Ever since we've been keeping our own chicken that give us a regular supply of beautiful eggs, we've been eating many more omelettes and frittatas. They're cheap, filling, tasty and quick to make. Here's one from last week, based on Sue Lawrence's recipe in A Cook's Tour of Scotland: from Barra to Brora in 120 recipes. I always keep a packet of smoked salmon in the fridge, just in case, so dishes like this can be whipped up without a trip to the nearest supermarket.



Note that 'smoked salmon' in English recipes usually ask for cold-smoked salmon, whereas in Estonia you would have to specify whether you mean cold-smoked salmon (külmsuitsulõhe) or hot-smoked salmon (kuumsuitsulõhe) - both are widely available and used. (Either one would work in this recipe, and of course, you can use good-quality smoked trout instead).

Works as a substantial weekend breakfast as well as a filling lunch or dinner, especially with some dressed salad leaves.

Smoked salmon frittata
(Suitsulõhe-frittata)
Serves 2 to 3



6 large free-range/organic eggs
200 ml creme fraiche or double cream
2 tsp grated horseradish (from a jar)
1 small red onion, finely chopped
a small handful of chives, finely chopped
1 Tbsp butter
100 g thinly sliced smoked salmon
juice of half a lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Beat the eggs, cream and horseradish until combined, season with salt and pepper.
Lightly sauté the onion in butter over a medium heat until just softened, then add the chives and sauté for a minute or two more.
Now tip in the egg mixture. Leave for a few minutes, then push in from the sides with a wooden spatula. Cook over a low heat for 8-10 minutes or until almost set.
Place smoked salmon slices on top, then place under a preheated hot grill ("salamander") for a couple of minutes, until the eggs are just set.
Squeeze some lemon juice on top, sprinkle with more chives. Cut into wedges and serve.

I've briefly mentioned cod liver on Nami-Nami previously - here and here, but it deserves a new post :) There are almost no blog posts on the topic - a FoodBlogSearch enquiry ends with plenty of posts about cod liver oil capsules, and just one food blog posts apart from mine, written by Rosie Dequattro (now available only in in cache) and a mention of foie de morue by Clotilde back in 2004 (!). I always keep a can of cod liver chunks in oil in the larder, as it's a great stand-by to have when you have unexpected friends. Or when you simply need a lunch in a hurry.

I got the recipe from my mum, but it's the same universal recipe used in pretty much every cod-liver-loving family in Estonia (or Russia, for that matter, as Rosie's post reveals). I love it on toast, but you can also serve it to fill vol-au-vents or top small crostini.

Cod Liver Paté
(Klassikaline tursamaksasalat)



190 g can cod liver chunks in oil (look for it in Russian markets)
1-2 eggs, boiled, peeled and finely chopped
a small (shallot) onion, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Drain the cod liver, then place in a small bowl and mash with a fork. Add the egg and onion, season with salt and pepper. (You can add some mayonnaise, if you want a smoother paté, but it's not really necessary).
Garnish with fresh herbs (dill, parsley and chives are especially fine here) and serve.

If you're looking for a simple, yet impressive fish dish for the weekend, then this adaptation of Donna Hay's recipe could be just a thing. Very simple to make, yet impressive-looking and delicious. I used two doradas a.k.a. gilt-head bream (Sparus aurata), but any similar-sized white-fleshed fish would work (seabass, snapper, bream etc). I've also downsized the recipe to suit our little family, and I served it with dill mayonnaise instead of garlic one. We do love garlic at our house, but as the fish was already baked with garlic butter, we thought that garlic mayonnaise as a side dish would be slightly overdoing on the garlic front.

K. really-really loved this, and volunteered to bring home the fish whenever necessary, just so he could enjoy this dish again.

