Smoked salmon with toasted homemade beer bread recipe
A Christmas day starter needs to tick a few boxes: it must be slightly indulgent, it must be easily prepared well in advance because you have so much else to cook, it must be light and fresh, and it must pair up with a great chilled white wine. This is such a dish.
The beer bread is very easy – no yeast in the recipe means no lengthy proving process. It can also be made in November and frozen if you want to!
Ingredients
- 80 g per person of a good quality organic sliced oak smoked salmon
- 2 red apples
- 0.25 of a raw celeriac
- 1 good dollop of mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp chopped chives
- 1 tsp grain mustard
- 1 loaf of beer bread (recipe below)
- 450 g stone-ground wholemeal flour
- 1.5 tbsp tablespoon of baking powder
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 1 tsp runny honey
- 6 fluid ounces of beer, mixed with 6 fluid ounces of water
Details
- Cuisine: English
- Recipe Type: Starter
- Difficulty: Medium
- Preparation Time: 45 mins
- Cooking Time: 45 mins
- Serves: 8
Step-by-step
- To make the bread simply mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Stir in all the honey and enough beer and water to make a wet dough.
- Spoon the mixture into a well-buttered loaf tin and smooth the surface. Bake at about 170c for about 40-50 minutes.
- Turn the bread onto a wire rack and leave to cool for 20 minutes before slicing and eating or toasting or freezing until required.
- Making the celeriac remoulade: peel the chunk of celeriac and then cut into fine slices - as thin as you can. Cut the slices into thin strips – a sort of fine match stick size is what you are after.
- Boil a pan of water and blanch the celeriac strips for 30 seconds then remove them and cool in iced water.
- Whilst the celeriac is cooling cut the apple into fine matchsticks too – don’t peel the apple as it adds colour and texture from the skin.
- Drain and dry the celeriac and place in a bowl. Add the apple, chopped chives and the grain mustard.
- Add enough mayonnaise to bind everything together – similar to a coleslaw.
- Mix well – this can be stored in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
- On the day: divide the smoked salmon between 8 plates –place it in a disc shape in the centre of each plate so it’s not totally flat, but ruffled up slightly.
- Place a generous dollop of celeriac and apple remoulade in the centre of each portion of smoked salmon.
- Serve a slice of toasted homemade beer bread on the plate by the side of the salmon, with butter to serve
Recipe courtesy of Cono Sur wines, who recommend their 20 Barrels Sauvignon Blanc with this dish.
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