A late blog post

Disappointingly, I didn't get a chance (or should that be make a chance) to cook last week.

I tried to make amends on Monday; at the same time as using up old food from the freezer.  I had brought, by mistake, Tesco's Finest salmon fillets which were smoked.  Disgusting!!  I knew I would need something that would cover up the smell and taste and make them edible so as not to waste the money we had spent on them.

I had found, ages ago, a recipe on my favourite food website BBC good food for smoked salmon kedgeree but the other half had said no way was he going to eat the salmon.  Well I searched the Internet again but couldn't come up with anything better. So I gave it a chance.  I made a point of reading through the comments as they can be so helpful.  There was an issue with the rice not cooking in the time given apparently and someone else had mentioned the use of curry paste instead of powder.  Also I was going to be using cooked salmon fillet rather than proper smoked salmon.  So armed with the two recipes, the comments and bit of courage I set about my task.  I soaked the salmon for a bit in the hope of getting some of the flavour out and then put it in the oven covered in butter and tin foil.  I used the rice idea from the chicken biryani recipe and soaked the rice in warm water first.  Adding the salt to the onions certainly seemed to caramelise them so much quicker (wish I knew the science behind cooking - looking for a good book suggestion if anyone is happy to share).  I guess it draws the water out quicker or something?  Then instead of the tea spoon of curry powder I used a table spoon of biryani curry paste left over from our biryani the other night.   I figured that at least it is a flavour that we know we like. I didn't have any parsley so used the coriander again left over from the biryani.  This gave me confidence that the two flavours would work together.  I ended up cracking one of the eggs when I put it gently into the boiling water so I will remember to leave them out of the fridge longer next time.  I didn't get the timings right as the rice as drying out but not fully cooked so I just kept adding a bit of water from the kettle.  And I was late putting the eggs on to boil and for some reason the salmon just wasn't getting hot enough in the centre.  Anyway, I carried on regardless.  I plated it up and it looked good considering my initial worries (why oh why did I not take a picture!!).

It turned out to be very edible and my other half even said he would have it again including the funny smoked salmon.  So I call that a definite success.  I am even more pleased in that I didn't follow a recipe exactly but had to think for myself a little on this one so a very good step on the road to me discovering me. :-))