Samphire and salmon
I think marsh samphire, glasswort, or salicornia europea (call it what you will) is one of the great under-rated vegetables of the world. I was, therefore, very happy to see some sold by the fishmonger on Cambridge’s Saturday market. I’ve never cooked it before, but it’s not hard – think a cross between asparagus and spinach and you’ll be most of the way to cooking it correctly.
I opted though, for this first attempt, to go for a recipe from Mark Hix’s British Food: salmon with samphire. The halophytic nature of samphire makes it a natural pairing for fish. I altered the recipe slightly: the whole dish is baked, as I usually do with salmon, but I omitted the butter that Hix calls for. So, the salmon cooked skin-up enclosed in foil for 10 minutes before adding the samphire with a little pepper, foil open, for another five minutes. It’s important to wash the samphire and remove any roots and particularly woody stems.
I served the dish simply, with boiled new potatoes and a little lemon juice drizzled over. Lemon mustard was the obvious condiment. It was good. Very good. The samphire was salty, as expected, yet oddly sweet. Not that that is a bad thing, though! Unsurprisingly, the combination of salmon and salty samphire worked well. Still, it was a good way to allow the flavour and texture of the samphire to dominate. For my next dish, something a little more adventurous, I think!