Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Our Growing Paynes

I spied a treat at the shop the other day in the form of Coho wild salmon. I’m not a fan of farmed fish so I love it when certain types come into season. I was in the mood to recreate a dish my mum used to make when I was younger. When I used to work with her she would bring in the previous night’s leftovers so I was lucky to eat well right out of university. At least one decent meal a day! One of my favourites was salmon, peas and potatoes. So I made Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce with jacket potatoes and peas from our garden.

I chose dill sauce because I had a lot of fresh dill left over from making my husband Hungarian mushroom soup. I’ve realised I have not done a post on that so I shall have to make it again and do up a post to share.

Technique for Grilled Salmon and Dill Sauce

Heat the grill so it’s nice and hot. This will give the salmon a nice sear while keeping the centre moist. Slice a lemon. Place the slices on the grill and place the salmon on the lemon slices. It keeps the salmon from burning and gives it a lovely lemon flavour.

In a small saucepan, heat up some garlic infused olive oil. If you can have garlic, use two chopped cloves and regular olive oil. Sauté the chopped dill for a few minutes.

Add the mustard and the white wine and simmer to reduce a bit. Turn down the heat to low.

Add the cremé fraîche, this is a lovely alternative to regular cream. Stir in the cremé fraîche and keep it warm on low heat. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Spoon the sauce over the salmon and serve. This is such an easy dish to make but you are rewarded with high end flavour.

Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce

A perfect pairing of dill and seafood.

Course Main Course

Cuisine French

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Servings 2

Author Our Growing Paynes

Ingredients

1/2 lb Fresh salmon 226g
1 lemon, sliced
1 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
1 tbsp stone ground mustard
1/3 cup white wine 2.5oz
3 tbsp cremé fraîche
sea salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

Grilled Salmon

Season the salmon with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Slice the lemon
Heat the grill to high heat. Place the slices of lemon onto the grill and place the salmon on the lemon. Grill until the fish has a nice sear and the centre is cooked to medium. Slightly pink in the centre.

Dill Sauce

In a small saucepan, heat up the garlic infused olive oil and sauté the dill for a few minutes.
Add the mustard and white wine and bring to a simmer. Reduce for a couple of minutes.
Lower the heat to the lowest setting. Add the cremé fraîche. Mix well and keep it just warm. Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Putting it together

Place the grilled salmon on a plate and spoon the dill sauce over the salmon and serve immediately.

Fish en Papillote

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Our Growing Paynes

My daughter’s school is planning on bringing back students to their campus in a few weeks. Before she heads back to university, I wanted to make sure she gets meals she won’t get there. When there she mostly eats vegetarian as, well, dining hall meat and seafood doesn’t always set a high bar. As she loves seafood I thought I’d make this incredibly easy but delicious Fish en Papillote for her. I do wish I could cook her dishes and mail them to her safely but well, that’s not possible.

I am curious how long open campuses will last. These issues are the same closer to home. Our school system is looking to have in-classroom learning. Not quite sure how they will pull this off when, in the high school, there will be 1400 students walking through the hallways every 84 minutes. Who will be cleaning the classrooms between classes? Not an easy problem.

Technique for Fish en Papillote

I bought a nice piece of fresh cod for this dish and the fresh thyme from the garden was a lovely compliment. This fish was a reminder to pay attention to what the fishmonger is handing you. I pointed to a thicker filet and without me paying attention, I got this thin piece. I didn’t notice until I was back home. Slightly small for two people, especially when one is a teenager.

Place the fish in the parchment paper and twist the ends to make a boat shape. Add the ingredients into the boat.

Seal the package so the liquid is contained.

Bake at 350F/175C for 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish. You want the cod to be nice and flaky.

Serve immediately.

It was a lovely pairing with salad and roasted sweet potato. This is also a great dish to whip up for a quick lunch.

Fish en Papillote

Fish cooked in parchment paper

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword Fish en Papillote

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Servings 2

Ingredients

6 oz fresh cod
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp fresh thyme
2 tsp capers
1 tsp butter
sea salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.
Place the cod onto a piece of parchment paper. Make a boat shape with the parchment paper and add the rest of the ingredients to the fish.
Seal the parchment paper into a packet to hold the liquid in. Bake 10-15 minutes until the fish is cooked and flaky.
Serve with sides of your choice. For example, a salad and roasted sweet potato.

