Roasted Salmon with Crispy Chickpea Salsa

This roasted salmon with crispy chickpea salsa has tasty flavors from the spicy chickpeas, garlic, cilantro and garlic and a lovely mix of textures.

This dish is easy and quick to make so it’s perfect for a weeknight meal, but it’s pretty enough for a dinner party. It elevates the humble chickpea into something sort of fancy, as a topping, rather than main ingredient in a main course.

If you are a fan of chickpeas, this is your lucky day! Make sure to scroll down to the bottom to check out the other chickpea recipes my Sunday FunDay group are sharing. 

Roasted Salmon with Crispy Chickpea Salsa

This dish can be made with farmed salmon as well with the caveat that the farmed fish is thicker so it will take longer to cook. Wild salmon is best when cooked till just done (or even a little bit less since it keeps cooking even after it’s taken out of the oven.) 

Ingredients

For the salmon:

1 side wild salmon (about 1.5 lbs or 680g)

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter) melted

For the chickpeas:

1 can (14.11 oz or 400g) chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

For the salsa:

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, crushed then minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup or 35g pumpkin seeds

small bunch cilantro, about 1 3/4 oz or 50g, hard stems removed 

Method

In a nonstick skillet, lightly fry the chickpeas over a medium heat, along with the oil and seasonings, until golden and crunchy. 

Be patient with this step. If you try to rush and turn the flame too high, you risk burning the chickpeas. Shake the pan and stir occasionally. 

This could take 15-20 minutes but meanwhile you can get on with the rest of the recipe. 

Put the vinegar, garlic, olive oil and pumpkin seeds in a small processor along with 1/3 of the cilantro. Process until slightly chunky.  

Set aside a few sprigs of cilantro for garnish then lightly chop the rest.

To roast the salmon, preheat your broiler (UK Eng: grill) to its highest setting and line a baking sheet or sheet pan with aluminum foil. Pat your salmon fillet dry with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. 

Place the salmon fillet skin side down on the foil-lined sheet and season it with the fine sea salt and black pepper. Then brush it with the melted ghee. 

Pop it under the broiler and keep a close eye on it. Your salmon should be ready within 4 to 6 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillet. 

While the salmon is roasting, mix the ingredients in the food processor with the chickpeas and chopped cilantro. 

Garnish the whole salmon with the reserved cilantro.

Serve the crispy chickpea salsa spooned on top of each portion of salmon.

Enjoy!

As I mentioned above, it’s Sunday FunDay and we are sharing recipes with chickpeas. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha’s Recipe. Check out the links below: 

• Sneha’s Recipe: Air Fryer Roasted Chickpeas 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Chickpea and Farro Soup
• Mayuri's Jikoni: Chole Bhature
• Amy’s Cooking Adventures: Greek Seasoned Roasted Chickpeas
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Pearl Couscous & Chickpea Salad with Basil
• Food Lust People Love: Roasted Salmon with Crispy Chickpea Salsa
• Palatable Pastime: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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with Crispy Chickpea Salsa!

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Salmon and Shrimp Strudel

This salmon and shrimp strudel is fish pie made fancy but that doesn’t mean it’s not easy! Puff pastry elevates this most tasty of fillings to fabulous. 

I’m a fan of pastry in all its forms, shortcrust, puff, rough puff, phyllo, what else have I missed? I firmly believe that with a bit of pastry any dish is made better, especially if it bakes up flakey, golden and maybe a little bit crunchy. 

For just that reason, for this month’s Fish Friday Foodie friends event, I chose seafood in pastry for our theme. I make this same dish with chicken for a fancy chicken pie but the salmon and shrimp version is way more flavorful. 

Salmon and Shrimp Strudel

Do not get too caught up in exact weights for the vegetables. I give the weights of mine to give you a guideline only. After all, my idea of what a small onion is may not be the same as your own. This makes enough filling for two salmon and shrimp strudels. I baked one the first day and saved the filling for about the third day, refrigerated, then baked the second. Both delicious and we were delighted to eat it again, just the two of us. If you are feeding four people, bake them both the same day! 

