Smoked salmon and courgette quiche

This was one that your Dad and me loved, but which you wouldn't touch with a bargepole. Funny - you love slices of bread topped with smoked salmon.


Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

1 large courgette, chopped into smallish chunks
a small packet of smoked salmon, torn into small pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
shortcrust pastry (made with about 8oz flour)
2 eggs
1/2 pt full cream milk
a little olive oil
a sprinkle of thyme (dill would be lovely if you have some), and lashings of black pepper

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out (a) one of those flan dishes with a removable bottom and (b) a baking tray to stand it on. Grease the flan dish, or line with some greaseproof paper.

Roll out your shortcrust pastry, and line the flan dish. Mine's about 20cm across, I think, and this amount of pastry is more than enough to line the dish and have a little left for 3 or 4 jam tarts.

Fry the onions in a little olive oil, until they turn translucent. Add the chopped courgette, and cook until it's softened (but not too much, or you'll have a soggy mess on your hands).

Tip the courgette/onion into your flan dish, and spread them about artistically. Add the smoked salmon pieces, and season with some thyme and lots of black pepper.

Lightly beat the eggs with the milk, and pour (carefully) into the pastry shell. Make sure it's on the baking tray before you start - there's nothing worse than wobbling across the kitchen with it.

Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is set. Eat while still warm, with a green salad.

Tagliatelli with smoked salmon, leek and thyme

We spent most of the afternoon pottering about in the garden centre, after the exciting news that we have a share in an allotment. You've decided you want to grow 'carrots and flowers'.

Tea was courtesy of the leeks in our back yard. We only managed to grow 6 last year...

You'll need:

tagliatelli - enough for three
a pack of smoked salmon trimmings
a couple of large leeks (or several small, if they've been grown in your back yard), sliced
five or six spring onions, sliced into chunks
dried thyme (in summer, this would be lovely with some dill, I suspect)
a squeeze or two of lemon

Stick the tagliatelli in a large pan of boiling water, and cook until tender. In the meantime, chuck the leeks and spring onions in a frying pan with a good slug of olive oil, sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of dried thyme, and fry until they've softened.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain it (reserving a couple of tablespoons of water). Toss through the smoked salmon, leeks and spring onions, and then add a squeeze of lemon juice. If it's still a little dry, use a tablespoon of the reserved cooking water.

Grate over lots of parmesan cheese, and eat before it goes cold.

Smoked salmon blinis

This was our starter on Christmas Day. You weren't keen on the smoked salmon, but the blinis and cream cheese disappeared remarkably quickly.

You'll need:

4 small blinis per person (I cheated and bought these in Sainsbury's - life's too short to stand over a frying pan for that long)
cream cheese
smoked salmon
capers (4 or 5 for decoration per person)
cucumber, sliced into long thin strips - you want 5 or 6 strips per person

I thought the blinis would be nice warm, so I heated mine in the oven for 2 or 3 minutes (the oven was on at about 180 degrees C to cook the capon anyway). Spread the cream cheese liberally on each blini, and then top with a generous piece of smoked salmon.

Arrange the cucumber on each plate in a fan shape, and dot with the capers. Sling 4 blinis on each plate, and present to your delighted audience.

Smoked salmon, lemon and courgette pasta

We had a freezing cold morning in the park being pursued by ravenous geese, followed by a trip to Borders in the frenzied sale crowds. The former was rather better than the latter.

Tea was the result of leftovers from Christmas day (we had smoked salmon on little blinis as a starter).

You'll need:

pasta (spirali were good for this)
smoked salmon - whatever you've got left
grated rind of a lemon
a large courgette - sliced into chunks
an onion, finely sliced
salt and lots of black pepper

Gently fry the onion in a little olive oil until it's translucent. Add the courgette (you may need to add more olive oil at this point), and fry until soft.

While this is happening, stick your pasta on.

Grate the rind of your lemon into the courgette/onion mixture. Add some pepper/salt to season it. When your pasta's only got a couple of minutes to go, throw the smoked salmon into the frying pan with the courgette/onion mix, to heat it through.

Drain the pasta, and shove it in the pan with everything else. You could add a squeeze or two of juice from the lemon at this point, if you like the lemony taste.

Sprinkle with lots of grated cheese and eat straightaway. It'd be nice with a green salad.