Hot Smoked Salmon & Potato Salad @ Glenbrook Farmers Markets

Posted by thesensitivefoodie on September 9, 2013 in Dairy Free, Egg Free, Foodie Travels, Gluten Free, Nut Free, Paleo, Seafood Dishes, Soy Free | 3 Comments

I really enjoy seeing where our food comes from, and meeting the people behind it. As part of this blog, I want to share great foodie finds; visiting farmers markets, festivals, farm gates, regional specialties, etc, and then create a meal using the produce.  I thought it was only fitting to have my local market as my first location.

There is something about seeing all the colourful, fresh produce laid out, that just makes me happy. The Rotary Glenbook Farmers Market is a new market held on the 1st Saturday of the month. The lovely town of Glenbrook is the first you come to when you start driving up the Blue Mountains from Sydney.  It was great to see so many people there, being that this is only the 3rd month it has been on. I got there at about 9am and it was in full swing. The produce was amazing, and the market had a really relaxed, friendly vibe.

My intention was to take photos first and then do some buying, but it all looked so good, that I kept buying things as I went, ending up with so much that I could barely carry it, let alone juggle a camera as well. Nothing that a couple of trips back to the car couldn’t fix.

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There were stalls stacked high with fresh & colourful fruit and vegetables straight from the farm, and the most amazing stall with stunning, vibrantly coloured bunches of flowers that looked like works of art.  I also found the stall where you could pick your own eggs quite a novelty (I can’t have eggs, but I made my husband scrambled eggs this morning from them and the rich orange colour was such a contrast to store bought eggs).

Prior to giving up cows dairy, jersey cow milk was my absolute favourite milk. It is real milk fresh from the farm that is naturally A2, and can also be good for some people with dairy intolerance’s.  Then there is the Willowbrae Goat’s cheeses, the chevre is creamy and has a really mild flavour. I highly recommend the olive roulade chèvre, I have polished off a whole container of it in less than 24 hrs!

The Free Range Butcher is one of my favourite places to buy meat from. My Christmas hams & turkeys for the last few years have come from them, and they really are the best I’ve had, they deliver all around Sydney too.  Another great find was Hillbilly Cider, a fantastic crisp & refreshing apple cider made from 100% apples, grown and bottled right here in the mountains.

My cooking inspiration for the day came from the amazing hot smoked salmon that is freshly smoked at the market. You can watch them preparing the fresh salmon fillets and putting them into the smoker. Using the chilli smoked salmon fillets and pairing it up with some fresh seasonal vegetables and a zesty lemon dressing, adapting a recipe I found on BBC Good Food, made for a perfect spring lunch.

Hot Smoked Salmon & Potato Salad

Suitable for: gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, soy & nut free diets

Ingredients (main meal for 4)

• 300g hot smoked salmon fillets with chilli, bones removed and broken up.
• 12 small cocktail potatoes, halved
• 2 bunches asparagus, bend gently and it will break to where it is freshest
• 150g mixed salad leaves, I used baby spinach, mixed baby leaves & watercress
• 2 large handfuls each of parsley and mint, leaves only
• 4 baby radishes, thinly sliced. I used a v-slicer to get them nice and thin
• 4 green shallots, green parts only, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 125ml olive oil
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
• freshly ground black pepper
• Note – if you can’t get salmon with chilli, just add some dried chilli flakes to the dressing.

Method

1. Prepare a bowl of cold water, with ice in it if you have any, otherwise, as cold as you can get it to refresh the asparagus after cooking.
2. In a large saucepan, bring water to the boil. Add the potatoes and some salt and boil until just cooked through. Add the asparagus spears and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Take the asparagus and put straight into the cold water, this will make it keep it’s deep green colour. Drain the potatoes and but aside to cool. I added them to the cold water, to cool them quickly.
4. In a small bowl, add the lemon, olive oil, mustard and pepper to make the dressing.
5. In a large bowl, add the salad leaves, potatoes, asparagus, radish slices, parsley & mint. Add most of the salad dressing and mix through the salad. Leave in the bowl, or spread out on a plater, and then top with the salmon & shallots. Drizzle over the remaining dressing.

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