Poached salmon with dill and cucumber sauce

Poached salmon with dill and cucumber sauce

Salmon is an elegant fish that is perfect for dinner parties. Poaching it with dill and cucumber adds a little Scandinavian sophistication to your meal.

Serves 10-12

Preparation time 20 minutes plus 2 hours cooling time

Cooking time 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 cucumber, peeled and de-seeded, keep some strips of peel to decorate from Jock Stark

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chopped dill

1 lemon, juice only

400g crème fraiche from Real France

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 carrot, cut in half

½ onion, skin on

1 stick celery

½ lemon

2 bay leaves

A few peppercorns

1 whole salmon, about 2.5kg from Furness Fish & Game

Lemon wedges

Cucumber slices - optional

Preparation Method

Finely chop the cucumber and mix together with the shallot, dill, lemon and crème fraiche then season generously. Cover and set aside for the ingredients to get to know one another!

Lay the salmon in a fish kettle, or if you don’t possess one, a roasting tin will do a sterling job. Cover with cold water adding the carrot, onion, celery, lemon, bay and peppercorns. Bring up to boil then turn the heat off and leave the salmon to cool in the water.

Gently lift the salmon out, and lay it on to a large plate or board. Carefully peel off the skin, but leave the head and tail in tact. Use one of the lemon wedges to rub gently over the salmon flesh to make the flesh glisten. Decorate with thin slices of cucumber if you like.

Serve the salmon with the cucumber sauce, lemon wedges and buttered new potatoes.