My dad's wife doesn't eat too much meat so I've been looking for a nice fish to take centre stage on our Christmas table. Salmon is the biggest affordable fish, and we've got one this week, so I've been experimenting.
This Nigella Express was bought by a friend of mine to take with her to University. Emboldened by her father's spiel that he apparently learned to cook while he was living on his own for the first time in student digs, she assumed that she too would blossom and flourish when left to her own devices and return home an accomplished chef. This is the best example of why you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover that I can think of. Go to a library, flick through this thing and tell me what student you know has a fish kettle, and who in their right mind would spend their time and book/drinking money searching out baby pak choi in a remote Northern town. This book was worse than useless, it was actually a little insulting. Martini Olives anyone?So anyway, she flung it my way in disgust. To be fair, there isn't anything too elaborate about any of these recipes, but Nigella isn't selling the recipes, she's selling a lifestyle. Inside the dustjacket is a panoramic shot of the contents of her larder, full of imported, essential preserves and condiments - The Boyfriend just looked over at me and asked what the hell I'm rolling my eyes at - uff. Ok, lets pretend I'm a millionaire.
I chopped the tail end of the salmon off to use in another recipe, but kept the tail which together with the top half of the body just fit in my biggest metal roasting tin (I refuse to buy a fish kettle on principle!). You cover it with water shove dill and a few condiments in the cavity, and surround the fish with spring onions. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for a few minutes and then let it sit around and cool overnight. Wait, what? That's right, if you want to have it for lunch you should start making it the day before, if you plan on having it for dinner, well then, you better get your lazy ass up early in the morning! I didn't do either of those, and resolved, albeit with a heavy heart, to have it warm, in an hour or so.
I made the dressing, watched half an episode of Mad Men (oh I am so totally Joan, like you wouldn't believe), boiled a few potatoes and answered incessant questions along the lines of 'Where's my dinner? When can we eat? I can see it sitting there on the counter, it's not even doing anything! Why can't we eat it now? I'm hungry!' Not doing anything? It's infusing! *probably* I can't imagine Nigella has to deal with this kind of crap, in her house everybody's probably too busy getting buzzed up on Prosecco to notice what the food is doing.
Result: I lifted the salmon out of the liquid carefully, scraped all the flesh off and 'arranged' the pink mess on the nicest platter we had with a few drizzles of sauce on top. It was amazing, incredible, perfect and so easy! I was under absolutely no pressure and didn't even have to swear once (take that, Floating Islands!). It tasted of salmon with a slight scent of spring onion coming through, obviously. I had been worried about not having enough seasoning in the stock, but it was perfect. The dressing was hot and peppery from the mustard but cool at the same time - it really tied the room together... And the leftovers were even better the next day. I just have to wonder why in the world would Nigella give away family recipes like this!
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