A simple smoked salmon dinner

I’ve spent a large part of this week being, well, quite ill. Social, mental and physical exhaustion—perhaps—all caught up with me at once and took me down. It’s also true that the pseudo-bohemian San Francisco lifestyle of eating out with friends all the time can take its toll. This week I’ve been making more effort to cook for myself, keep it simple, and eat a lot of fresh vegetables. That culminated this evening in a meal of fabulous freshness, and it photographed well, so here you go.

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The recipe is gloriously simple and worth documenting more as a testament to quality, fresh ingredients than for reproduction: The gist is that you can throw any combination of fresh vegetables together on a griddle, add salt and serve to great effect.

In this case, the combination goes like this:

  • Smoked salmon
  • A fresh loaf of multi-grain artisan bread
  • Half a lemon
  • One yellow heirloom (heritage) tomato
  • Broccoli
  • Yellow squash
  • Leek
  • Carrot
  • New potatoes
  • Dash of white wine
  • Crème fraîche
  • Salt

Parboil (or steam) the potatoes, then fry the remaining vegetables on a griddle, with a little oil. Add a liberal amount of salt.

When the potatoes are done, add them to the vegetable griddle, splash of white wine, fry off the alcohol.

Whilst that’s going on, prepare two slices of bread, butter them, add slices of smoked salmon and drizzle with lemon juice to taste. Slice the tomato and arrange on the side.

Turn down the heat on the vegetables and add the crème fraîche. Stir it in until it’s even, and serve.

Little recipes like this are one of the reasons I love food so dearly; it’s not a simple dish like beans-on-toast or a cheese toastie is simple; it’s simple because it keeps close to its component parts, is quick to prepare and yet still serves up great variations of complementing flavour.

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