Salmon Gratin

The first weekend in August seems a long time ago now. It had involved raving in the garden shed of close friend and a ten mile walk with the dog. There was Smoked Salmon in the house;a fish that I had found my love of rekindled by a one off encounter in the City.

I decided to turn the Smoked Salmon into a Smoked Salmon Gratin. I find Gratins quite easy to make if you want to prepare something with limited effort that is also a substantial meal. There are a number of great Vegetarian Gratins out there that I've made but this was the first time that I'd tried a Fish Gratin.

The day's soundtrack was the Cat Stevens album "Mona Bon Jakon" the key track on this corker from 1970  being "I think I see the light" a song appropriate to my circumstances at the time.

The Recipe for the main part of this dish was as follows:

Half a diced White Onion.
One Leek topped,tailed and sliced widthways.
Two White Potatoes sliced widthways.
Eight Ounces of fresh Broad Beans from my local Green Grocer.
A pinch of Mustard.
A teaspoon of White Pepper.
Twelve ounces of pre-cooked Smoked Salmon.
Olive Oil.

The Recipe for the Sauce was as follows:

Four Ounces of Unsalted Butter.
Three Ounces of Plain Flour.
A pinch of Mustard.
A tablespoon of dried Dill.
Half a pint of sweetened Soya Milk.

If you want to try the dish yourself then the approach I followed was:

1.In my Le Cresceut I  shallow fried on a low to medium heat  the vegetables, Mustard and White Pepper for a period of thirty five minutes. I fried these ingredients in Olive Oil and stirred them regularly to ensure they didn't stick to the bottom of the dish or burned.

2.I then added the Smoked Salmon pieces and stirred them in.

3. While I was cooking the main part of the dish I, fairly successfully, was able to multi-task by making the sauce. I did this  by melting the Butter in a saucepan and mixing it with the Plain Flour, Mustard and Dill. When this was all mixed together it formed into a honeycomb. I then gradually added the Soya Milk to the saucepan while all the time stirring it into the dish on a medium heat until I had a thick sauce.

4.I then added the sauce to the Le Cresceut and stirred it in thoroughly.

5. To finish the dish off I put the Le Cresceut, with the lid off, in the oven on Gas Mark Four for around fifteen minutes. After which I served it.

The Smoked Salmon's unique flavour and the Dill Sauce were what made this dish while the Broad Beans provided the required taste to help bring out the taste of the other vegetables too.

All cooked a ready to serve and much more delicious than this photo might make it look.