There is a real art to hot-smoking salmon. The fish must be of the best quality, and the cooking during the smoking process must be precise, so that the salmon is not overdone. All fish is ruined by being cooked too long, but no fish suffers worse, or is more unpleasant, than salmon, smoked or unsmoked – it has both the taste and texture of cardboard. Too often, however, hot-smoked salmon is overcooked, and then nothing can redeem it.
So, buy from a smokehouse you can rely on. For me, there are several absolutes: Andy Race, in Mallaig (01687 462626,
wwwandyrace.co.uk); Summer Isles Foods, in Achiltibuie (01854 622353,
www.summerislesfoods.co.uk); the Inverawe Smokehouse (0844 8475 490,
www.smokedsalmon.co.uk); and Salar (01870 610324,
www.salar.co.uk), the South Uist -based smokehouse which has consistently won gold awards for its superb product.
Prepared well, hot-smoked salmon, which goes by a range of names (Braden Rost being one, Flaky Smoked Salmon, another) is such a very useful, time-saving and delicious food – it is the fish we always use for fishcakes, and for kedgeree.
My recipe for crème fraîche mixed with grated apples and horseradish from two Saturdays ago, in the article on mayonnaise alternatives, is the perfect and easiest sauce to enhance hot-smoked salmon. Or keep it simple and add some snipped chives to your mayonnaise. As with all salmon, the hot-smoked variety is filling. Therefore, be cautious in the amount you give per person. Too generous a serving will fill up your guests, leaving them no room for subsequent courses.
HOT-SMOKED SALMON FISHCAKESEveryone, of whatever age, loves a crispy-coated fishcake!
SERVES 61lb/450g hot-smoked salmon, flaked and the skin discarded
1lb/450g potatoes (weighed when peeled), boiled and drained well then mashed thoroughly with
2oz/55g butter (or buttery Benecol) and 1 teaspoon salt and
about 20 grinds of black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, flat or curly leaved
1 tablespoon finely snipped chives
2 rounded tablespoons sieved plain flour
2 eggs, beaten on a plate
4oz/110g fine, dry breadcrumbs (make your own, in a food processor)
4 tablespoons olive oil and
1oz/28g butter
Put the flaked hot-smoked salmon into a large bowl and add the seasoned and cooled mashed potatoes. Add the chopped parsley and snipped chives to the bowl and, by hand (the only way to do it thoroughly), mix all together. Divide and form into even-sized fishcakes, aiming for 12 from this amount. Dip each into the flour, then the beaten egg, and lastly into the breadcrumbs. Line a large tray with a sheet of baking parchment and put the fishcakes onto this. When all have been coated, put the tray to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
They can be made and left overnight. To cook, heat the olive oil with the butter in a large sauté pan and, when very hot, carefully put the fishcakes into the sauté pan. Leave enough space for you to be able to turn them over. Once in the pan, leave them alone. Do not be tempted to push them around – this prevents a crisp crust forming and they can break up. After a couple of minutes, turn over each fishcake to cook on the other side.
When cooked, carefully lift out the fishcakes onto a double thickness of kitchen paper on a large ovenproof dish. Serve hot, with a good tomato sauce as an accompaniment.
HOT-SMOKED SALMON KEDGEREE WITH QUAILS EGGS AND SAFFRONThis is an elegant kedgeree, eminently suitable for a party main course. If you want to gild the lily, serve it with Hollandaise sauce.
SERVES 6For the stock:
1 smoked haddock fillet
1 onion, skinned and halved
21/2 pints/1.4 litres milk and water mixed
For the kedgeree:
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 large banana shallots, each skinned and finely diced
12oz/340g long grain rice (I use Basmati)
2 good pinches of saffron strands
11/2 lb/675g hot-smoked salmon, flaked and the skin discarded
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
12 quails eggs, hard-boiled, shelled and halved
about 20 grinds of black pepper
a grating of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3oz/85g butter diced
First make the stock by putting the smoked haddock, milk and water and halves of the skinned onion into a saucepan over moderate heat, until the liquid simmers. Take the pan off the heat and leave until the contents are cold. Strain the liquid into a jug, throw away the onion halves, and feed the smoked haddock to a dog or cat.
In a large sauté pan heat the olive oil and fry the chopped shallots until they are soft and translucent, about five minutes. Add the rice, and stir for a couple of minutes, until you feel sure that each grain of rice is coated with the oil. Add the saffron. Pour in the strained smoked haddock stock until the level is about 1in/2.5cm above the level of the rice in the pan. Don't stir again once the liquid has been added. Cover the pan with a cloth (a tea-towel is best for absorbing the steam) and then cover the cloth and pan with its lid. Cook over gentle heat for five minutes, then take the pan off the heat and leave for 20 minutes – do not lift or remove the lid or cloth during this time – after which the rice will have absorbed the liquid and be cooked. Season with pepper, and carefully fork through the bits of butter, halved quails eggs, flaked hot-smoked salmon and parsley. Do this over moderate heat. When you are satisfied that everything is hot, and that the butter has melted, the kedgeree is ready to serve.
SALAD OF HOT-SMOKED SALMON, CUCUMBER AND DILL WITH RADICCHIOThe cucumber needs to be prepared several hours in advance, or it can be done and left overnight.
SERVES 61 cucumber
2 teaspoons caster sugar
6 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
11/2 lb/675g hot-smoked salmon, flaked, and the skin discarded
2 tablespoons chopped dill
2 tablespoons olive oil
about 15 grinds of black pepper
2 heads of radicchio, the stalk end trimmed away and each head sliced very thinly
To prepare the cucumber, peel it first – this only takes a minute using a potato peeler. Slice the flesh into chunks, then each chunk in half lengthways. Using a teaspoon, scoop away the seeds. When this is done, slice the cucumber into neat dice. If you possess a vegetable dicer this takes seconds, but if not, slice into cubes as neatly as possible – the pieces should be roughly thumbnail-sized.
Put the diced cucumber into a shallow bowl and mix in the caster sugar, wine vinegar and salt. Cover, and leave for at least six hours. Drain off the vinegar after this time.
Mix the drained, marinated cucumber dice into the flaked salmon, with the olive oil, dill, black pepper and sliced radicchio. Serve either on individual plates, or heap onto an ashet.
The full article contains 1200 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