Ingredients - to serve four 

1/2 large or 1 whole small onion (about 5 1/3 oz or 150g)

1 long stalk celery, trimmed (about 2 3/4 oz or 78g)

1 - 2 medium carrots, cut in fine dice (ideally you want about the same amount of carrots as peas)

1 potato, cut in large dice (9 oz or 256g unpeeled) – soaked in cold water to stop it turning brown

1 1/2 cups or 380ml milk

1 teaspoon fine sea salt for poaching, plus extra at the end for final seasoning

10 oz or 284g wild salmon

1 lb or 450g thawed, peeled shrimp

1 slice streaky bacon

2 tablespoons or 28g butter or a little bit extra as needed

1/4 cup or 31g flour

2 tablespoons or 30ml heavy cream

1 tablespoon whole grained mustard

Zest and juice of ½ lemon

3/4 cup or 95g frozen peas, thawed

1 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

2 (9 oz or 255g) all butter puff pastry sheet (I used the Trader Joe’s brand), thawed

Method

Peel and mince the onion. Remove the tough strings and mince the celery. Peel and cut the carrots into small dice. Notice the peas for size comparison. 

Poach the salmon in simmering milk, skin side down, for 10 minutes. 

Remove the salmon from the pot with a slotted spoon and add the shrimp. 

Bring it back up to temperature and then turn it down to simmer for about 5 minutes. 

While the shrimp poach, carefully remove the skin from the salmon and discard. 

(Or fry till crispy with a little oil in a nonstick skillet as the chef’s treat. We always do!)

Remove the shrimp from the pot with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. 

Cook the potato cubes in the reserved poaching liquid for about five minutes or until almost cooked through. Use a slotted spoon to remove from the liquid. Pour the liquid into another vessel and set both aside to cool.  

Wash the pot out and then fry the bacon strip in it. Remove it from the pot when crispy. Chop the bacon into small strips.

Add the butter to any bacon fat left in the pan and sauté the onion, celery and carrots in it for about 10-12 minutes, covered, until softened. 

Test a carrot piece. If it’s cooked or just about, you are good to go. 

Slowly sprinkle the flour onto the vegetables and stir well with each addition. 

We are trying to avoid lumps of flour. Add a little more butter if the flour is dry. 

Cook for a few minutes. Stir in the poaching liquid slowly. 

Cook for a couple of minutes until the mixture thickens a little. 

Remove the pan from the heat. 

Add in the bacon, cream, mustard, lemon zest and juice. Stir well. 

Add in cooked potatoes and the shrimp, along with any juice that has accumulated on the cooling plate. Use your hands to break the salmon into smaller pieces and add them to the pot. Don’t go too small or they will ending breaking down completely when you fold to mix. Top with the peas.

Fold the ingredients together gently. Sprinkle with a little salt, the black pepper and cayenne, if using. 

Fold the ingredients again to combine. 

Refrigerate the filling, covered, until it is chilled and you are ready to bake the strudel. 

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Lay one square of the puff pastry out on piece of baking parchment. 

Use a rolling pin to roll it out a little more from the middle, creating a rectangle out of your puff pastry square. 

Pile half of the cold filling in the middle of the puff pastry.

Cut slits in each side about a 1/2 inch or 1 cm in width. Leave the ends intact. 

Fold one end up and tuck the sides toward the middle. Fold the other end up and pinch to connect them to hold in the filling. 

Cut the rest of the pastry outside into pieces. Randomly pull each cut piece up and over, connecting them together over the filling and pinching to make them hold, knowing that they probably won’t but, hey, it’s worth a try. 

If you are baking both strudels the same day, put the first filled one in the refrigerator and repeat the process with the second puff pastry and the rest of the filling.

