Salmon Kebabs With Pomegranate Molasses And Honey - Plus Cacik (Turkish Yoghurt Cucumber Dip)

I eat a lot of fish these days, and we both love salmon so it's on the menu fairly often.  I eat it in many guises - cold-smoked, hot-smoked, frozen, fresh, sashimi-ed and sushi-ed.  Well, you get the gist.  And so here we have a version from Nigella Lawson in her book Forever Summer.  

I just happened to have a bottle of pomegranate molasses lurking in my fridge, so this recipe leapt out at me.  Oh yes, and I have several bottles/jars of honey in my pantry.  Every time we are out on a daytrip and I see a roadside honey stall, I just have to buy some.

We have been lucky enough to see a fish/salmon ladder in Scotland, and a salmon farm in Tasmania.  Those fish ladders are so amazing!  Imagine coming back all that way from the sea to where you were born, just so you could spawn!  And of course, I have to mention the eels again - my mind is blown that every anguillid eel comes to spawn in the Sargasso Sea.  Yep, all of 'em!!  Which makes me think of that novel by Jean Rhys titled Wide Sargasso Sea, about Mr. Rochester's (supposedly) mad wife in the attic, in Jane Eyre.  Oops, I'm blathering today ...

Mr P. and I found these two Nigella recipes to be a bit bland to be honest, so I added the extra (optional) ingredients.  

(I am linking up with Jo from BKD (Brookford Kitchen Diaries) Cookbook Club - the theme is summer or winter recipes, depending on your hemisphere).

refreshing and garlicky!

The cacik tastes even better the next day!

Serves 3-4:

ingredients:

For the salmon:

80 mL/2.7 oz pomegranate molasses

60-80 mL/2.7 oz honey

1-2 Tbs soy sauce

1-2 Tbs lime or lemon juice  (optional)

1 tsp sumac (optional)

500g./18 oz salmon fillets, cubed (Nigella says into 4cm/1.5 inch squares)   see Notes

c. Sherry M.

For the Cacik:

1 Lebanese cucumber  (or just a large cuke; Nigella doesn't specify)  see Notes

500g./18 oz plain Greek yoghurt

1 tsp dried mint

1-2 tsp sea salt flakes

1 bunch fresh mint leaves, chopped, or use 1 Tbs lightly dried mint  - see notes   Yes, you are using both the dried AND fresh, or lightly dried mint with the dried mint (make sense?)

1-2 garlic cloves, finely minced or grated or chopped

EV olive oil, for drizzling over  - perhaps 1 Tbs?

a handful (maybe 2-3 Tbs?) of pistachios, chopped (optional)

1-2 Tbs toasted sesame seeds, scattered over the top of the fish (optional)

Serve with edamame, and/or a salad of green leaves, and flatbread

c. Sherry M.

Method:

For the salmon:

Put the molasses, honey, soy, lime juice and sumac into a bowl and give them a brisk whisking

Then pour the mix into a large (and strong) plastic bag, and add the salmon cubes/chunks

Expel the air, tie or clip the bag up tightly, and let the fish sit and ponder the state of affairs in the modern world for at least an hour (here in sunny Queenland this will definitely be in the fridge!)

Either soak your wooden skewers in water, then thread on about 5 cubes to each, OR just grill the fishy pieces on an alfoil and baking paper-lined tray at 180C/360F for about 10 minutes   see Notes

Sprinkle over most of the chopped nuts, and the sesame seeds, if using

For the Cacik:

Yoghurt gets spooned into a medium mixing bowl

Peel the cuke, then dice it finely, and add to the yoghurt

Now you add the dried mint and salt, and most of the fresh mint

And add the garlic, and stir it in

Grab a nice serving bowl, tip in the mixture, add the remaining mint, and drizzle the olive oil over the top

Sprinkle over the rest of the chopped nuts, if using

Serve with the salmon, and salad leaves/edamame, and flatbread

Notes:

Use whichever cucumber you fancy; I used about 180g./6 oz

I decided not to bother with the skewers, so I just cut the salmon fillets into 3-4 big chunks

If grilling or BB'ing the skewers, cook for about 3-4 minutes per side

gather your ingredients

mix up the marinade, and chop the salmon

add the fish to the marinade and let it sit for at least an hour

chop up the cacik ingredients, and place in a nice serving bowl

fish goes onto your foil and paper-lined tray

after baking at 180C/360F for about 10 minutes

ready for eating

delicious marinade over the top!

c. Sherry M.