Scallops in the Shell

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Our Growing Paynes

Does anyone have the cure for jet lag? As we get older it seems to keep a hold on us longer and longer. It didn’t help we came back to dreary rain. Good for the garden, not so good at getting us going! I do hope it means our garden will do better than it did last year. Last year was a very dusty growing season.

Being back in the UK was wonderful, we had incredible weather and did loads of walking. We had to walk off all the lovely meals my mother-in-law cooked up! Of course we like giving her a break from cooking, she runs a B & B so she welcomes the break! Last year we did a curry night as my father-in-law is a big fan but my MIL isn’t so this time round we did a tapas night. Which I love doing! So off we went to the shops to get ingredients.

Aside from the usual dishes that are easy to throw together I found some scallops on the shell, which is near impossible to get stateside, never mind getting scallops with the coral still attached. So I couldn’t pass this up.

Heat up the broiler/griller to medium. Season the scallops with sea salt and pepper, thyme, olive oil, and rosé wine. I had some of the wine from our France trip and while it turns out it’s not a favourite of mine I knew it would work well with this dish.

Broil/grill until the scallops are cooked. Be careful not to overcook the scallops, you still want it tender. This will only take a couple of minutes.

Serve on the shell. This is a fun and quick dish to make, I just wish I could get this round here! It was a great night with good food, good company, and good wine.

Seared Pork with Creamy Cognac Mushroom Sauce

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

It feels good to be able to sit up at a computer and actually blog. Which seems a strange thing to say. The cold going round here knocks you on your backside. There was barely enough energy to work the remote. Forget watching anything with a plot as keeping focused was not on the cards! Which meant silly stuff like Real Housewives. Please, nothing real about them! My brain may never recover.

I did find Design on a Dime. Which is very lightweight but has inspired several ideas for our porch that I want to try out when the weather gets a bit warmer. I’m looking forward to creating a comfy area to hang out in.

It also felt good this weekend to get back into the kitchen and work on creating dishes. I had some pork ribs and some root vegetables to use and I wanted to do something on the French side. There were a ton of recipes using mushrooms and cream. A combination that I love.

I prepped the roast veg of potato, parsnip, and carrot first and got those cooking. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet, season the pork with sea salt and pepper, then brown all four sides.

Remove from the skillet and cover with tin foil. Finely chop a shallot (these can be potent and make you cry!) and add to the skillet. Cook for a few minutes on medium heat. You want the shallots to soften, not brown, then add 4-5 cloves of chopped garlic.

After another couple of minutes add a few mushrooms that have been sliced. Then add 1-2 teaspoons of fresh thyme, some sea salt, and pepper.

Once the mushrooms start to brown add 1 1/2 – 2 cups of chicken stock to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Add about 4 tablespoons of cognac and a couple of tablespoons of stone ground mustard.

Put the pork back into the skillet and simmer until the pork is cooked and the sauce has reduced a bit. Then add a 1/3-1/2 cup of cream. Taste and add more cognac and mustard if needed. Sometimes the cream can dampen the strong flavours.

Serve over the roasted veg and top with the sauce. You might find you have plenty of sauce left over. I used mine to make a creamy chicken soup for tonight’s dinner. Too good to let it go to waste!

Finally French Baked Eggs!

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

There are times where you have to try, try, and try again. Such is life. It gets a bit annoying when that happens with a recipe.

I saw a recipe in a cookery book of Barefoot Contessa’s for easy baked eggs. Ooh, I thought, this looks amazing. Let’s have a go.

To start her method was to broil. I followed it to the letter. Three times and failed each time. I was starting to get annoyed! The flavours were there but the yolk would over cook and the whites would stay runny. Not the way I wanted.

In the meantime I tried Jovina Cooks Italian recipe for Marinara Baked Eggs. I still struggled with getting the yolks runny but it was a better result. My husband and I talked about maybe separating the eggs and cooking the whites for a bit. Darya on Tortore mentioned in the comments the same idea so that settled it. I was going to give it another try.

This recipe is for one serving. Finely chop a handful of parsley, rosemary, and thyme. Then finely mince a clove of garlic. Grate about a 1/4 cup of fresh parmesan. Set all this aside.

