The Tomatoes and The Salmon

I think I tried to get too fancy, too soon.

After running out during my mushroom escapades, I had intended to create my own sun-dried tomatoes that I could keep for future recipes and general munching.  What I ended up with was a handful of slightly burnt yet super delicious, shrivelled delicacies and a much better idea of how to get it right next time - I believe it's all in the tomato you use (and not having the oven so high), but I'll try it again and report back.

Without much to show for myself I had to turn this to my advantage and decided to use what was left of my tomatoes (I ate most of them - I had to check the quality of almost all of them) for a recipe I remember reading about a while ago.  

Now, I trawl recipe websites, it's true, it's my porn.  So I'm always picking up different ideas and shuffling things about to fit what I can get my hands on in the kitchen, if I don't remember the recipe, I improvise.  This latest one was plucked out of my repertoire for bringing together the shrivelled toms, some salmon and my current favourite...  

I'm having a couscous phase.  I'm always having a couscous phase, but this time I'm branching out some more. I buy the plain stuff because you get more for your money and I can add different flavours for every meal, it can be as simple as boiling it up with some veg stock and seasoning, delicious.  In this little combo, you bake all the ingredients together and let the flavours infuse for a simple but effective dish.  

All you need is:- 

1 delicious salmon fillet

1 red onion

a handful of home made sun drieds - they can be shop bought

a handful of spring onions

100g plain cous cous

190ml vegetable stock

1/2 lemon zest and juice

a small bunch fresh herbs although dried will do - thyme or rosemary

baking paper  

Make the couscous first by adding some herbs, lemon zest and seasoning to the stock.  Here you can add everything to taste and I like mine fairly tasty so I use a lot of lemon, thyme and pepper.  Briefly boil up the veg stock, add the couscous, then leave to stand, covered for 10 mins.  

In the meantime, chop up your veg.  You could add pretty much whatever you wanted in terms of roughage, I wish I'd had some leeks to add to the bunch.  Then get the oven heated to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Cut a large sheet of baking paper and once the couscous is done, fluff it up and put it in the middle of the paper.  Sprinkle the veg over the cous and lay the salmon, skin side down on top with spring onions and an extra squeeze of lemon juice over everything.

Wrap the whole thing up in a parcel, and place in the oven for about 20 mins.

When you get your parcel open, the salmon should be light pink, flaky and smell delicious.

Not cooking with salmon often makes me want to prolong the enjoyment, so I halved the fillet, added some salad and kept the other half for a work lunch the next day.  If it wasn't for my lovely live-in taster's dislike of fish, I would probably have doubled the fillets, increased the veg count and made a two man cache of couscous to pull out the stops for a delicious dinner.