Tomato Butter And Tattie Scones

Tomato butter, you say?  But don't you dislike tomatoes, you ask?  Well, yes and no.  I can bring myself to eat some if they are very firm, no squish at all.  And I can manage them in a stew or soup when necessary.  But on the whole, nooooo ...

On the other hand, I love potatoes in any form, and these Scottish potato scones (aka Irish potato farls) were a delightful surprise.  The scone recipe is from Recipes from the Orkney Islands edited by Eileen Wolfe, and also from the Westray Heritage Centre Cookery Book Traditional and Favourite Recipes.  The first book calls for butter, while the second uses margarine.  You know which I used.

(This colourful and tasty butter recipe is from apples & elderflowers by Julia Matusik.  The tattie scones recipe is authored by B. Sutherland.)

Makes 2 jars x 200 mL/6.8 oz

ingredients:

Tomato butter:

400g./14 oz cherry tomatoes

1 Tbs Ev olive oil

1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

3-4 grinds black pepper

250g./9 oz butter, at room temp. and cubed

1 Tbs thyme leaves 

Thyme

Tattie scones:

225g./8 oz cooked, and cooled potatoes  (as in - boil 'em till tender)

15g./½ oz butter, melted

1/2 tsp sea salt

50g./2 oz plain flour

Method:

For the tomato butter:

Whack on your oven to 180C/360F to heat up

The tomatoes go into a baking dish, and get tossed (gently) with the olive oil, salt and pepper

Let 'em roast for 15-20 minutes till soft and collapsed, then you leave them to cool right down

When cool, they go into a food processor, and you give them a few whizzes till finely chopped

And in go the butter and thyme, and you blitz again till nicely mixed together - Julia says till emulsified, which will take 3-4 minutes

Store in glass jars in the fridge for a month, or the freezer for 3 months

For the tattie scones:

Put the mashed potatoes into a medium bowl

Melt the butter, add it along with the salt to the mash and give it a really good mixing

Then you add the flour gradually, mixing in well, till you have a happy dough

Pat it out onto your work surface, roll out very thinly, prick it all over, and cut into triangles  (or cut into triangles, then prick it!)

Then cook on a hot griddle plate/grill pan for 3 minutes per side (or till brown)

Delicious with the tomato butter!

Notes:

I wonder if using half plain and half self-raising flour might be a good idea?  I am going to give it a try, 'cos they end up very flat

I used frozen mashed potato made with butter (the label says)

I cut the dough into 10 pieces but next time I might go with only 8

The recipes say to cook the dough on a girdle, which is a grill pan/griddle pan/griddle plate - whatever you like to call it!

gather your ingredients

throw the tomatoes into your baking dish

and bake till squishy and collapsed

add everything to the food processor

whizz away till smooth

then into jars and into the fridge

get your tattie scones ingredients together

pat out the dough on your work surface

get Mr P. to prick it with a fork

and let him do the cooking on the grill pan/girdle pan

ready to slather on the butter

I think that's a piece of fish to the side :=)

c. Sherry M.

In My Kitchen - February

February?  Really?  And it's a short month, so 'twill be March before we know it.  The older you get, the faster it goes, don't you know!  January was a busy month, with lots of guests and visitors and social events.  And lots of baking, and preserving.  I have pickled beetroot, and cucumbers (so tangy and delicious), and the jar of red and green chillies is still lurking delightfully in the fridge. 

I am about to lunch on corn thins with smoked salmon, and my cukes - oh yes, and the roasted tomato butter that I made last week.  I've just walked back (800 metres) from our local indie bookshop, with a copy of Jay Rayner's new one Nights Out At Home.  And I am just finishing Nigel Slater's new one A Thousand Feasts.  Oh the joy I find in their beautiful writing - and the descriptions of gorgeous food.

It is our wedding anniversary today; we married on a very hot day many moons ago, in our friend's backyard.  We were mowing and weeding her yard the morning of the wedding.  A caterer slipped in with the food and the cakes while we were saying the "I do's".  We came inside to a beautiful feast laid out, to the surprise of our guests.  Such great memories!