Whole baked fish with garlic butter, lemon salt and dill mayonnaise
(Kala küüslauguvõi, sidrunisoola ja tillimajoneesiga)
Serves 2

2 smaller whole fish, scaled (if necessary) and gutted
50 g butter, at room temperature
2 garlic cloves, crushed
lemon wedges, to serve

LEMON SALT:
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp sea salt flakes

DILL MAYONNAISE:
100 g good-quality mayonnaise
1 small garlic clove, crushed
a generous Tbsp freshly chopped dill

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
To make the lemon salt, place the lemon zest and salt in a bowl, mix well. Set aside.
To make the dill mayonnaise, combine mayonnaise, garlic and dill. Set aside.
Use a small, sharp knife to make small slits in the fish skin. Combine the butter and garlic and place about a tablespoon of the butter mixture in the cavity of each fish. Dot the remaining garlic butter over the fish.
Place on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 30–35 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with lemon salt, dill mayonnaise and lemon wedges.

Wait, I know what you're thinking! Those kama and mascarpone truffles again? Nope. I know they look similar, but today I'm blogging about little savoury delights I've adapted from an Estonian foodblogger Elis. Last Thursday the Republic of Estonia celebrated its 93rd anniversary and some of my girlfriends came over to celebrate the occasion - and also say hello to our little baby boy. When trying to think of Estonian nibbles to serve, I came across Elis' recipe for sprat and cream cheese balls and was sold at once. It's a play on a popular rye bread and sprat canapé, and I knew that my guests would love them. I was right - these went down a storm. I used slightly more cream cheese than in the original recipe.

I must warn you - unless you live in Estonia and have easy access to rye bread and spicy sprats ('vürtsikilu'), you won't be able to make it (though you can follow this recipe and make the spiced sprats yourself). But this might inspire you to try making something similar with anchovies or similar product that's more readily available in your part of the world.

Savory cream cheese balls with spiced sprats
(Kilupallid)

Makes about 20

100 g spiced sprats filets, finely chopped
150 g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg, boiled, peeled and finely chopped
3 Tbsp scallions/green onions, finely chopped
grated rye bread

Mix all ingredients (except rye bread) until combined (I used a wooden spoon, but food processor would work as well). Cover the mixture with a clingfilm and place into the fridge for 30 minutes.
Take small amounts of the cream cheese mixture and roll into small balls between your palms.
Roll in grated rye bread and place onto a serving platter.

It's not always about lamb's tongue in Nami-Nami kitchen, you know. Most of the time I cook - and we eat - perfectly "normal" food. Here is one of my favourite weekday dishes. It's not exactly quick - that is to say, it won't be on your table within half an hour of walking in the door - but if you're at home anyway, just unable to stand in the kitchen watching keenly over your Sauce Bearnaise, then this is for you. It needs about 15 minutes of active involvement and then it simply cooks in your oven. Ideal for a mum like me :)

I've made this both with hot smoked salmon and cold smoked salmon over the years. I slightly prefer the latter one, but it's lovely with both.

Smoked salmon and potato gratin
(Kartulivorm suitsulõhega)
Serves 4

750 g potatoes
100 g smoked salmon, sliced
handful of fresh dill, chopped
2 large eggs
200 ml fresh cream
100 ml milk
freshly ground black pepper

Wash the potatoes, peel and cut into thin slices or matchsticks (I used the thick julienne cutter in my food processor).
Butter a medium-sized oven dish (I used a 30 cm round dish). Scatter half of the potatoes in the dish, sprinkle with dill and layer with salmon slices. Top with the remaining potatoes.
Season with black pepper.
Whisk eggs with cream and milk and pour evenly over the potatoes.
Bake in a pre-heated 175 C oven for about 1 hour, until potatoes are cooked (the exact time depends on the thickness of your potato slices or matchsticks).

I'll be posting some Estonian recipes during this week, and there's a good reason for that. I got an email from a reader on the other side of the world (Down Under, actually) today, who is organising a surprise party to an Estonian friend this weekend. She'll be using various Estonian recipes I've posted here on Nami-Nami over the last five years, but I've promised to give her some more food tips and ideas, so she can choose.

