Recipe: Pan Fried Salmon With Cray Tail, Cauliflower Rice And A Spiced Tomato Sauce

Steven Patterson, our Head Chef is a fan of the Ora King salmon. The marbled flesh makes it the Wagyu of salmon. He believes the combination of this special breed of salmon and the sweet flavour of the crayfish makes for a sumptuous dish. In fact the cray meat reminds him of the claw meat of the Scottish lobsters.

Steven’s two tips for this recipe are to cook the cauliflower rice immediately before serving and crisp the skin on the salmon. As he says it is worth it for the textures alone.

Photo Credit: Markus Kirchgessner

Ingredients

• 4 Salmon Fillets
• 2 Cray Tails Whole
• ½ Cauliflower
• 5 Whole Tomatoes
• 100g Turkish Raisins
• 100g Cashew Nuts
• ½ Red Onion
• 2 Shallots Peeled
• ½ Red Chili
• Handful of fresh chervil
• 2 Cloves Of garlic
• Juice of ½ a Lemon
• 2Tbsp Soft Brown Sugar
• 1Tsp Ground Cumin
• Splash of Red Wine
• Sesame oil
• Handful of Chopped Parsley
• Salt And Pepper

Step 1:
To make the sauce chop the tomatoes, shallots and garlic. Place in a baking tray, drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven for around 20 minutes on 160C / 320F

Whilst they are roasting warm a pot on the stove with a little oil in it. Chop the red onion and chili and sauté on a low heat. Once coloured deglaze your pan with a splash of red wine. Then add the tomatoes from the oven and add the brown sugar, chervil and a touch more salt and pepper and stir well.

Place the contents of the pan into a food blender and blitz till smooth. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve back into the pan and cook slowly for a further 20 minutes or until it thickens.

This can be made in advance and re-heated when needed

Step 2:
Place the cashews on a roasting tray and place in the oven for approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown then season with a pinch of salt when roasted. With the raisins place in a container and cover with boiling water and set aside. Strain the raisins off after they have soaked for 20 minutes.

To prepare the rice remove the florets from half of the cauliflower and blitz for 2-3 minutes empty the bender in to a heat proof bowl and add the cumin and a drizzle of sesame oil. Cover with cling film and place in the microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. Once cooked add the lemon juice, raisins, cashews, parsley and season.

Stir well and it is ready to serve. This should only be cooked when you are serving the dish.

Step 3:
For the cray tails boil a pot of water with a pinch of salt and boil the tails for about 8 minutes then refresh in a pot of ice and water. After it is cooled cut the cray lengthways and pull the meat from the shell removing the vein.

Pre heat a frying pan, and once warm drizzle with oil. Dry the salmon skin and season with some salt and cook skin side down on a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Flip over for the final few minutes until cooked. Remove the salmon from the pan and place the cray tail meat into the same pan with a fresh knob of butter and warm through for a few minutes.