fish – Scandelights

Recipe: Salmon Burgers with Creamy Herb Dressing

Published on May 19, 2021 by HannaLeave a comment

As you probably know by now I love burgers and recently I’ve explored a lot of different things within that category, like fried chicken burgers, Sloppy Joes and, this delicious salmon burger.

I wanted something satisfying but a little fresher (healthier?) on a Friday night, but with a little indulgence in the shape of a brioche bun (because they are delicious!) and I really liked how this burger turned out. It’s mostly fish, but a little egg and breadcrumbs to bind it together, but I will warn you, it’s soft and juicy – not firm and bready.

So if you’re looking for a salmon burger that isn’t messy to eat, I’m afraid this is not the one. But if you instead want a salmon burger that tastes of fish (not breadcrumbs) and that’s messy and juicy and a delight to eat, then this is for you!

Salmon burgers with creamy herb dressing, serves 2

The burgers:

260-300 g salmon fillet

small bunch dill

1 tsp lemon zest

1 egg

50 ml breadcrumbs

salt and pepper

oil and butter for frying

Dressing:

100 ml creme fraiche

3 tbsp mayonnaise

1/4 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp lemon zest

small bunch dill, finely chopped

small bunch of parsley, finely chopped

5 basil leaves, chopped

salt and pepper

To serve:

2 brioche buns

2-4 lettuce leaves, such as little gem

pickled cucumber

Add the burger ingredients to the bowl of a food processor. Mix until quite smooth but with a bit of texture (best to pulse until happy with the result). Shape the mixture into two burgers with wet hands. Fry the burgers in oil and butter on medium-high heat until nice and golden and cooked through, approx 5 minutes on each side. Leave to rest on a plate and fry the cut sides of the brioche buns in the frying pan on medium-low heat. If the butter is burnt, wipe the pan clean and add a little knob of butter before frying the bread.

In the meantime, prepare the dressing by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl and season to taste. Serve the burgers with the toasted brioche buns, lettuce, pickled cucumber and plenty of the herb dressing.

Recipe: whole grilled turbot with olive oil, lemon and butter

Published on September 24, 2019 by HannaLeave a comment

I spent almost a whole week in Norfolk with my boyfriend’s family at the end of August. We had gorgeous weather (hello heatwave!) and such a lovely time.

And it must have been the nice weather and the proximity to the sea that inspired one of his sisters to barbecue a whole fish. And not just any fish, but a large (huge!) turbot! It was a nice size for the amount of people to feed but it did look ridiculous on the little coal barbecue we insisted on using.

Despite the poor optics it actually worked really well grilling the big fish and the actual cooking time was only approx 30 minutes. The hardest part was turning it over and making a secure tin foil parcel that size to hold all the butter!

I do hope we can inspire you to try new (and perhaps a little crazy) things! And I think any white fish would work well with this treatment; I mean lemon, olive oil and butter are pretty universal when it comes to fish – just adjust the cooking time.

Whole grilled turbot with olive oil, lemon and butter, serves 8

1 whole turbot, gutted (not sure how much it weighed but as you can see it was big!)

100-200 ml olive oil

salt, pepper

1 lemon, juice only

250 g butter

To serve:

chopped parsley

Rub or brush both sides of the fish with plenty of olive oil so it won’t stick to the barbecue. Season well on both sides. Grill each side for about 5 minutes then remove from the barbecue. Make a large foil packet to hold the fish and add plenty of dollops of butter on each side of the fish. Squeeze plenty of lemon juice on both sides as well and season well (again! – a large fish needs plenty of seasoning). Close the foil package and put it on the barbecue and cover with a lid. Cook for approx 20 minutes (until the fish is flaky and comes off the bone). Scatter with chopped parsley.

Recipe: creamy apple and dill sauce for fish

Published on October 11, 2017 by Hanna1 Comment

The type of cooking I love the most is when you have a few simple ingredients that you add the together, and the result is so much more than the some of its parts. It’s like magic, really!

This excites me to no end and I love sharing those recipes with you readers.

The recipe below may sound simple, and it so is – if it didn’t involve a knife anyone could do it blindfolded – but the reward is grand. It’s the perfect recipe to remember for those light summer lunches in the summer when you’d rather sip rosé with your friends than cook (see evidence below).

Creamy apple and dill sauce for fish, serves 4

150 ml creme fraiche

2 tbsp Hellman’s mayonnise

3 apples, cut into small cubes

plenty of chopped dill

salt and ground white pepper

Mix creme fraiche and mayonnaise, then add the apple cubes and dill. Stir together and season to taste. Serve with fish.

Recipe: salmon en crôute

Published on October 3, 2017October 3, 2017 by HannaLeave a comment

When I had friends over for an al fresco luncheon at the summer house in August, this salmon en crôute was a great success. I have Gordon Ramsay to thank for the excellent recipe, although I tweaked it slightly, using puff pastry instead of shortcrust and doubled the recipe.

I served the salmon with buttery amandine potatoes with peas and dill, provencale tomatoes and a lovely sauce I will tell you all about in another post. Everybody liked it, including the children!

It was just the perfect summer’s day to sit outside sipping rosé and catching up with dear friends.

I did make too much salmon though, but that just meant I had lunch for the next day. And heated up in the oven (a microwave will make the pastry soggy) it was as good as the day before!

Salmon en crôute, serves 4

Adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe.