If you look around Estonian foodblogs, then we all seem to feast on thick and filling Russian-style mushroom soups at the moment - Tuuli has been cooking up mushroom borscht and mushroom rassolnik, Aet has a mushroom solyanka simmering in her saucepan. We had friends over for dinner last night, and as I had got a large bowl of blanched and slightly salted wild mushrooms from K's mum yesterday morning, and made a Russian-style mushroom soup as well, but with addition of fish.

You'll get a best result if using various wild mushrooms. Gypsy mushrooms (Rozites caperatus; kitsemamplid), Russula-mushrooms, Lactarius-mushrooms - all would be perfect, but cultivated mushrooms would work as well (perhaps a mixture of white mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms for some texture?). I had mainly meaty Lactarius scrobiculatus mushrooms (võiseened/kollariisikad)*, with an odd Russula thrown in.

Check your mushroom guide for instructions (some mushrooms - like gypsy mushrooms and many Lactarius-mushrooms can be cooked fresh, some need to be blanched first.

* Note that Wiki considers this an inedible mushroom (well, "Western authors" do). It's much liked over here for its meaty texture and characteristic flavour. It does need to be thoroughly blanched and cooked first, however, and smaller mushrooms are preferred to larger ones.

Mushroom and Salmon Solyanka
Serves four to six



1 large onion, peeled and chopped
about 400 g fresh (wild) mushrooms - pre-blanched, if necessary
2 Tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
3 Tbsp concentrated tomato pureé
1 litre fish stock
4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
300 g salmon filet, cut into 1 cm cubes
2 small pickled cucumbers, halved lengthwise and cut into slices
2 Tbsp capers
a small bunch of dill
salt
black pepper
lemon juice, to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan, add onion and mushrooms and sauté for about 5 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste, cook for a minute or two.
Pour in the fish stock, bring to the boil. Add the potato cubes, then simmer for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked.
Add fish, capers, cucumber slices and most of the dill. Simmer for another few minutes, then remove the saucepan from the heat.
Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper (solyanka needs a slightly sour note!).
Sprinkle some extra dill on top, garnish with lemon slice or wedge and serve.

Quail eggs, again :) As I've said on several occasions before, I love quail eggs in all their disguises - dipped into Pimentón de la Vera or Egyptian dukkah seed mixture, as a component in a "mushroom canapé", as topping on an Estonian wild mushroom crostini, as a filling inside salmon kulebyaka, or as a garnish on top of Estonian seven-layer salad or smoked salmon and spinach salad. This particular nibble has been briefly mentioned before (see here), but I've made them again and took a much better photo this time :)

Here's the "recipe":

Cut the top off boiled quail eggs, spoon some whitefish (or other fish) roe on top and seat the quail eggs on a bed of finely chopped dill. Serve.

(Vutimunad siiamarjaga)

Vitello tonnato is a popular summer-time dish in Italy, originating in the 19th century Piedmont. Cold thin slices of cooked veal are topped with a creamy tuna and anchovy dressing. I love the classic version a lot, but the tuna mayonnaise is much more versatile. It's been a frequent visitor in our kitchen this spring, and I've given below the recipe I've come to love. I especially like it on top of crisp crostini slices, but it's also a good dressing for some left-over boiled eggs.

What's your favourite tonnato recipe and dish?

Crostini with tuna mayonnaise, garnished with caperberries (Suupisted tuunikalamajoneesiga):


Vitello tonnato aka cold veal slices with tuna mayonnaise (Vasikalihalõigud tuunikalamajoneesiga). That's the classic way of serving tonnato:



Uova tonnata or boiled eggs with tuna mayonnaise, garnished with some capers and lemon zest (Munad tuunikalamajoneesiga):


Tonnato aka Italian tuna mayonnaise
Serves 4

Note that I make my tonnato from scratch and not cheating by simply mixing mayonnaise with canned tuna :)



2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 anchovy fillets in oiled
juice of half or whole lemon
10 salted capers, rinsed and drained
1 shallot, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper
150-200 ml mild olive oil
200 g good-quality tuna chunks in oil

Place egg yolks, capers, anchovy fillets, juice of half a lemon, chopped shallot and some black pepper into the bowl of a hand-held blender. Blend until you've got a thick paste of uniform consistency.
Add oil in a thin stream, still blending the mixture.
Finally add the tuna chunks and blitz a little bit more.
Taste for seasoning - add more pepper, lemon juice or perhaps salt.

