanting more.
Lentils and spinach are among the ingredients French kids have a hard time eating, if you ask any kid in France what they don’t like to eat, they’ll probably say, j’aime pas les lentiles et j’aime pas les épinards! but obviously I don’t want to make this a generality.
You can also combine fresh salmon with smoked salmon, then you would need to cut both salmon in cubes. Here I striped the salmon since I only used the smoked kind.
Ingredients for 4
For the lentils
- 200 g lentils du Puy
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 carrot
- 1/2 onion
- 1 celery stick
- 1 clove
- salt
For the lentil vinaigrette
- 1 tbs hazelnut or walnut oil
- 1 tsp cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp whole grain mustard
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
For the salmon marinade
- 4 large slices of good quality smoked salmon, cut in strips
- 1 orange
- zest of 1/2 orange
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp dill, chopped
- 1/4 tsp fennel pollen
- 1 tsp capers, chopped
- Piment d’Espelette
- Pepper
Preparation
In a pot of water cook lentils with clove, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf and salt and cook until lentil are tender but not mushy. Drain and remove the cooked vegetables from the lentils and set aside. In a mixing bowl, prepare vinaigrette mixing all ingredients together.
Cut salmon in stripes, mix all ingredients of the marinade and pour over the salmon. Mix well to coat the salmon. Let it marinade in the refrigerator for about one to two hours.
Place a small amount of lentil salad in the middle of a plate (you can use a rind to mount the salad) and top with some salmon stripes. Drizzle some extra marinade on top.
A cozy nest – quail eggs in purple potato nest with smoked salmon, chive sauce on a bed of lemon greens
Jun 29th
Un nid bien douillet – oeufs de caille en nid de vitelotte et saumon fumé, sauce ciboulette sur verdures melangées au citron
Quail eggs…have you ever seen something cuter? They’re very popular in France to add to any appetizer but unfortunately they are not available everywhere in the US. Whole Foods and Sigona market sell them, but those are the only grocery stores where I have seen them on the shelves. Whole Foods sell ostrich eggs for about $30 each but I bet you can feed 4 or 5 people with one of those eggs.
Those adorable quail eggs found a nest in the middle of a potato, they fit perfectly in it, they’re just waiting to be savored with a bit of salmon and fromage blanc touch. I like to use fromage blanc, instead of heavy cream or sour cream, it’s a lot lighter and does not taste sour. If you cannot find fromage blanc, you could substitute it with greek yogurt either the plain one or the 2%. Fromage blanc is a dairy French specialty which has the texture of something in between greek yogurt and sour cream. Very smooth, creamy and velvety.
For the mixed greens you can use any leafy greens, such as spinach, collard greens, etc…
Ingredients for 4 as appetizers
- 4 medium size purple potatoes or any other potato
- 8 quail eggs
- 2 large slices of smoked sockeye salmon
- 1/2 lb mixed greens
- zest of one lemon
- juice of one lemon
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 tbs fromage blanc or Greek yogurt
- 1 tbs chopped chives
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Wash the potatoes. Pat dry and cut them in half lentghwise, the largest surface should be the one cut in half so that the quail egg would fit in each hole.
Drizzle olive oil and vinegar, add salt and pepper and broil at low heat. Cook until the potatoes are tender but browned on the outside.
In the meantime, bring water to a boil, add salt and cook greens for about 10 minutes. Drain.
Wash lemon and remove zest. Cook lemon zest in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Chop in smaller pieces.
In a mixing bowl and lemon juice (keep one tsp to add to fromage blanc), olive oil, lemon zest, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add to the cooked greens.
When potatoes are cooked, remove from the oven and break a quail egg in the middle of the hole, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place back in oven for 3 minutes. Do not overcook the eggs, the yolks need to remain liquid.
Mix fromage blanc with chives, 1 tps lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Cut salmon in strips. Place on top of eggs, and add 1/2 tsp of fromage blanc mixture.
Serve two potato halves on top of 1 tbs of greens.
