Weekday Favourites - Salmon and Couscous

My partner is a really good cook and one of his absolute best recipes is for pan fried salmon fillet. I'm really terrible at cooking salmon on the stove top - I can't seem to get the balance between succulent flesh and crispy, almost caramelised surface. I'm very lucky in that I have someone to cook it for me, just the way I like. Although the salmon is cooked skin-on, we tend not to eat the skin, although if it is crispy enough it can be perfectly edible. I just find it can be difficult to get the skin just right, and when I'm tired and hungry, I'm really not remotely bothered about the skin.

This salmon was seasoned very simply with just salt and freshly ground black pepper. You could add any seasonings or spices to it. Cajun salmon is wonderful, and I really like paprika with it. My partner cooks the salmon skin side down in a hot pan. It should sizzle as soon as the fish hits the pan. You can add some oil to the pan first, or rub the fish with oil and add that to a dry pan. Either way should work just fine. Most of the cooking time takes place on the skin side - as it cooks you'll see the flesh turn from the raw coral to a beautiful soft pink. Once the flesh is cooked three quarters of the way up the salmon, flip it over to cook the top side of the fillet. As we won't be eating the skin, my partner makes sure he gets lots of flavour into this side of the fish. He adds a knob of butter to the pan, to baste the skin side of the fish, to keep it moist. Meanwhile the butter on the surface of the pan cooks the non-skin side, caramelising it and creating a "crust". Once basted and cooked all the way through, my partner removes the skin - it should slip off with very little difficulty. If you are having trouble removing the skin the salmon may not yet be fully cooked.

If you have to prepare the rest of the meal at this point, cloak the fillets in some foil to keep them warm. We love to eat salmon with couscous. I like the contrast of the sweet salmon and the savoury couscous. I really like the textures as well. I'll do a recipe for this another time, but the basic principle is to cook the couscous according to the packet instructions, and then add salt and pepper, a squeeze of lemon, finely chopped red onion or spring onion, and finely chopped sundried tomatoes.

My partner served the salmon fillet and couscous with a mixed leaf and fresh herb salad. We opt for the lazy option and buy a packet from the supermarket. We add fresh chopped tomatoes to liven it up a bit. You can make a dressing to go with this but I love it with a bit of the salmony butter straight from the pan.

It's my favourite weekday tea: it takes about 15 minutes to make, it's fresh, colourful and vibrant and really, really tasty.

The quality of this picture can only be described as shoddy, but I was in such a hurry to shovel it into my mouth, I really couldn't bring myself to be professional! You may notice I've already made a start on the salmon!

Speaking of salmon, it's also a proper weekend meal. My partner made salmon cooked in exactly the same way as above, but with homemade oven baked French "fries", a dressed green salad and some really good quality mayonnaise (not homemade - a Friday night in our household involves drinking wine, not slaving over homemade egg-based sauces). This was delicious and a more indulgent way of eating salmon.

Spice, sausages and pasta - could it really be bad?

Jamie Oliver strikes again with a fantastically simple pasta dish. The key here is to buy the best sausages you can lay your mitts on – think coarse meat, good seasoning and a high meat content. The cheaper the sausage, the less likely you are to get the texture needed here. You could also use pork mince here, as in fact what you will be using is the sausage meat, without the skin. You need to disgard the skin before cooking in order to break the meat up.   So if you would prefer to make your own sausage meat, go right ahead. I used shop-bought organisc sausages and de-skinned them. 

The de-skinned sausage meat is added to a heated pan with a splash of olive oil. It is then broken up with a wooden spoon, until it resembles coarsely chopped mince meat. Once adequately squished, fennel seeds and dried chillis are added. I used a sufficiently fiery birds eye chilli (3 of them to be precise) and a teaspoon of fennel seeds. Bash them together, either in a pestle and mortar or in bowl using the business end of a rolling pin (my preferred method). Throw them in the pan and continue to stir and bash at the mince until it becomes even more mince-like. Cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so the meat has a chance to brown and crisp up. Once it looks really well broken down, golden and caramelised, chuck in a glass of white wine, a pinch of dried oregano, and let that cook down slightly until half of the liquid has evaporated. Use a full-bodied white wine or you won’t taste it in the finished dish. Once cooked down, grate in some lemon zest and add the juice of half the lemon. 

The above picture shows the sausage meat after 15 minutes in the pan. Wine has been added and allowed to reduce until only a intensely savoury puddle remains. Be sure to taste it at this point - not for any other reason than it is utterly delicious.

Leave this to cook on the lowest heat, and boil your fusili. I used fresh, shop-bought pasta and cooked it for 3.5 minutes on a high heat, with a splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt added to the water. Once cooked, scoop out a small cup of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta and throw it i the pan with the sausage meat mixture. Add a cup of grated parmesan cheese, a knob of butter, ground black pepper, a handful of freshly chopped parsley, and the pasta cooking water. The cooking water contains starch from the pasta, and this is what helps the sausage mixture stick to the pasta. Serve with fresh parmesan shavings on top, and a bit more chopped parsley.

My partner has told me that this is his new favourite pasta dish. The great thing is it's so easy to make and once you had a stock of the herbs, chillis and larder products needed for this, individual servings will be cheap and cheerful. I won't deny this isn't calorie-laden, but it's comforting and delicious, and sometimes that's the nourishment we need. I recommend eating this from a bowl whilst swathed in a warm duvet. The full ingredients list and recipe can be found on Jamie Oliver's recipe: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/proper-blokes-sausage-fusilli