Smoked Salmon Potato And Asparagus (or Broccolini) Salad

As much as I enjoy watching Jamie Oliver on the telly, I have never been one to make his recipes. But a friend (or my cuz?) gave me his 15 Minute Meals cookbook a while back, so here we are.  This was our Cookbook Club's monthly book a few months ago, and luckily I had a copy already.    

My shelves are groaning with many a cookbook (and regular books), but will that stop me buying Nagi's new one this month or Nigel Slater's or Stanley Tucci's or Alice Zaslavsky's?   Nah, of course not.  Though I do give many books away or donate to our local Uni for their annual book sale.  

I recently lost a fair bit of money ordering books from a company that went belly-up, taking everyone's money!  And I also ordered Nigel Slater's new one online, but when I read the bookshop reviews, they were all scathing about the lack of service etc, so I have asked for my money back.  'Cos you just never know!  Once bitten, twice shy, and I have certainly been bitten!  Fingers crossed!  Ooh, I just checked - yay, my money is back!

gather your ingredients

Serves 4:

ingredients:

500g./18 oz baby potatoes

4 rashers of smoked pancetta (see Notes) or 120g./4 oz mushrooms, which you have sliced into a bowl with: 

1-2 Tbs EV olive oil  (use 2 Tbs:=) Go on!)

1/2 Tbs sherry vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)

sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

A few dashes of Green goddess seasoning  (optional)

Which you leave to marinate for 10 minutes

1 tsp English mustard

1 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard (or use 2 tsp wholegrain if you prefer)

4 Tbs Greek/natural yoghurt

1-2 tsp white wine vinegar

1/2 bunch of fresh dill

1 tsp hot sauce  (optional - my idea to add)

1 red chicory (says Jamie!) or about 30g./1 big ounce baby spinach leaves

180g./6.5 oz cold smoked salmon   see Notes

1 bunch/300g./10.5 oz asparagus or broccolini or snow peas

1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

Serve with lightly grilled bread (and butter) if you wish

Method:

Boil or steam (or microwave) your potatoes till tender

In the meantime, make up the mushrooms so they have time to marinate

Lightly steam or boil the asparagus or broccolini till as tender as you like 'em

Chop up the dill

So just lay the green veg. prettily on a platter, then place the potatoes and mushies on top, then cast the salmon (which I snipped up with scissors first) over the lot

Mix up the mustards, yoghurt, dill, vinegar and hot sauce in a small bowl, then pour over the salad

Serve with the lemon wedges, and bread and butter

Notes:

Marinate the mushies for 10 minutes before putting the salad together

If using pancetta, Jamie says to give it a blast on the griddle pan - i.e. let it get golden :=)

Jamie says to use 240g. of salmon but I only had 180g. and that was fine

gather together your prepared ingredients

mix up the dressing

lay the veg. on a platter, and snip up the salmon

pile everything on top

ready for eating, watched over by Dino 

c. Sherry M.