There's a weekly farmer's market in our suburb, Viimsi, and there's a rather good fish stall run by Pepe Kala. The choice of fresh, cured and smoked fish is excellent, both local and imported, and we're thrilled to bits. During the winter we usually tend to buy salmon or trout - delicious and easy to prepare, but obviously a simple and non-challenging choice. So we've decided to buy some fresh whole fish (read: ungutted and unscaled) every weekend and try some new and more interesting recipes. Several friends have lined up for our Saturday Night Fish Feasts already, so the motivation is high :)

First up - a large, 2 kg carp bream (Abramis brama, 'latikas' in Estonian) that we baked under a salt crust and served with butter-fried lemon slices. You could use any other large white fish (red snapper, carp etc), if you prefer.

The serving idea came from a Finnish food magazine MAKU.

Whole Bream Roasted in Salt Crust
(Latikas soolateki all)
Serves about 4 to 6



2 kg whole bream
2 kg coarse sea salt

Topping:
1 large lemon
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp finely chopped chives
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Clean the fish by gutting it (i.e. remove the liver and roe and pat the insides thoroughly dry with a kitchen paper).

My maternal grandmother celebrated her 90th birthday yesterday with a large party. All her 5 children, most of her 11 grand-children (I say most, as some of my 11 cousins are scattered around the world - one in India, one in Cyprus and one in Costa Rica; they didn't make it to the party), 8 of her 9 great-grandchildren (one lives on Cyprus) gathered around the large table and feasted on the food. One of my aunties is a trained chef, so she prepared most of the food for the party. However, I was asked to bring " an interesting salad" along :) I thought about it long and hard, and decided to make a tuna and chickpea salad (or tuna and garbanzo salad :)) that I've made couple of times before.

The original recipe is from a British foodblogger, Pertelote (unfortunately she no longer blogs), though I've adapted it over the years. It's a great mix of colours and textures and flavours.


Chickpea and Tuna Salad
(Tuunikala-kikerhernesalat)
Serves 10-12



500 g dried chickpeas/garbanzo beans
water
one jar of roasted peppers in oil
6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
2 large red onions
1 tsp cumin seeds
0.5 tsp fennel seeds
0.5 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp pimentón dulce (Spanish smoked mild paprika powder)
2 cans of tuna chunks in oil
1 onion
1 lemon, juiced
a bunch of (flat-leaf) parsley, finely chopped
salt
black pepper

Soak the chickpeas overnight in cold water.
Next day, drain and rinse the chickpeas. Place in a large saucepan with fresh cold water, season generously with salt. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 1 to 1,5 hours, until the chickpeas/garbanzos are soft, but not mushy. Drain.
Dress the hot chickpeas with olive oil and sherry vinegar.
Cut the roasted peppers into smaller slices, add to the chickpeas.
Peel the onions, cut into quarters. Fry gently in some oil for 5-7 minutes, until they start to soften.
Crush cumin and fennel seeds slightly in the pestle and mortar. Add the spices (cumin, fennel, chilli ja pimentón) to the onions and fry for a minute or two (do not burn!). Add the onions to the chickpeas.
(This can be done until 24 hours in advance).
Drain the tuna chunks, cut into smaller pieces with a fork. Chop parsley finely. Stir into the chickpea salad.
Season generously with lemon juice, and with some salt and pepper.
Serve.

