Salmon Wellington

A fish version of a famous beef dish, accompanied by a refreshing flavour of Thai basil. Commonly, duxelle (i.e. finely chopped mixture of mushrooms sautéed in butter) contains onions or a shallot, but here it is not strictly necessary.

You'll need:
French puff pastry
a piece of fresh salmon
mushrooms
butter (for frying)
black pepper
a handful of fresh Thai basil leaves
one shallot (optional)

1. Start off by preparing the duxelle, as it will have to cool down before you can use it: peel and finely chop the mushrroms, dissolve some butter on the pan, add the mushrooms and fry them over medium heat together with a very generous dose of black pepper. If using the shallot, put it on the pan before the mushrooms and let it soften.

2. Put the salmon on the pastry, season with salt and then proceed to put a layer of duxelle on top, followed by a generous dose of chopped Thai basil.

3. Tightly close the pocket using another layer of pastry (or close it off like a calzone), but cut some holes on top to allow the moisture to go out.

4. Put in the oven pre-set to 180 degrees and leave it there until the pastry turns golden brown. For a nice colouring of the pastry, you can brush it with an egg or milk.

Buon appetito!

Grandi gnocchi di ricotta

Welcome to episode one of lockdown cooking! What better way to spend your time at home than cooking? Maybe it's actually a good time to turn to those traditional grandma recipes that take hours to cook? Now might be the best time to oversee a slow cooked ragu alla Bolognese or take the time to prepare a proper ramen broth that takes 36 hours to cook... Anyway, for the time being I start with something a bit more modest that can be done in next to no time - gnocchi di ricotta con spinaci, prosciutto e pomodori secchi. Come to think of it, my comeback to more classical Italian flavours mind be a sign that mind is far away from Brussels...

You'll need:

250gr ricotta (or Polish twaróg)

1 egg

around 70gr flour

pepper

a bowl of fresh spinach

4cm ginger

prosciutto (my favourite is san daniele)

sundried tomatoes

grated parmigiano regiano or grana padano

1. First prepare the gnocchi mixture by mixing the ricotta cheese (or twaróg) with the egg and flour, adding a generous dose of black pepper. Once kneaded a bit, put it aside in the fridge to harden a bit for around 30 minutes.

2. Finely chop the ginger and the fry it on a pan for 30 seconds or so, before adding the spinach leaves. I usually chop the leaves a little bit even if it is baby spinach to make them more manageable to eat. Don't forget to rinse them first though! Quite often there will be sand on them and you really want to avoid that sort of crunch in your mouth.

3. Boil some water in a pot. Form the gnocchi with the use of two teaspoons into a shape of a quenelle. Add salt into the boiling water before transferring in the gnocchi. Boil them for around two minutes.

4. Assemble the ingredients together, sprinkle some parmigiano/grana padano on top, an extra sprinkle of freshly grated black pepper e voila!

Buon appetito!

Thai style baked salmon

I called it Thai style baked salmon, but probably it's far from authentic, for some of the ingredients used, such as shimeji mushrooms are more typical for Japan than Thailand. Yet, the coriander, chili and lime combination might be seen as more emblematic of Thailand. Either way, it is very easy and quick to make, which is great when you don't have too much time for cooking.

You'll need:
a piece of fresh salmon, no skin
soy sauce
lime juice
fresh coriander leaves
chili flakes
finely chopped ginger
finely chopped garlic
shimeji mushrooms
pepper
butter

1. Mix the soy sauce with ginger, garlic, lime juice, coriander leaves and chili flakes and pour over the salmon.

2. Put in the oven set for 175 degrees for around 20 minutes, depending on the size of the salmon piece(s). No need for a cover, for as long as you don't keep it there for too long, it should still come out nice and moist.

3. In the meantime, dissolve a spoonfull of butter in a pan and fry your shimeji mushrooms on it, seasoning them with black pepper.

4. Assemble everything on a plate et voila! I also added a light valeriana salad on the side, simply sprinkled with olive oil and red wine vinegar. For a bigger hunger, you could of course add some (jasmin) rice too!

Itadakimasu!