Anne’s Salmon-Rice Dish

This dish was invented by my mom. She was looking in the fridge one day to decide what to cook for dinner, and found a packet of smoked salmon and some leftover rice. She threw them together with some veggies and an egg, everybody loved it, and so it made its way into our weekly rotation of dinners! It’s been such a hit that it has even featured at a few dinner parties.

This was the first time I had ever tasted cooked smoked salmon before. It seemed a strange idea to me at first, but it actually works really well because the smoked salmon adds a great smokey flavour to the dish, and the saltiness seasons the rest of the dish perfectly! You could probably make it with leftover baked salmon too, although I’d imagine you would need to cook the rice in stock to make up for the lack of ‘smokey’ taste.

It’s a convenient dinner to make if you don’t have time to run to the shop and buy fresh fish. Also, the smoked salmon turns opaque and takes on a totally different texture to raw smoked salmon, so this is a good one for people who aren’t into the texture of raw smoked salmon.

As you can see here, the rice is a bright yellow colour. My mom always adds couple of teaspoons of turmeric to rice while it’s cooking, and it’s a habit I’ve taken on too, so this is just standard rice in our household really. It’s gotten to the point where white or brown rice looks strange to us! Regular leftover rice will do, but the turmeric does add some great anti-inflammatory properties to the dish as well as a splash of colour and a subtle nutty taste, so I would recommend trying it if you’re cooking fresh rice for this dish.

We always change up the veggies in this one- spinach and mushroom is a favourite combination of ours, or carrot and celery, or the veg featured below. Use whatever you have really!

SERVES: 4 | PREP TIME: 10 mins | COOK TIME: 20-30 mins

INGREDIENTS

for  the rice, you’ll need about 3-4 cups leftover cooked rice, or if cooking fresh:

1 cup dry basmati rice

2 cups water

2 teaspoons turmeric

for the rest of the dish:

1 medium onion, finely sliced

a selection of vegetables: here I used:

• 1 ramiro pepper, chopped
• 1/2 a courgette, chopped
• about 80g spinach leaves

250-300g smoked salmon (from an ethical, sustainable source if possible)

1 egg (free range organic if possible)

1 lemon

a few turns of the black pepper mill

METHOD

1. If you don’t have leftover rice, get your rice going first! Add turmeric to the rice and water at the beginning, then cook as you usually would.
2. While the rice is cooking, prep your onion, pepper and courgette.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over  medium heat. Add the chopped onion, and sweat for 3-5 minutes or until soft.
4. Add the courgette and pepper, or whatever veggies you like! Cook for a further 4-5 minutes or until they are beginning to soften.
5. Add the cooked rice to the pan. Lower the heat and stir rice in until it is evenly mixed in with the vegetables. Allow to heat for a minute, but don’t let it stick to the pan!
6. Crack the egg into the dish, mixing around until the rice and veggies are evenly coated. Then add the smoked salmon by separating the layers of salmon and spreading them over the top of  the dish.  Cover, and leave to cook for a further 2 minutes.
7. When you take the lid off, the salmon will be starting to firm up and turn opaque. Now you can break it up into smaller pieces and stir it in to the rice and veggies underneath. Mix in the spinach leaves at this point if using, cover, and leave to cook for another couple of minutes until the spinach has wilted and the salmon and eggs have turned opaque.
8. Squeeze half a lemon over the dish, and serve with a salad, black pepper, and some extra lemon wedges on the side!