Preheat the oven to 400F/205C. In a shallow bake safe dish heat up 1 1/2 tablespoons of cream and a tablespoon of butter.

Separate three eggs and add the whites and half the cheese and herb mixture to the dish. Season with sea salt and pepper. Bake until the whites are almost set, fluffing a few times as it cooks. Add the three yolks.

Add the rest of the herb and cheese mixture. Bake a few minutes more until the yolks are warm but still runny. I was feeling really positive by this point! Once the eggs are cooked, remove from the heat. Grate a bit more parmesan over the eggs. Toast up crusty bread to serve with.

Look at that, runny yolks! This was easy. 🙂 And oh so good. I am so happy I figured this out. There is an extra step but it means I get the result I’m supposed to.

Croque Monsieur, Fun Food for the Kids

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

In some of the tourist places we visited in France I came across croque monsieur. An inside out grilled cheese sandwich! The kids tried it and thought it was fun.

I loved the inspiration I got while over there. So much good food and ingredients. I got a kick out of this vending machine we found:

I mean how cool is this idea? Fresh veg, fruit, and homemade soups. Don’t get me wrong I loved the Cadbury vending machines when I lived in London but still, this was refreshing to see. Much better than these fish sticks I found:

How sad.

There are several recipes for croque monsieur, all pretty similar. I used Ina Garten’s from Barefoot in Paris as a guide. I used our sourdough bread for this. I really didn’t want to use the soft storebought white bread she recommends. I just don’t like that stuff! I needed to make 4 sandwiches so I toasted the bread ahead of time. Also, prep 1/2 cup of parmesan and 1/2 cup of jarlsberg and set aside.

In a small saucepan melt 2 tablespoons of butter then add 3 tablespoons of flour to the butter.

Keep it on the heat and continue whisking to cook the flour. You don’t want the mixture to burn.

Her recipe called for 2 cups of milk but I felt that was way too much. I decided to go with 1 1/2 cups of milk. We still had too much sauce leftover. Gradually add the milk to the flour mixture, again whisking the whole time to work out the lumps.

With the heat on medium bring the mixture to a near boil. You don’t want to have it actually boil but you need it hot enough to thicken. Keep stirring to prevent the milk from scorching on the bottom. Once the sauce thickens remove from the heat and stir in the grated cheese. Dust the top with nutmeg and season with sea salt and pepper.

Spread stone ground mustard of your choice onto half the slices of the toast. Add slices of ham and top with the other slices of bread. Then spoon on the sauce. Top with more jarlsberg cheese.

Broil until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Serve with a side salad.

I have to say as crazy as this dish sounded to me it was a lot of fun to eat and it was delicious.

Tarragon Steak and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

Yesterday was very frustrating. We like to make cheese so we bought quite a bit of raw milk at a local farm. Grand plans were made. Grand plans failed in a spectacular fashion. The cheddar may turn out ok but the camembert I tried didn’t get off the ground. The pH seemed to be too low and the curd didn’t break properly. We had issues with the cheddar as well. Like I said very frustrating.

So being tired and feeling grumpy I needed a good dinner that wasn’t too complicated. And it had to be quick! There was wine to be had at the end of a long day.

We grow tarragon in our garden, though it’s currently getting overshadowed by hops. If you ever grow hops put them somewhere by themselves. We grossly underestimated their takeover talents. So I waded in to find the tarragon and took a handful for this marinade.

Chop up a handful of tarragon and a few cloves of garlic. In a bowl add a few tablespoons of olive oil and one or two tablespoons of white wine vinegar. Shake it up to mix. Season the steak with sea salt and pepper then add it to the marinade. Let it marinate for at least an hour.

For those that follow my blog know I’m a huge fan of roasted potatoes. I thought rosemary and lemon would be a nice touch for this meal. Cube the potatoes and microwave them for 8 minutes. Do not cover them with plastic or cling film. That just leaches chemicals into the food. In a baking dish add a few tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of lemon juice. While the potatoes are in the microwave preheat the oven or toaster oven to 375F/190C with the baking dish in it. Add the potatoes to the hot oil, stir well and season with sea salt and pepper. Stir occasionally as it cooks. Once it is cooked halfway add a couple of tablespoons of rosemary, finely chopped. Heat the grill to medium high. I picked skirt steak which is pretty thin so it cooks quickly.