I doubled the recipe and made two parcels, and also substituted the shortcrust pastry for puff as I like the buttery flakiness better.

1 side of salmon (as even as possible), about 900 g, skinned

a little olive oil

60 g butter, softened

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

generous handful of basil leaves, chopped

small handful of dill leaves

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

1 roll puff pastry with butter

1 egg yolk, beaten

Check the salmon for pin bones, removing any that you find.

Mix the softened butter with the lemon zest, basil, dill and some salt and pepper in a bowl.

Pat the salmon fillets dry with kitchen paper, then season lightly with salt and pepper. Spread the herb butter over one side and place the salmon with the buttery side down on the rolled out puff pastry. Spread the mustard on top and bring up the edges and tuck them in before folding the rest of the pastry over to form a neat parcel. Carefully turn the whole thing over so that the seam is underneath and place on a parchment lined baking tray.

Brush the pastry with beaten egg. Lightly score a herringbone or cross-hatch pattern using the back of a knife. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover loosely and chill for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 200°C.

Bake the salmon for 2025 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and crisp. Rest the salmon for 5 minutes, then cut into portions.

Recipe: slow-cooked salmon with fennel, lemon and chilli

Published on February 20, 2017 by HannaLeave a comment

Salmon. Probably the most popular fish in Sweden, but not my first choice to be honest. I blame all the baked (over-cooked) salmon fillets when I was at Uni for that. Although I love the oily fish raw, cured and cold-smoked. And, after trying this recipe, like this; baked in a very low oven and still raw in the middle.

Slow-roasted salmon with fennel, lemon and chilli, serves 6

Adapted from Bon Appetit’s recipe.

1/2 fennel, thinly sliced

1 lemon, thinly sliced

1 red or green chili, sliced

4 sprigs dill + more for serving

salt and black pepper

900 g salmon fillet without skin

olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 135C. Pour a little oil into a baking dish. Place fennel, lemon, chilli and till in the dish and place the salmon on top. Add plenty of salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or longer if you want it cooked through.

Shred the fish into smaller pieces. Remove the dill (and substitute with fresh dill) and serve with the baked vegetables. I also had new potatoes and a cold sauce with lumpfish roe with mine.

Recipe: cod loin with lemon, capers, red onions and browned butter

Published on February 8, 2017 by HannaLeave a comment

Maybe it’s because of my Scandinavian heritage but I really do like cod. I didn’t use to as a child, but back then my mother used to serve the cod poached *shudders* whereas I like to cook mine in the oven which keeps it firmer. My only “problem” with cod is that it looks so beige on the (white) plate, but adorning the cooked fish with pink, yellow and green accessories like in this recipe effectively solves that problem. Luckily the lemon segments, red onions and capers also elevates the cod to a rather sophisticated dinner party dish, which the addition of that amazing browned butter cements even further.

Thank you Bon Appetit for the inspiration and sorry for butchering your recipe, but this version is more Scandi.

Cod loin with lemon, red onions, capers and browned butter, serves 6

Adapted from Bon Appetit’s recipe.

1 kg cod loin

2 lemons

1/2 red onion

1 tbsp small capers

salt & pepper

500 g salted butter

Cut the cod loin into smaller pieces. Peel the lemon and cut into segments in between the membranes and place in a bowl. Slice the onion thinly and place in a bowl and cover with lemon juice. Place the cod in a buttered or oiled ovenproof dish and season well. Cook in 150C oven for 20-25 minutes or until just cooked through. Leave to rest for a few minutes.

While the fish is cooking, place the butter in a large saucepan on medium heat until nice and browned. Keep warm.

Mix the lemon segments with the red onions (but not the juice) and capers on a bowl. Put the fish onto a clean serving plate and top with cod pieces with the lemon and onion mixture. Spoon over some browned butter. Serve with potato purée, peas and carrots and serve the rest of the browned butter on the side, it’s the only sauce you need.

Dinner at Restaurante Rififi, Palma de Mallorca

Published on May 3, 2014May 2, 2014 by HannaLeave a comment

One evening in Palma both my parents and I were craving fish for dinner, which shouldn’t be that difficult on an Mediterranean island, but we actually found surprisingly few proper fish restaurants in town.

Via Google I found one outside Palma but just a nice walk away, so we walked all the way there only to find it was closed. Such an anticlimax, especially as the sign outside the restaurant said that they should be open. In the same neighbourhood we tried a tapas restaurant but that was full and the only other food on offer was Thai which we weren’t in the mood for; we wanted local fish.

On the walk back to the hotel we walked past a fish restaurant that looked good so we walked in and got a table. It turned out to be a really good restaurant that had been in the same spot since the 1960s and the owner told us all about the beginning of the charter period for the island and how it had changed since then.

We were famished after are walk and were delighted at the sight of amuse bouche, we got crostinis with octopus, lettuce and vinaigrette to start which was really good (the top photo) and we then continued onto our maincourses. Dad and I got carried away at the fish counter with locally sourced fish and seafood, caught only a few hours previously and chose clams, big prawns (gambas) and baby squid to be grilled and served with homemade french fries and lemon. So simple and delicious when the produce is good!

Mummy chose a dish from the menu that was utterly delicious; cod deep-fried to perfection with prawns in a spinach and cream sauce.We had a dry white Rioja to drink and were in the end very pleased with our evening. The extra walk just added to the appetite.

Restaurante Rififi, Avinguda Joan Miró, 182, Palma de Mallorca