In My Kitchen:

I love these Mason Cash measuring cups!!

the cuz sent me this fishy dishy for Christmas

and I bought some honey by the roadside, on a day trip to the Hinterland

I made some nut butter + tahini biscuits

I bought 'shroom bag clips, some macadamia oil with lemon myrtle, and a wee scoop

yep, I made another batch of pickled beetroot

gifts from Princess Pia, from her South Australia trip

I bought this at a country bakery (their own brew that they use in their meat pies)
- it's kinda like Worcestershire sauce!

and I bought these at the local Health food store

and there's Persian Blue salt, and a Greek ceramic bowl

I love to make a condiment, so this was a sure thing for me

and citrus cordial was made for Mr P.

the curveball - a Bunya nut, weighing 6-10 kgs, and bloody dangerous!

It's Bunya nut season at the moment, so watch out!  Not only are they incredibly heavy, but they also have killer spikes all over them.  I managed to cut myself just poking around this one.  The Indigenous peoples have been eating them for many years, boiled or roasted or turned into a flour.  

The people of the local area would hold bunya nut festivals, inviting people from other areas/tribes to the Bunya Mountains.  The trees are endemic to Australia, specifically south-east Queensland, and the tallest bunya pine in the Bunya Mountains is 51.5 metres (169 ft) high!  Wow!

c. Sherry M.

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Gurkensalat 2.0

I love the name of this salad.  Clever Alice!  (Yes, I know it means 'cucumber salad' in German, but she has rung in a couple of changes.)  This is from Alice Zaslavsky's book Salad for Days.  Diligent readers will remember that Alice came to our local bookstore in 2023, and I made one of her cakes for the book launch of her previous book The Joy of Better Cooking.  It was delicious, and Alice was equally delicious :=)  

I made half of her recipe, as it was just for me and Mr P., but here is the full recipe below.  This is almost like a pickled cucumber dish, and as you know, you can't keep me away from a good pickled veg.!  I even made another jar of pickles the other day, as I still had one of these big boys in the fridge - or is that bad boys?  Or big, bad boys?  Take your pick :=)

I maintain that my mum was way ahead of her time, as she always did a very quick pickle of the cucumbers we had on our dinner plate.  She always used malt vinegar, and just soaked the cuke slices in the vinegar with a bit of salt and water for a while before dinner.  Mm, this brings back the memories of chunks of cheese, and grated carrot plus tinned beetroot slices ...  Oh, and iceberg lettuce of course!

ready for dressing

Serves 4-6 as a side:

ingredients:

40g./¼ cup currants  (I used half currants/half barberries)

2 Telegraph/Continental cucumbers (the long and thin ones)

1/4 red onion

1/4 tsp of sea salt flakes AND of caster sugar

Dressing:

130g./½ cup plain, thick yoghurt

juice of half a lemon

1 garlic clove, finely chopped or grated

1/4 cup parsley - yep, you guessed it - finely chopped

1 Tbs fresh coriander, chopped

1 Tbs dill, chopped (and a bit extra for garnish)

The Other Bits and Bobs (says Alice)

1 small or half a medium lemon

2 Tbs EV olive oil

freshly-ground black pepper

a scattering of toasted pinenuts - maybe 2 Tbs? (optional) 

Method:

Peel and slice your cukes finely, and slice the onion into very thin rings

Place the currants in a small bowl and pour over just-boiled water to cover; leave aside to get plump and moist (hehehe)

Your cuke slices and onion go into a medium bowl; throw on the salt and sugar, and leave 'em to get tasty for 5-10 minutes

Now make the dressing: Place the ingredients into a mixing bowl, and give 'em a good whisking. Add a bit of salt and pepper if you fancy

And decapitate that lemon; no, no, I mean cut off its top and bottom and peel every bit of skin and white pith from its citrusy little body

Slice (against the grain, says Alice) ever so finely into thin, thin discs - (my take is to halve or even quarter these discs so you don't end up with a big mouthful of ever-so-tangy lemon)

Here's where you get artistic: grab a pretty platter, and lay the cucumber and onion carefully (or not) over it - (you may have to drain them first)

Drizzle/spoon the dressing over the cucumber and onion, then place the lemon where you like, followed by the drained currants and the dill

Splash on some EV olive oil, and some freshly-ground black pepper, and scatter the pinenuts over it all, if using

I served this with some leftover chicken kebabs

Notes:

Notes?  Notes?  Nope, no notes today

slice 'em up!

arrange prettily on your platter

plated and ready to go

we had it with chicken kebabs

(Joining in with Jo Tracey from BKD Cookbook Club - Brookford Kitchen Diaries; this month's theme is healthy recipes!)

c. Sherry M.