Given that it’s summer a salad is called for! Make up the salad while the steak is resting. Then slice the steak and top the salad. Drizzle with olive oil and white wine vinegar. Serve with the potatoes.

We were lucky that there was low humidity last night so we had a lovely dinner outside on the porch. The only interruptions we had was when we had to take turns chasing off the rabbits in our back garden. They are showing no fear!

Rabbit and the Need to Strangle a Cock….

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

4am. Still dead of night as far as I am concerned. Cock-a-doodle-doo! My husband then rolls out of bed to close the ceiling window because I’m too short to reach it. Every morning the bloody thing would go off. And it would go all day. There is another one down the road that answers but that is more muted. Ours was about 10 feet from our window. I say was as this morning it’s been quiet. I’m wondering if coq a vin is on the menu next door. If I never hear another cock-a-doodle-doo I’ll be a happy camper.

On my list of ingredients to cook while here in France was rabbit. So off to the market we went in search of one.

We were successful. Good thing I asked the head be removed. An unfortunate thing about the kitchen we’re using, aside from a very anemic oven, is the knives are very dull. We’ve tried sharpening them without a whole lot of success. Which made butchering this rabbit quite the chore! My MIL helped as I had to wrestle it to submission. I ended up removing the legs and then took what I could of the remaining meat to add to the sauce. I didn’t want to waste the rest of the rabbit so when my MIL suggested making a quick stock I went in that direction. In a saucepan I covered the rabbit in water, added a shallot, salt and pepper, and thyme.

Bring it to a boil then let it simmer for 30-45 minutes. Once that is done heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and brown the legs of the rabbit.

While that is happening, prep a small onion, a few cloves of garlic, and some fresh rosemary.

Remove the rabbit legs and set aside. Sauté the onions and garlic until they soften. Add some of the rabbit stock to simmer with the onion and garlic.

Add the rabbit bits and rosemary and sauté for a few more minutes. I bought some local mushrooms at the market which were really nice. I sliced a few and added them the the skillet. Again add some stock. About half a cup or 4 ounces each time.

Chop up a few tomatoes. I also had a can of diced tomatoes that needed to be used. Toss these in and add 4-8 ounces of red wine. Bring to a simmer and add the rabbit legs to finish off cooking.

The tricky bit is not to over cook and toughen the meat. In fact after simmering awhile there was still a bit of rabbit on the larger leg that wasn’t cooked through. We still had plenty of meat to go round.

The sauce with the stock was really nice. Not sure if I’d cook a lot of rabbit going forward. It was nice but not something I would crave. But I can cross this off the bucket list so to speak.

Today is packing day as we have a long journey home. I’ll miss this place. I’ve loved the food, the sightseeing, working on the language, and the leisurely meals. No one rushes you and it’s perfectly fine to have a glass of wine or two with lunch. And I could eat bread here with minimal side effects. It’s been fabulous! But back to reality I’m afraid.

Lovely Farmer’s Markets and Grilling Cod

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

The schedule for the markets in the surrounding towns is being figured out. We went to our first one in Noyant and what fun! It isn’t a big one but you won’t lack for food. Though for this one, in order to get fresh herbs I had to buy a thyme plant. Where there’s a way!

It wasn’t expensive and my in-laws can keep it when they go home.

With our phrase book, little French, and the vendors’ little English (or sometimes big English!) we managed to get everything we needed for the special dinner of celebrating my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. Quite the accomplishment these days!

We also managed to find some lovely cured meats, cheeses, and the most amazing crevettes. They are very messy to peel and eat but it’s worth it.

The fish monger had a very good selection of fish so I bought some cod to grill. The stall that sold cured meats also sold spices and we got a mix that was like a citrusy dry rub that had paprika in it. I thought it would be perfect for the cod. We found some ready prepared kebabs made with turkey and beef for the non fish lovers to round out the meal.

I prepared the cod two ways. First I rubbed the fish with the dry rub and added olive oil. I wrapped it in the tin foil and put it in the fridge.

For the second preparation of the cod. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, added lemon slices, thyme sprigs, olive oil, and dry white wine.

