Recipe for Poached Salmon With Potato and Radish Salad

It's almost a cliché, well, in truth, it is a cliché. At this time of year, food writers, cooks, bloggers big and small are all writing about 'healthy' food. We can't help it, you see, it's almost mandatory. Even if we don't want to, the peer and media pressure is so enormous it's futile to resist. So, instead of giving you all the chat and the usual story about how you MUST be looking for a lighter option, I'll hold my hands up, jump on the bandwagon (difficult with your hands in the air, but I do yoga, so... ) and without shame or pretense I will give you my chosen offering for the lighter, New Year meal option.

Please, don't get the wrong idea, I mean, my whole business is built on healthy eating. Difference is though, I try and do it all year, for ever (with exceptions, of course - you've seen all my Christmas food offerings, I am not pretending that they were low-cal alternatives by any means). In fact I think that a little bit of what you fancy does you no amount of good! So the big January push on healthy food, goes a little against my principles, but I understand the need.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes. (includes cooking the potatoes)
Cooking Time: 5 to 7 minutes (to poach the fish)

Ingredients for 4 Servings

To Poach the Salmon
4 x salmon filets, each weighing about 175gr / 6oz.
1 x lemon, quartered
1 x bay leaf
4 or 5 peppercorns
Some fresh dill stalks (use the stalks from the dill that you will use in the salad)
1 x shallot, peeled and cut into quarters
½ tsp salt

For the Potato and Radish Salad
400gr / 140z. potatoes which have been boiled in their skins, and cooled, cut into bite size pieces
16 or so small red radishes, chopped finely
4 x spring onions (scallions) chopped finely
2 x little gem lettuces chopped roughly
A handful of fresh mint chopped finely
A handful of fresh dill chopped finely
Salt to taste

Salad Dressing
2 x tbsp good quality mayonnaise
2 x tbsp low fat natural yogurt
1 x tbsp tomato ketchup
1 x tbsp lemon juice

To Finish
Serve with lemon wedges on the side (optional)

Method

To poach the fish, place all the ingredients in a pan, cover with cold water, ensuring that the pan is big enough to take your ingredients with space left over. Cover your pan with a close fitting lid and set it on a high heat. When it comes to the boil, remove from the heat and leave the fish in the pan to cook through for about 4 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through. This time will depend on how thick your fish filets are, but it should only vary slightly.

While the fish is cooking, you can assemble your salad by first mixing the dressing ingredients together. Then put the salad ingredients in a separate bowl, pour your dressing over and mix through to coat everything evenly.

When the fish is cooked, remove it from your poaching liquor with a slotted spoon and remove any of the ingredients that may have stuck to the filets.

Serve the salmon warm or room temperature.

Tips and Variations

For a lighter dressing use 4 x tbsp of yogurt and no mayonnaise. You can also try some Tabasco in the dressing.
Try this salad with some smoked mackerel, works really well too. I like to buy the mackerel ready to go and break it through the salad. You can do this with tuna too.

Author : Karen Vivers