Bake the strudel in your preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden and the filling is hot through. (Use a thermometer to check.) If it’s browning more quickly than it is heating through, you can cover it with foil. 

Remove from the oven and leave to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing to serve.  

Enjoy! 

Check out the lovely pastry seafood dishes my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing today: 

• Gluten Free Prawn /Shrimp Quiche - with Homemade Gluten Free Pie Crust from Sneha's Recipe
• Salmon and Shrimp Strudel from Food Lust People Love
• Shrimp Cups from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Shrimp in a Blanket from Karen's Kitchen Stories

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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Savory Craquelin Pastry Roast Salmon

The topping on this Savory Craquelin Pastry Roast Salmon is a great way to add flavor and also make sure roast salmon doesn’t dry out in the oven. It's flavored with garlic, thyme, smoked sea salt flakes, aleppo pepper and just a sprinkle of nutmeg. 

If you’ve seen my recipe for pineapple buns, you are already familiar with what craquelin pastry is, although to be fair, I never called it that. That thin topping I added to the buns - the one that baked up crunchy and shiny - is a craquelin. Indeed typically craquelin pastry is sweet. And it’s usually baked on a bread or pastry of some kind. 

The word itself is French, naturalment, and translates to “cracker.” I presume the topping was so named because it is crunchy like a cracker when baked, although I must warn you that that does not hold true when you bake it on top of fish.  It gets a little crunchy but certainly not cracker crisp!

Since craquelin pastry is usually sweet I was intrigued when I saw the recipe for savory craquelin in delicious. magazine and couldn’t wait to try it. Was it good? Suffice to say, I'll be making this again! The topping was flavorful and delightful and the salmon below was tasty and cooked to perfection.

Savory Craquelin Pastry Roast Salmon

As mentioned above, this recipe was adapted from one in the UK magazine delicious. March 2021 issue but you can also find it online. You can mix the craquelin by hand but it’s much easier to get it nice and smooth with an electric mixer and I promise you want it nice and smooth. 

Ingredients

4 salmon fillets, about 1.5 lbs or 800g altogether, at room temperature

Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus wedges for serving

For the craquelin pastry topping:

2 slightly rounded tablespoons unsalted butter (about 30g), at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon demerara sugar

1 teaspoon smoked sea salt flakes (I used Maldon.)

Sprinkle freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon pul biber (aleppo pepper) or substitute 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus extra to serve, if you like

1 fat clove garlic, crushed and minced

2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked off and chopped, plus extra sprigs to serve

3 tablespoons plain flour

Method

Preheat your oven to 425°F or 218°C and prepare your baking pan by lining it with baking parchment.

Use electric beaters to make the craquelin pastry topping by creaming the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in the salt, nutmeg, pul biber, garlic, thyme and flour.

Beat again until it’s thoroughly combined and spreadable.

Put the salmon on the lined baking pan, skin-side down. Dry the tops thoroughly with a paper towel. If the fish is wet, it’s a challenge to get the craquelin to stick and spread. 

Divide the craquelin dough between the salmon fillets. Spread each over the top of the fish using the back of a spoon. 

Pop the pan in your preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Finish it off under the broiler for 1-2 minutes or until the top is golden and the fish is just cooked through.

Sprinkle the fillets with the lemon juice, then add an extra sprig of thyme to each and a pinch more aleppo pepper or cayenne, if desired. 

Enjoy!

It's the second Friday of the month so that means it's time for my Fish Friday Foodie friends to share recipes with you. Our theme today is Salmon Chanted Evening 🤣   but feel free to make these for lunch as well! Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime for the fun theme name and all her behind the scenes work! 