Wrap in tin foil and place it in the fridge until ready to grill. I also prepped aubergine with salt and pepper and olive oil to grill. The mushrooms I dipped into a lemon thyme dressing I made for the salad.

I’ve gotten the hang of the charcoal grill but it is very hot work in this heatwave! Yesterday was 100F/38C. Even in the shade, trying to be an asthmatic bellow to get the flames going nearly did me in. But I was successful. Given that it’s not a large grill I had to do the food in stages with the aubergine put on last.

Keep the lemon thyme cod in the tin foil so it poaches in the olive oil and wine. I decided to be brave and place the other cod directly on the grill. Conor from One Man’s Meat was kind enough to give me a tip of about five minutes. This was quite the thick piece so after a few minutes I checked to make sure it was starting to flake before flipping it over to cook on the other side.

So far so good! The kebabs were done so I added the leek to the grill. You want the fish to be flaky but not dry. It’s ok to have it medium well rather than well done.

My husband made delicious garlic bread and his aunt made a salad. I have to say, I was really pleased with how the fish came out. Both ways.

We are enjoying the countryside and I love the sunflowers. Though if you stop on the roadside beware! I don’t know if I stepped in stinging nettles or some stinging insect nest. Either way it was painful getting the shot. Taking the suffering for your art a bit too far I think. 😊

Leek and Mushroom Puff Pastry

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Our Growing Paynes

Our kids are coming home tomorrow! They’ve been gone for nearly two weeks visiting grandparents in Florida. While I’m thrilled they are having a blast swimming, getting ice cream, and being goofy, they are missed.

I asked what they are requesting for dinners for the few days they are with us before they dash off to overnight camp. My son is asking for chicken cordon bleu. And my daughter would love something Italian. I think I can handle these requests. 🙂

When I posted about the roasted veg with crepes I said there was another dish to post about from the French restaurant we went to at Terminal 3 Heathrow. I did find out what the restaurant was called, it’s Oriel Grande Brasserie. My husband ordered a puff pastry dish with leeks, mushrooms, and goat cheese. It was delicious so I knew I would try to recreate it.

I confess I buy the puff pastry. I do want to try to make some but I can get decent store bought and it’s one of the few ingredients I buy so what the heck. 🙂 For this dish I used the puff pastry shells which need to be baked ahead of time. Follow the directions given. For mine I baked them at 425F/220C for about 20 minutes.

Set aside. This recipe is for two servings. In a skillet heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil and saute 6 sliced mushrooms.

I wanted a nice roasted flavour from the mushrooms. As Julia Child taught the best way to do this is not mess about with the mushrooms. In other words, don’t stir. After the mushrooms are sauteed for a minute or so, let them “roast” on each side until browned. In the meantime, finely chop 2 cloves of garlic and add to the skillet with a 1/4 cup of dry white wine.

After a few minutes add a 1/4 cup of chicken stock and about 3/4 cup of sliced leeks. Bring to a simmer.

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Once the liquid reduces about half add a dollop of goat cheese and melt it into the sauce.

Spoon into the pastry shells and grate fresh Jarlsberg or a similar cheese on top.

Bake until the cheese is melted and golden. The side dish that was served when my husband had the dish was a potato salad of some sort over greens. I roasted some potato in olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper. I served it over mixed greens with a lemon thyme dressing.

This was a light summer meal but would also be great as a starter or a party dish. I really wish my son liked mushrooms as I’d like to make this for the kids. It would be hard to pick round the mushrooms though!

Our Growing Paynes

A journey about cooking, traveling, gardening, and crafting.

Category Archives: French Recipes

Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce

Technique for Grilled Salmon and Dill Sauce

Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce

Ingredients

Instructions

Grilled Salmon

Dill Sauce

Putting it together

Fish en Papillote

Technique for Fish en Papillote

Fish en Papillote

Ingredients

Instructions

Scallops in the Shell

Seared Pork with Creamy Cognac Mushroom Sauce

Finally French Baked Eggs!

Croque Monsieur, Fun Food for the Kids

Tarragon Steak and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Rabbit and the Need to Strangle a Cock….

Lovely Farmer’s Markets and Grilling Cod

Leek and Mushroom Puff Pastry