Right, enough pussy footing around it weather, just give me, and the whole of sun starved Britain, some summer already. In a futile attempt to feel more summery and kick start the pitiful British summer (massively overestimating my abilities to change the weather), I cooked a summery salad of salmon and new potatoes from Jamie’s Great Britain. It’s getting plenty of use at the moment, I could lie and say I’m feeling really patriotic because of the upcoming Olympics, but actually this book is full of some good looking recipes which I’m more than happy to dive right into! But sure, bring on the Olympics too, I guess.
This salad is perfect for me because it’s pretty much as far removed from a salad one can be while still technically being a salad. No soggy lettuce, no shredded veg and no raw tomatoes (I hate raw tomatoes), just salmon, potatoes and a herby yoghurt dressing. Plus I L.O.V.E salmon, so extra bonus points for Mr Oliver. Now, I’m going to go off on a bit of a foodie rant here, I’ll apologise in advance for it, but if I can’t get a foodie rant out on my own food blog then where the hell can I? Basically, people who say they don’t like fish get right on my nerves. I’m sorry, I know plenty of mates who say this, and I love you all, but come on! You’ve ruled out an entire food source, and I’m willing to bet lots of money that they are basing this dislike either on a childhood hatred that they’ve never bothered to overcome as a grown up, or have tried one type of fish that they didn’t like and have assumed all fish taste very similar. Ridiculous. It’s like disliking cucumbers (which really are disgusting) and therefore deciding you hate all vegetables. So maybe salmon wasn’t your bag, fine, how about haddock/seabass/trout/bream/tuna/sole/eel/mackerel etc… Plenty of fish in the sea, as they say. Move on from your childhood dislikes,man up and try something new. If you try it and don’t like it, fine, but at least give it a go before ruling it out completely. It’s healthy, plentiful, light, tasty and apart from some farmed fish, you couldn’t get more free range, they’ve got the whole ocean! OK, rant over, although don’t even get me started on people who eat fish fingers but not actual fish.
Let’s get back to the salmon salad shall we? It was light and tasty, which is all you can ever ask from a salad, and for the first time in my entire life I managed to not over cook the salmon. This is a breakthrough, I finally took it out of the oven in time despite believing it needed another 5 minutes, and lo and behold, it was perfect. I should probably start taking on board the advice bestowed upon me in these books by professional chefs, rather than ignoring them and then wondering why the salmon is dry and tasteless. The yoghurt dressing added a good punch of mint and dill tang to the dish and complemented the salmon very well. Only problem now is that an hour after eating it, I still feel pretty hungry. Must. Resist. Chocolate.
PS: Best way to learn to love fish is to do this: get on a boat tour off the coast of Portugal on a sunny day, with a tour guide who, while you’re swimming in the sea a mile off the coast, will cook sardines caught that morning on a BBQ, ready for you to eat once you’re done swimming. If this doesn’t convince you that fish is amazing, then I’m afraid there’s no hope for you as it doesn’t get better than that. It certainly worked for me as a fussy 10 year old, and I still remember it 16 years on.
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