Seared Salmon & Rockmelon Flan

Main: Seared Salmon with Greens and Mango Salsa Vinaigrette
Raising the Salad Bar – Catherine Walthers

Dessert: Summertime Rockmelon Flan
WW Light & Luscious Summertime Cookbook

“We all eat, and it would be a sad waste of opportunity to eat badly.” – Anna Thomas

Hello everyone! Gosh don’t the weeks churn over quickly and here we are again ready to try a new recipe from one of my many cookbooks. I am leaning on Raising the Salad Bar again this week, mostly because of the hot weather but also because Catherine Walthers takes an ordinary salad and makes it spectacular. What I love most is that after one of these beautiful salads I don’t ever feel as if I have over eaten and there is a sense of clean eating. So this week I chose salmon with a gorgeous tangy salsa.

Salmon is a great price at the moment but having said that, this salsa would be wonderful with any firm and thick white fish. Once you have seared the salmon fillet you place it in the oven to finish it off. Now, a lot of people prefer their salmon a little rare – I don’t. This is always to the horror of any chef in any restaurant I have been in and requested “well done salmon”. But, you know what, at the end of the day, who made that rule??? Seriously, I think we are entitled to eat steak, fish whatever (well maybe not rare chicken) exactly how we want it. What’s the point otherwise! I guess the secret to well done salmon is don’t dry it out so if you do like it well done then keep an eye on it and take it out of the oven just when it is cooked through and no longer.

The salsa is one of the easiest things to put together but a word of warning. It does require a Jalapeño pepper. These are hot, hot, hot. I chose to use a green chilli and only the 1 tablespoon as per the recipe. It is really up to your own taste. The beautiful combination of honey with the acidic vinegar and lime juice coupled with cumin and coriander is just a fabulous burst of flavour in the mouth. Everyone loved this, even MAV who is not fond of salmon. 9/10.

Now dessert. Well, how delicious does “Rockmelon Flan” sound? Great right? Nah, it was a bit of a let down. We were so looking forward to it. We all agreed that when you took a mouthful the flavour was okay but the texture let the side down. It would have been better with a more custardy filling and then the melon on top. The filling included pureeing some of the rockmelon so I would have to experiment with that being added to a custard style filling and I will do that in a few weeks and let you know how it turns out.

The chef’s out there may be saying not to do it because it may curdle the custard but I won’t know till I try. I may very well have done something wrong but I did follow the recipe to the letter. Anyway, not to worry this is what this blog is all about. The good, the bad and the ugly from all my recipe books. The poor old flan only scored 3/10.

Until next week….

From my table to yours with love x

Seared Salmon with greens and Mango Salsa Vinaigrette

4 salmon fillets (with skin)
salt & pepper
1 tbsp oil
6 c mixed greens (washed & dried)

Salsa

2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1½ tsp honey
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp red onion (minced)
1 tbsp jalapeño pepper (seeded and minced)
½ tsp garlic (minced)
½ tsp cumin (ground)
1 ripe mango (cut into ¼ inch dice)
½ c tomato (finely diced)
¼ tsp salt
2-3 tbsp coriander leaves

To make vinaigrette, in a medium bowl, combine the vinegar, lime juice and honey. Add the oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly until dressing is emulsified. Add the red onion, jalapeño, garlic, cumin, mango, tomato and salt; combine. Stir in coriander leaves. If not using the dressing immediately, cover it and store in the refrigerator. Bring the dressing to room temp before serving.
Preheat the oven to 180°c. Season salmon with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in an oven-proof skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat. Add the salmon, flesh side down, and sear until a golden brown crust forms, about 3 – 5 minutes. Carefully slide a spatula under each fillet and turn over. Transfer the skillet to the oven to finish cooking, approx 6 to 8 minutes, or until salmon is almost opaque throughout, but still moist.
Divide the greens among 4 individual plates. Carefully lift the salmon fillets, leaving the skin in the skillet, and place one fillet at the centre of each plate. Whisk the vinaigrette and generously spoon it over the fish and greens.

Summertime Rockmelon Flan

Start this recipe the day before

Pastry

1 c plain flour
2 tbsp icing sugar
90 g butter
egg yolk
1 tbsp water

Filling

1½ kg rockmelon
¼ c sugar
2 tsp orange rind (grated)
½ c orange juice
2 tsp gelatine
1 tbsp water
1 c thick cream
⅓ c apricot jam
1 tbsp grand marnier (or similar)

Pastry

Sift flour and icing sugar into bowl, rub in butter. Add egg yolk and enough water to mix to a firm dough. Roll dough out onto floured surface, large enough to line 23cm flan tin. Cover pastry with greaseproof paper, cover paper thickly with beans or rice. Bake in moderately hot oven 7 minutes, remove paper and beans, bake further 7 minutes; cool.
Fill pastry case with rockmelon mixture, refrigerate until set, top with rockmelon balls, brush with jam mixture, refrigerate 1 hour until set.

Filling

Scoop melon into balls. Scoop out remaining flesh, chop roughly; reserve ½ cup. Blend or process reserved rockmelon with sugar, orange rind and juice. Sprinkle gelatine over water, dissolve over hot water (or microwave on high 40 seconds), cool to room temperature, add to melon mixture; stir in cream. Heat jam in pan, strain, stir in Grand Marnier.