Celebrations x 2

This weekend – yesterday 25th January – saw two anniversaries, both of which are celebrated world wide. Burns Night with bagpipes, haggis and neeps and Chinese New Year with dragons, dim sum and fireworks. Apparently, this year is the Year of the Rat – and Robbie Burns has been described as an original love rat, having a very spicy love life! Thus, this week’s recipes are incorporating Scotland, China and spice – it’s up to you whether you want to keep them as partners or split them up and put haggis with the dessert and pineapple fritters with the salmon.  Such is the variety of life.

Salmon and Noodles

• 1- 2 Scottish salmon fillets, with skin left on
• 1 heaped tablespoon hoisin sauce (from a jar or bottle)
• 75g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 70g medium egg noodles
• 100g long-stemmed broccoli, trimmed
• freshly ground black pepper
• dark soy sauce  / thinly sliced spring onions, to serve (optional)

Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7 and line a small, shallow ovenproof dish with kitchen foil. Place the salmon fillets into the dish, skin-side down, and brush generously with the hoisin sauce. Make sure the fillets are placed at least 5cm/2in apart from each other. Scatter the cherry tomatoes around them. Cook for 15 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through. Meanwhile, prepare the noodles. Half-fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the noodles, return to the boil and cook for 1 minute, stirring to separate the strands. Add the broccoli and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Divide the noodles and broccoli between four warmed plates. Top with the salmon fillets and scatter with the cherry tomatoes. Season with pepper and serve sprinkled with a little soy sauce and spring onions, if using.

Now for the dessert : Cranachan – a delicous mix of raspberries, cream, whisky, honey and toasted oats.  What’s not to like?

• 50 grams porridge oats
• small pot of double cream
• 2 – 3 tablespoons honey to taste
• 2 tablespspoons whisky (I personally hate whisky but somehow can take it here!)
• raspberries – fresh or frozen

Heat a heavy based frying pan up and toast the oats until nutty and pale brown (I sometimes add a little demerara sugar so they caramelize but you do have to keep moving them around!). Put to one side to cool. Whip the cream till soft peaks and fold in the honey and whisky. Layer up the cream, rapsberries and oats and put in the fridge till needed. (Keep some of the oats back to scatter on top as you serve so they are still crunchy)