Baked Sweet Salmon with Pickled Sea Radish

In this recipe I've used sea radish which is a coastal cabbage like vegetable. Slightly bitter and has a lingering flavour and best cooked or pickled much like any other green vegetable. Sea radish thrives in poor soil and sandy areas and best picked and eaten during winter months.
For this recipe I've pickled the sea radish until tender and served it with salmon baked in kecap manis. Kecap manis is a fermented sweet soy sauce. A versatile ingredient and simply amazing on its own. Every asian supermarket will sell it, and recently I've seen it being sold in big chain supermarkets.
This dish has a lovely balance of salty and sweet, also worth noting it is a meal on its own.

600g whole salmon filet
100ml kecap manis
300g new potatoes
100g baby spinach, washed

Pickled Sea Radish:
400g sea radish
100ml cider vinegar
200ml water
4 springs tarragon
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 dried red chilli
2 tablespoons sea salt

Tartar Sauce:
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon
4 springs dill
3 tablespoons fine capers
2 gherkins
350ml vegetable oil
50ml cold water
Cracked black pepper and sea salt

Method:
Wash the sea radish and slice into 5cm long pieces and place in a large pot. Peel the onion and slice in half (place one half of the onion aside as you will be using it in the tartar sauce) and thinly slice one half the the onion and add to sea radish. Peel the garlic and thinly slice. Add garlic, vinegar, water, tarragon, mustard seeds, chilli and salt into pot with sea radish. Bring the pot to a steady boil over a high heat and cook for a further 10 minutes until sea radish is tender. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Put the potatoes in a pot and just cover with cold water. Place the pot over a medium/high heat and bring to a simmer. Cook the potatoes until just tender then drain and leave to cool.

In the meantime place salmon filet in a baking tray with risen edges and pour over the kecap manis. Cover the tray tightly with foil and bake in oven set at 180˚C for 25 minutes.

To make the tartar sauce you will need to place yolks, lemon, mustard, dill, capers, gherkins, other half of the red onion and a good amount of salt and pepper to season, in a food processor. Blend ingredients together for 30 seconds, while the processor is still on very slowly pour in half the oil. If you pour the oil in too quickly the sauce will split. Half way through mixing add the water followed by slowly pouring in the remainder of the oil. Taste the tartar sauce and add more seasoning if need be.
To make the salad you can either construct one large platter or make 4-6 individual plates. First lay down the spinach, next evenly distribute over sliced potatoes and desired amount of pickled sea radish. Lastly finish the salad with flaked pieces salmon and dress the top with tartar sauce and serve.

Poppy Cracker Sandwich with Pickled figs and Reblochon

Photo provided by Sadiq Food Photography Blog (Click here)

This is a great, little fancy snack to serve for afternoon tea: home-made poppy crackers sandwiched together with soft musky french cheese, cranberry sauce and pickled figs. This also makes ideal picnic food with a big glass of sauvignon blanc, however the weather conditions may not be ideal for this time of year, unless you're reading this from the southern hemisphere.

Crackers:
350g plain flour
200g salted butter
50g grated mature cheddar
2 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 egg
50ml cold water

Pickled figs:
12 dried figs
50ml red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic
2 bay leaves
100g sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
500ml water

Cranberry Sauce:
200g fresh or frozen cranberries
100g sugar
50ml water

200g reblochon de savoie, at room temperature
30g wild rocket leaves

Method:
First make the cracker dough. Place a small pan over medium heat and add mustard and coriander seeds, move around the pan until lightly toasted and fragrant. Put seeds in a mortar and pestle, roughly ground into a powder. In a large bowl add the flour, cheddar, baking powder, salt, pepper and ground spices, and stir together. Cube butter, add to dry mixture and rub together until butter is incorporated into flour, add egg and water, knead into a rough dough. Wrap the cracker dough with a cling film and place in the fridge to rest for an hour.

Next pickle the figs by placing all ingredients into a pot and placing over high heat, bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes until figs are tender. Remove from heat and transfer into container to cool.

For the cranberry sauce, place all ingredients in a small sauce pan and place over medium heat. Once simmering stir for 2-3 minutes to help break down the cranberries, then transfer into a food processor and blend until smooth. Place in a small container and leave to cool.

Once the cracker dough has rested roll out on a lightly floured surface until 5mm thick, using 10cm in diameter round cutter, cut out the crackers. Lay crackers on several baking trays lined with parchment paper, prick each one with a fork several times. You can press and roll the off cuts of dough to create more crackers if you wish. Place crackers in oven set at 180ºC for 12-14 minutes until golden and crisp. Leave the cracks to cool completely before using.

To make the cracker sandwiches, lay a few rocket leaves over the desired amount of crackers followed by a fig torn in half. Tear a knob of reblochon and place on top of the fig then garnish with a small teaspoon of cranberry sauce. Lastly sandwich together with another cracker, you should get about 12 cracker sandwiches from this recipe, with a few extra crackers to spare