Smoked salmon linguine

Yesterday was one of those days where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I'd been down the the bike shop to pick up some new parts for my bike and ask for some advice, the conversation went something like this,

Me: Are these easy to fit? I've never done it before and don't really know what I'm doing.
Bike shop man: Yeah it's easy, you'll have no problem at all.

So I took my shiny new bike parts home with me and set to work dismantling my bike only it wasn't quite as easy as the bike shop man had me believe. Things quickly went wrong, I got stressed and now my bike is in pieces dumped at the bike shop for them to sort out the mess.

While my bike was out of action I turned to something far less stressful than amateur mechanics -making pasta.Smoked salmon linguine is a regular feature in my house, it's cheap, quick, simple to make and most importantly of all delicious. I chose to use linguine pasta, I don't know why but it just seems to suit seafood, you could of course use any pasta you fancy.

Recipe: Serves 3-4

• 1 onion, finely chopped.
• 1,2 or more cloves of garlic very finely chopped.
• Butter for frying.
• 300g linguine or other pasta of you choice.
• 200ml Cremé fraiche (substitute sour cream or double/heavy cream).
• 150g smoked salmon chopped into small pieces.
• lemon juice.
• Black pepper.
• 1 bag (about 80g) rocket leaves.
• Good olive oil for drizzling.

Method:

• In a large frying pan on a low heat fry the onion and garlic, meanwhile put a large pan of water on to boil for the pasta.
• Once the water is boiling add your pasta to the pan and cook according to the instructions on the packet.
• While the pasta is cooking the onions should have softened, at this point add the créme fraiche and mix everything together. It will probably be too thick, it it is add some of the pasta water until you get the right consistency. Add lemon juice and black pepper to taste.
• Once the pasta has cooked stir the smoked salmon into the sauce, take the pasta out of it's cooking water and add to the pan with the sauce. mix well.
• Finally stir in the rocket leaves reserving a few for garnish.
• serve drizzled with olive oil and scattered with rocket leaves.

Salmon with lentls, anchovies and capers

I got the idea for this recipe from a old issue of GoodFood magazine, it looked interesting and gave me the opportunity to use a box of Puy lentils that I bought a long time ago thinking they might come in useful. Well they finally did, at long last!
The idea is a simple one, lentils are cooked with garlic and sage which forms the 'bed' on which a fillet of roast salmon lies, this was dressed with anchovies, capers, parsley and lemon. I used roast tomatoes as a garnish as suggested in the recipe. I think it looks really classy and the tomatoes add a nice splash of colour where it could have looked quite dull.
Unfortunately it didn't really deliver on flavour which was surprising considering the anchovies and capers, I also thought the portions were way too small even after I had bulked it out with peas.
I think I will try this idea again but it need to have more flavour added and I've not quite worked out how yet...


Recipe here