quick b'day lunch

i had bought some cold smoked salmon the other day, thinking i would use it in sandwitches. after eating all that "raw" fish in the sushi last night, i needed another way to use that salmon. i took the short way out and made my favourite salmon dish (that still doesn't have a name) with cream and black pepper. salmon (in which ever kind you might have, i find that cold smoked works best), cream and freshly ground black pepper is really all you need. however, this time i wanted to twist my recipe a bit.

i had a 10cm piece of leek and some sour cream (or rather smetana) in the fridge, i figured those were going make the twist. yes, i do know smetana isn't for everyday cooking, but there wasn't anything else i was going to use that smetana for. i chopped the leek and sliced the salmon, right tools make slicing the salmon easy







i started by quickly wilting the leeks in a teaspoon of oliveoil on a very hot pan, added the smetana (approx 1 dl) and brought that to a boil. removed the pan from stove and added the sliced salmon. by doing this the salmon isn't cooked thru, but just warmed in the hot smetana. i season this right before eating with black pepper and mix the sauce. i've done this so many times and i always eyeball the measures. usually i'll have 2.5dl 5% cream and approx 200gr of salmon. if you think you can't bring yourself to eat raw fish, it's ok to sear the salmon first on a hot pan and then add cream (and leek, if using). chopped leeks and sliced salmon here







usually i eat this with pasta, but there were some potatoes waiting to be cooked, equally tasty with potatoes. with smetana the sauce was rather thick, had i wanted i could have thinned it with some water or milk. had some leftover dill that got used as garnish







cold smoked salmon isn't that hard to make yourself, provided. like the link says cold smoking requires patience, knowledge and some special equipment. coincidentally, my dad uses an old fridge for cold smoking salmon. we were quite skeptical at first when he started talking about cold smoking in a fridge, as smoke usually involves fire... (no fire in his fridge, though). after tasting the first batch of his cold smoked salmon we were converted, his was better than store bought. hmm, i should photograph the process one of these days. only hindsight is that he usually starts the process around 5am and i ain't never gonna be able to get up that early...

i keep telling people i didn't have time to bake a cake, half true, maybe i'm getting lazy, 'cause older i feel not! i did have this celebratory icecream before work...