Lemon And Bay Cake

I made this cake in Winter, so it has taken me a while to write it up - but here it is at last!  I love citrusy flavours, and this cake really fits the bill.  So being a citrus lover, I've upped the zingy citrus flavour by adding lime juice, lime zest plus some lemon zest to the glaze.  You can never have too much tang!

This recipe is from apples & elderflowers (a kitchen in Tasmania's far south), by Julia Matusik.  She moved from England (as a child) to Brisbane to Tasmania a few years ago - lucky gal!  Her cookbook reflects the produce and seasons of that fabulous Aussie state.

We have several friends down there, and have visited often.  We took our niece and nephew there to see the snow (being Queenslanders, they had never seen it), and the children of friends for their first snowy experience on Mt. Wellington.  And wow, can it get cold up there even on a summer's day!  Don't forget your jumpers when you head there.  

And speaking of snow, Mr P.'s first sighting was in Central Park, New York in our backpacking days!  It was a public holiday, so not many people about, and we ended up at MoMA to check out the Monet Water Lilies.  (I just Googled it, and saw that the original held there was destroyed in a fire in 1958!)       

Serves 8-10:

ingredients:

For the cake:

175g./6 oz white or caster sugar

zest of 1 lemon

2 fresh bay leaves

225g./8 oz plain yoghurt

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla paste

125g./4.5 oz butter, melted and cooled

225g./8 oz plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)

For the Syrup:

juice of 2 lemons

150g./5.3 oz sugar

2 bay leaves

For the glaze:

60g./2.2 oz icing sugar

2 Tbs lemon juice

1-2 dsp (dessertspoon=2 tsp) lime juice 

1 tsp lime zest

1 tsp lemon zest

Method:

Whack on your oven to 170C/340F to heat up

And butter up your 23cm (9 inch) x 13cm (5 inch) loaf tin, then line with baking paper

Whizz up the sugar, lemon zest and bay leaves in your blender; if no blender, you will have to use brute force (in a mortar and pestle maybe?) :=)  (though Julia suggests with your fingers!!)

Take out any bits of bay leaves that are still lurking, and not broken down well

Tip this sugary mixture into a medium bowl, and add the yoghurt, eggs, vanilla and melted butter

Give it a darn good stir till well-mixed and smooth

And put the flour, baking powder and bi-carb into another bowl and whisk well

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry, and mix together well

Spoon/pour the batter into your prepared loaf tin, and bake for 45-50 minutes till it bounces back when pressed lightly in the centre

Let it cool on a wire rack in the loaf tin, while you:

Make the syrup, by adding the ingredients to a small saucepan, and heat over a medium flame/burner, while you stir the sugar till it's dissolved

Bring to the boil, and simmer for about 4 minutes till the syrup is a wee bit thicker, and clear

Take out the bay leaves, pour the syrup over the warm cake, and let it all get right cool

Now you're going to make the glaze, my dears, by:

Putting the icing sugar in a small bowl, adding the lemon juice and lime juice, and mix till smooth - this will be runny, not thick - then stir in the 2 zests

Drizzle/pour the glaze over the cake when it's as cold as a snowman's nose (nah, just cooled right down)

You can add some lemon or lime zest over the glaze, if you feel inclined  see Notes 

Store the cake in an airtight container for a few days, if you don't eat it all at once!

Notes:

Julia suggests making candied lemon slices to decorate, but ... nah, buy some I reckon:=) or use more zest on top

ingredients gathered

blitz the sugary, herby stuff

whisk the dry

smooth and eggy

stir it all together

beautifully golden-brown on top

make the syrup

simmer away

pour the warm syrup over the warm cake

I added the glaze over it - really!  It just went all runny and funny!

For some reason, the glaze just disappeared into the cake.  Not sure why - maybe too much juice, and not enough icing sugar once I added the extra juice and the zests.  Anyway, still tasted great.

 

c. Sherry M.