Beetroot, vodka and wild herb rub cured salmon

This recipe has been adapted from the version printed in Olive (issue 100). As soon as I have seen it, I wanted to try it. I kept it quite close to the original recipe but added a wild herb rub and changed some quantities to suit my dinner.

500g salmon fillet , skin on
2 small beetroot , peeled and grated
75g coarse sea salt
100g golden caster sugar
2 tbsp Wild herb rub from Forage Fine Foods
½ a small bunch dill, chopped
2-3 tbsp vodka

I have already written about the wild herb rub from Forage Fine Foods here.
It adds a pizzazz and oomph to an already lovely recipe.
Take your salmon fillet and place it in a ceramic tray on top of the clingfilm, skin side down.
In a separate bowl mix the grated beetroot, salt, sugar, wild herb rub and dill. Spread it over the top of the salmon fillet in a thick layer. Spoon over the vodka (the original recipe asks for a modest tablespoon, I was quite generous and added more than 3).

Wrap the fillet with the beetroot/herb crust in another couple of layers of clingfilm. Put another ceramic dish (I used a heavy lasagne dish) on top and weight down with a few tins. Put in the fridge for 24 hours.
Once ready, peel off the crust and rinse the fillet under the cold water.

Using a thin sharp knife slice thin strips of salmon, leaving the skin behind. You can assemble it back on the skin to serve.

I served the salmon with the buckwheat blini (see the recipe here).

I offered my guests a plate of blini, a dish with the cured salmon, a small jar of salmon caviar (Alas, not some expensive caviar from Harrods, but a more modest offering from Waitrose) and creme fraiche. The idea was that everyone assembled their own blini.
I must say the salmon was extraordinary, very tasty and colourful, and I will be definitely using this recipe again.

Wild herb rub (a lyrical review)

An ancient legend tells the story of the young Polovtsian khan: he left his Motherland to help the Caucausian Prince to fight the enemies and stayed behind, being seduced by the beautiful women and wine. His brother kept sending messengers to him, asking to come back home, but the young khan ignored the messengers. Finally a messenger arrived who didn't utter a word but gave a bunch of the dry yemshan herb to the khan. The smell of the dry herb brought back memories of the happy childhood, of his parents, freedom, horses and the wild grassland plains. The khan burst into tears and decided to go back home.
Yemshan (or yamshan) herb is a kind of wormwood or absinth, it has a very strong bitter smell, which is very evocative of the steppe.
Why am I telling you this? I had my own "yemshan herb" moment recently, when I opened a jar of the wild herb rub from Forage. The wonderful smells of chamomile , red clover and wild thyme brought back memories of my childhood. My Mum used to pick wild herbs and dry them, she makes her own herbal teas, and all through my childhood I rinsed my hair with the herbal mixture.

Wild Herb Rub is a fab mix of dried herbs.
Quote: "A wonderful wild flavouring packed with herbs that grow in British pastureland, made with wild thyme, english sage, fennel, marjoram and camomile mixed with with hints of meadowsweet, clover flowers and sheeps sorrel.
Our wild herb rub is inspired by an amazing pasture outside our kitchen window, when it rains the smell of camomile is intoxicating. We are convinced that meat tastes best flavoured with what it has eaten, and this is our theory behind why the rub is so good with british meat. (It's also pretty gorgeous with veg too!) Ditch the herb d'provence and take up with the herbs of our homeland"

I thought it would work well with the straightforward beef stew (without dumplings, as my guys don't like them much). This dish is perfect on a cold day.
For 4-5 servings you will need
about 400g beef, cut in chunks
2 medium carrots
1 parsnip
2 medium potatoes
1 red onion
1 sweet potato
1 can of carrot soup
vegetable oil
2 tbsp of Wild herb rub
plain flour for coating the beef
a handful of raisins or sultanas
about 7-8 dried apricots

Using a clean board, coat the beef with the plain flour and wild herb rub. Heat the oil in the deep frying pan and add the beef, cook it until well browned on all sides. Remove the beef and put it in the big saucepan.
Chop the onion and fry until translucent. Add to the pan with the beef. Chop the carrots and fry a bit as well (you might skip this stage, but the fried carrots give a sweeter flavour to the stew).
Add the chopped parnsips, sultanas and apricots to the pan, pour water. Beef and vegetables should be always covered by the water, so keep checking the level and add more if necessary.
Bring the water to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer on very low for a couple of hours. Add the potatoes, sweet potato and a can of carrot soup about 20 minutes before the end of cooking.
If you are feeling truly decadent, you can also add a can of the game soup. Your stew will be truly worthy of the king's table.
Experiment with the amount of the wild herb rub, you might want to increase the amount of herbs from 2 tbsp to 3 or even more. The herbs add a special note to this dish and enhance the flavours.

Sophia Loren's Ricotta Delight with the rose petal preserve

This lovely recipe has been originally created by the incomparable beauty Sophia Loren, and can be found in her book In Cucina con Amore.

My version is adapted from Sophia's recipe.

For the dessert you will need
250g ricotta
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp rose petal preserve

Dip the top of the serving glass in lemon juice and then in the sugar bowl to get a sugar frosting at the rim. Mix half of your ricotta with the cocoa powder and the sugar. Sophia suggested adding brandy, I didn't add any. Spoon the mixture in the glass. Mix the second half of the ricotta with the rose petal preserve and spoon on top of the cocoa flavoured ricotta.

I have used a Rose Petal Preserve from Forage Fine Foods. I could sing praises about it. If you close your eyes and smell the little bottle, you are immediately taken into an Arabian Nights story. You are in the rose garden. The aroma is beautiful. It also has a very intense sweet rose taste.
This syrup is perfect for delicate desserts. If you want to get hold of one, you'd better hurry. I have an insider information:  very few bottles are left until the roses bloom again!

For the grissini sticks you will need
2 grissini per person (choose plain, you don't want olive or onion flavoured grissini to ruin your dessert)
dark chocolate
dried rose petals (optional)
icing sugar and a few drops of Dr Oetker Bright gel food colour (red to make pink icing)

Mix 2 tbsp of icing sugar with the red gel colour and a lemon juice until the desired consistency is achieved. It should not be too thick or too runny. Taking one breadstick at a time, smear one half of the stick with the pink icing and place standing in a mug or glass for the icing to set.
Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan with hot water, then dip the grissini, one by one, in the chocolate sauce. At this stage, if you have any dried rose petals at hand (I did, as I dried a lot of rose petals from our garden, they are all organic and pesticide-free), crush them and sprinkle over the chocolate part of the grissini. Again let them stand in a mug until the chocolate is set.

Serve the ricotta mix with the chocolate and pink icing grissini.
For an extra wow-factor, you might want to add some edible gold leaf to your grissini.

This is my entry for a February Romance challenge on What Kate Baked.