Smoked salmon fillets with dill-pickled vegetables, crème fraîche & salmon roe
Pickle vegetables and serve with smoked salmon for a fabulous festive starter. Keep the leftover veg in the fridge to have with cold cuts over Christmas
- Prep:20 mins
Cook:20 mins
plus draining and 2 days pickling - Serves 6 as a starter
- Easy
Nutrition per serving
- kcal 444
- fat 34g
- saturates 14g
- carbs 6g
- sugars 5g
- fibre 1g
- protein 27g
- salt 2.1g
Ingredients
- 6 lightly smoked salmon fillets
- 15g unsalted butter, melted
- 200ml crème fraîche
- 50g salmon roe
- 100g cucumber
- 3 tsp sea salt flakes
- 350ml white wine vinegar
- 2½ tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp celery seeds
- 1 tsp black peppercorn, bruised
- 150g carrots
- 100g radishes
- 150g cauliflower, cut into small florets
- ½ red onion, finely sliced
- ½ small bunch dill, torn into little sprigs
Method
First, for the pickles, cut the cucumber into rounds and layer it in a sieve, sprinkling with 2 tsp salt as you go. Set over a bowl and leave for a couple of hours – the salt will draw out the moisture.
Bring 200ml water to the boil in a pan with the white wine vinegar, sugar, 1 tsp salt, celery seeds and black peppercorns. Leave to cool.
Peel the carrots and cut them into batons. Clean the radishes really well, then cut them in half lengthways. Squeeze the drained cucumbers of excess moisture.
Put all the vegetables in a 1-litre sterilised jar with the dill and pour the cooled vinegar over them, then seal with a lid. Leave to sit at room temperature for two days before serving, or keep chilled. Will keep in the fridge for four weeks.
Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and put the salmon fillets on a baking sheet. Brush the fillets with the melted butter and scatter with black pepper. Cook for 14 mins.
Serve the salmon with some of the pickled vegetables, a generous tablespoon of crème fraîche on each fillet, finished with a spoonful of salmon roe on top.