this time last year everywhere you looked was a golden brown and the heat rose in waves from the pavement by ten in the morning, voiding any ideas of getting up to anything outdoors. for most of the day we would all, in our individual houses sit, windows open, fly swat never far from hand, just biding time until the onslaught eased off and then, around 3, we would emerge from our prospective shelter and head to the pools attempting to bring the body temperature down to a cope-able level before dinner time arrived.
this year there is still green grass on our front lawn. i imagine it would turn yellow in a heart beat, if only it was given half the chance, but the rain cannot seem to stay away for more than a few days at a time and so, the grass persists in living for now.
in new zealand, for most families, christmas is a beach, lake, or river clad, sun fueled holiday where we do anything possible to keep ourselves cooled while making the most of wandering around in the great outdoors. this year only a few patches of the country managed to see the sun on december 25th. we were lucky enough to be visiting family in the west coast to my brother josh's family home (check out his goose hunting video at josh james kiwi bushman) and did in fact get a bit of a break. christmas day came around and the sun mustered up the energy to get a slight shine on, which we were all most grateful for. we spent the day, as usual, eating, snoozing, cooking and eating some more. i also spent a hilarious but rather disgusting hour or so re-plucking some pre-brined christmas geese on the porch with my two sister in laws before roasting the bloody things - needless to say grasping at the fatty carcasses while plucking the bristle and feather off, rather took a bit of the shine off eating said bird later. goose adventure aside, it was a lovely day being with family and watching the little enjoy her first christmas as a more responsive human being rather than last years way less interesting boob, burp, bed type.
once we returned home to canturbury, bo set off for a bit of a fish at one of the lakes around these ways and much to my delight came back with a wee salmon for us to have for dinner.
the bright coral pink flesh muted to a soft blush as it cooked and we had it with some fresh foccocia bread spread with sage butter and a chick pea, mushroom and kale ragout.
the foccocia bread is a regular in our house as it is so easy to whip up - see this earlier link here for the recipe, and if you havent already tried it, give it a go, it really is worth it and i swear you will love it and use it again and again - it is so easy to impress guests with this trick up your sleeve!
sage butter is simple to make (no garlic mincing required - yay!) and its presence adds in another complementary flavour to the whole dish.
the mushroom and bean ragout is mildly adapted from a recipe made by laura of THE FIRST MESS found here - the blog is a veritable feast of delishness and a genuine love of fresh that i was lucky enough to stumble upon whilst meandering on pintrest. something to aspire to!
the salmon is as simple as it comes - its much better that way as it really is the star of the show, so let it shine folks, let it shine.
oh, and get it out of the fridge now before you start the ragout this will get it to room temperature before you cook it.
also give it a season so it has twenty to thirty minutes to sit with this on before cooking (see instructions below)
SAGE BUTTER
75g butter softened
6-10 leaves of fresh sage, finely chopped
combine butter and sage and mix well. return to the fridge to cool and for the flavour to develop.
the more sage you add the stronger the flavour. i like my butter nice and sage-y but let your personal preferences tell you how much to add. i usually make a big load of this at a time and then roll it out on some cling wrap into a sausage like tube to freeze. that way you always have flavored butter on hand, and you can do this with pretty much any fresh herb. minted butter to add to fresh cooked peas or, a personal favorite that my ma turned me onto, lemon balm butter on new potatoes. total yum-o.
MUSHROOM AND BEAN RAGOUT
1 Tblsp olive oil
1 med red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
bunch of fresh thyme
sprig of fresh rosemary, de-stalked and finely chopped
dash balsamic vinegar
glob butter
1-2 tsp smoked paprika
mushrooms aprox 300g, sliced
1 Tblsp tomato relish
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
chick peas 400g, cooked (i used the tinned variety - TOTAL CHEAT - and rinsed them well)
1 cup stock, chicken or vegetable
3-4 kale leaves, de-stalked and roughly chopped
1 Tblsp cornflour
salt and pepper to taste
place oil in a heavy pan over medium to low heat and saulte onion until it starts to turn translucent. add garlic, thyme and rosemary and continue to heat until it becomes aromatic. add in the balsamic vinegar and continue to cook slowly for another 5 minutes.
add the butter, smoked paprika and mushrooms, stir to coat mushrooms and continue to cook at medium heat until they become just slightly tender.
add tomato relish, worcestershire sauce, chickpeas and stock.
simmer gently and stir through kale.
scoop out a little of the sauce and mix it with the cornflour. return a little at a time to the pot, stirring while it thickens until you have the desired thickness.
add salt and pepper to season just before serving (NOTE - if you add salt to legumes or beans early on in the cooking process it can make them get a little tough, so its best to always leave it right until you are ready to plate to season anything with these protein punchers in them)
PAN FRIED SALMON WITH THYME
once your salmon is out of the fridge or, if you are super lucky to have it fresh off the line and have just gutted and filleted it, insure it is clean and dry and give it a good drizzle of olive oil and season with fresh ground salt and pepper. throw on a few sprigs of thyme rub it all in and let sit for 20-30 minutes before cooking.
remember to remove any little bones if you can feel them with tweezers. just run your finger along the ridges and valleys in the fillet to feel them and pluck them out.
i prefer to keep the skin on for cooking and, once finished, the tender flesh just flakes right off it onto your fork as you eat it.
next make sure your pan is oiled and nice and hot before you go near it with the fish. it should not be smoking but you should have definite aggressive sizzle when you shake a couple of drops of water in there.
pop the fillets in, skin side down. i put two into our pan as the fillets were smaller but dont over crowd them. if you have large fillets cook them individually and trim if needed. if you put too much on at one time the pan temperature will drop and your salmon wont cook as well as you want it to.
once you see the flesh start to lighten up on the edges (only a couple of minutes) gently turn fillet with a fish slice onto flesh side with the thyme sprigs still there between it and the pan. continue cooking until done, the flesh should be a glorious shade of genuine soft salmon pink.
while cooking the fish, toast and then butter your bread and plate with the ragout, add salmon fillet and lemon wedges and serve right away garnished with rosemary.