• Chili Glazed Salmon from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Creamy Garlic Butter Salmon from Making Miracles
• Salmon Burgers With Cocktail Sauce from Sneha’s Recipe
• Salmon with Lemon Caper Butter from Palatable Pastime
• Savory Craquelin Roast Salmon from Food Lust People Love
• Smoked Salmon Pasta from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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Charcoal Grilled Soy Ginger Salmon #FishFridayFoodies

This charcoal grilled soy ginger salmon is bursting with flavor from the sticky roasted marinade but what really makes the salmon divine is the smokiness from the hot charcoal.

I know a lot of people swear by their gas grills. I’m even related to some. Certainly, you can make grill marks with a gas grill and you can even throw in some wood chips as long as they are in a box or covered with foil. But in our humble opinion, you just aren’t going to match the taste of meat, seafood or even vegetables grilled over coal.

We feel so strongly about this that we actually own two Weber grills, a big one and a small one. Which one we use depends on how many people we are feeding. My husband hates to waste charcoal. He’s usually the one in charge of the grill and he has the whole process down to a fine art.

If you are a fan of seafood on the grill, you might also enjoy my piri-piri grilled whole baby grouper, my spicy Balinese grilled fish or my stuffed fresh sardines wrapped in parma ham then grilled.

Charcoal Grilled Soy Ginger Salmon

Depending on how widely spaced the bars on your grill are, you may need an additional grate to lay on top to keep your fish from falling through the gaps. I bought one on Amazon < affiliate link – which is non-stick and works wonderfully. You could also simply lay the fish on a piece of heavy-duty foil.

Ingredients (to serve 4)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, peeled (about 1 tablespoon grated)
1/4 cup or 60ml soy sauce
3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon good quality Shaoxing (Chinese rice wine)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 1/4 lb or 567g wild salmon fillet, skin on

For garnish:
Chopped cilantro

Method
Grate the ginger and garlic into a small bowl.

Add in the rest of the marinade ingredients and stir well. Set aside.

Cut your salmon fillet into four portions but DO NOT cut through the skin below. We want what appears to be one whole piece so the skin will help hold it together as it cooks but we also want to be able to spoon marinade between the portions.

Place the fish in a shallow dish and spoon the marinade over it and between the pieces, reserving perhaps a third for basting when it’s grilling.

Cover with cling film and refrigerate until ready to cook but at least 30 minutes.

Light a good size pile of briquettes in your grill. They are ready for cooking when the outsides are mostly grey with a red core, about 20 minutes.

Spread the coals around evenly.  The goal is a medium-hot fire.

Put your grate on the grill, if needed, then lay the salmon on top, skin side down.

Put the lid on, with vents partially open, and cook for about 8-12 minutes until the salmon is just barely cooked through, according to the thickness of the fish or to your liking. Baste halfway through with the reserved marinade.

With wild salmon, the kind I normally cook, you want to err on the side of undercooked vs overcooked because it is lean and can dry out. Farm-raised salmon will take a bit longer.

The FDA recommends cooking salmon to an internal temperature of 145°F or 63°C. If you have an instant read thermometer, stick it in the thickest part of the fillet for the most accurate reading. Get it up just past 130°F or 54°C and it will reach optimum temperature while it rests in foil.

Remove from the grill and rest, wrapped loosely with foil for 10 minutes.

Garnish with some chopped cilantro, if desired, and serve.

Enjoy!


This month my Fish Friday Foodies friends are cooking seafood outdoors at the instigation of our host and group leader, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out all the great recipes below:

• Cajun Boil on the Grill from Making Miracles
• Charcoal Grilled Soy Ginger Salmon by Food Lust People Love
• Crawdadding with Cousins Means Jambalaya by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Green Chilly Basil Pesto Grilled Prawns by Sneha's Recipe
• Grilled Garlic Shrimp with Yuzu Kosho by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Mojo Sauce from Veggies First Then Dessert
• Grilled Mahi Mahi with Blueberry Wild Rice Pilaf by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Grilled Shrimp Souvlaki on Pita from Palatable Pastime
• Spiced Shrimp on a Stick from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Are you a food blogger who would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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