Smoke-Roasted Treacle-Cured Salmon with Potato, Cucumber and Buttermilk Salad from Gizzi’s Season’s Eatings

By Erin Brown
Related Categories: Cookbook Confidential

“I first made this dish for a barbecue feature when I was working for the Sunday Times Magazine as a columnist, but while racking my brains for cool ways of cooking a Christmas salmon for this book, I couldn’t get the treacle cure out of my head. Curing your salmon will season it, give it stacks of flavour, firm it up and allow it to cook really easily. This time it’s being cooked in a super-hot oven to the point where it may even smoke a bit, which will only add flavour to the fish. If you’re feeling like having some fun, layer some wood chips on a baking tray and douse them with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil mixed with 3 tablespoons water. Place the tray in the bottom of the oven five minutes before adding the fish and they will add even more smoky flavour.” Gizzi Erskine, author of Gizzi’s Season’s Eatings

Serves 6

Preparation time: 25 minutes, plus marinating

Cooking time: 15 minutes

1 x 600g (1lb 5oz) side of salmon, skin on, pin-boned

100g (3½oz) fine salt

100g (3½oz) caster sugar

3 tablespoons black treacle

1 tablespoon toasted fennel seeds

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

Vegetable oil

For the salad

800g (1lb 12oz) Jersey Royals or other new potatoes, cooked until they just about break up with a fork

2 small Middle Eastern cucumbers, peeled, halved, deseeded and thinly sliced into half-moons

100g (3½oz) cornichons, thinly sliced

150ml (5fl oz) buttermilk or soured cream

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons soured cream

A good squeeze of lemon juice

A good handful of dill, roughly chopped

Sea salt flakes and freshly ground

Black pepper

Lay the salmon skin side down in a roasting tray. Blitz the salt, sugar, treacle and spices in a blender, until they just come together. Don’t overdo it, or the ingredients will start to melt and be hard to handle. Sprinkle this salt mixture on to the pink surface of the salmon, wrap the tray in clingfilm, and leave to marinate for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 260°C/240°C fan (500°F), Gas Mark 10 or as high as your oven will go. While the oven is heating up, put your warm potatoes into a salad bowl. Add the sliced cucumber and cornichons. In a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk, mayonnaise, soured cream, lemon juice and dill with some seasoning. Dress the salad with this buttermilk dressing while the potatoes are still warm. When the oven is scorching hot, wash the cure off the fish and dry. Liberally rub the skin with oil and season with salt. Place a large baking tray in the oven with a generous glug of oil to prevent the fish from sticking, and let it get hot. Lay the fish skin side down on the hot tray. You need to roast it for 15–20 minutes, to allow the skin to get really crisp and dark and the fish to cook to the perfect opaque middle. Immediately, with 2 fish slices and some help from someone else, slide the salmon fillet off the tray and on to a platter to rest for 5 minutes. Serve the potato salad alongside the fish. Great with a simple watercress salad.