This is my favourite salad at the moment - I served it twice during our daughter's birthday weekend, where it was very quickly eaten by everyone. Even my dad, a typical Estonian male (read: pork and potatoes kind of guy) had two large helpings of this salad. I've been asked to make it for a friend's birthday party this coming weekend. Thinking of that, I might just bring it to my mum's birthday table in a fortnight as well - it's really delicious and light and unusual. You see, quinoa isn't widely known - or consumed - here in Estonia, and turns out it's actually really suited for our Nordic taste buds :)

Note here that the original plan was to make a cous-cous salad with shrimps and avocado, served with some creamy dressing. But the crayfish tails looked more appealing in the shop, and I had run out of cous-cous at home, so I ended up serving this delightful combination of ingredients instead.

As avocados lose their appetizing green colour with time, it's best to make this salad right before serving. This should not be a problem, as it's supereasy to make and takes almost no time whatsoever (apart from some slicing and cooking the quinoa). The quinoa can be actually still slightly warm when mixed with other ingredients.

What's your favourite way with quinoa? I've already bought another packet, you see, and would appreciate any serving suggestions!

Colourful Quinoa Salad with Crayfish and Avocado
(Kinoasalat vähisabade ja avokaadoga)
Serves ten

250 ml quinoa (a cup)
500 ml vegetable stock (2 cups)
0.5 tsp salt
2-3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil or cold-pressed avocado oil
1 lemon, juiced
500 g crayfish tails, drained (I used hand-peeled tails in brine)
3 to 4 ripe avocados
3 to 4 roasted red peppers (from the deli counter)
a large handful of finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
freshly ground black pepper

Rinse the quinoa under cold running water, using a fine mesh sieve (this is an important step, as otherwise the quinoa can be bitter). Drain.
Place the quinoa and stock (or water and Marigold bouillon powder) in a saucepan. Season with salt, then bring to the boil and simmer on medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until quinoa is soft and the water has evaporated.
Stir in the oil and half of the lemon juice. Place the quinoa into a large serving bowl.

Add the drained crayfish tails:


Halve the avocados, remove the seeds and scoop out the flesh. Cut the avocados into chunks or slices and sprinkle immediately with the rest of the lemon juice. Add to the serving bowl.
Slice the roasted red peppers, add to the serving bowl.



Add the parsley, season with pepper and salt, if necessary. Stir gently until combined. Serve.
Fold gently so all ingredients are mixed. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and serve.

Did you know that the 'ansjovis' in Jansson's Temptation, the ever-popular creamy Swedish potato gratin, is not anchovis (Engraulis encrasicolus), but sprat (Sprattus sprattus)? Sprats in brine have been called 'ansjovis' in Sweden since 17th century, which is obviously rather confusing for an English-speaking recipe translator. That's why you see 'anchovies' in most English recipes. However, the Swedish 'ansjovis' are pickled in a rather sweet brine, so substituting regular anchovies wouldn't give you the same flavour sensation. It'd be still a tasty potato gratin, but not the same..

We spent a long weekend in London in the beginning of November, mixing work with some pleasure. The latter part included spending two full days with the always lovely Johanna and her family in Kingston. Johanna is the Queen of Canapeś, and I used the opportunity to browse through her library of canapé and fingerfood and appetisers cookbooks, looking for simple and delicious ideas I could manage myself. We're likely to host a number of festive buffets over the next few weeks, so I could do with an extra idea or two.

Here's one super-simple canapé idea that I served to a bunch of my girlfriends last Sunday. You need good-quality smoked salmon for this, as the salmon is served almost au naturel. I spotted this in Canapeś (sold as Hors d'Oeuvres in the US). You need small cocktail sticks for this appetizer.

Smoked Salmon Canapés with Lemon Pepper
(Suitsulõhesuupisted "sidrunipipraga")
Serves a dozen

100 g smoked salmon*
half a lemon, preferably organic
freshly ground black pepper

If necessary, cut salmon slices into thin, long strips (about an inch wide). Weave each slice onto a cocktail stick, as seen on the photo above. Place on a serving tray.
Wash and dry the lemon thoroughly, then grate generously some lemon peel/lemon zest over the salmon slices.
Finally, season with black pepper.
Serve at once or cover with clingfilm and keep in the freezer until needed. Let the appetizers come back to the room temperature before serving, as the flavour of the fish is better when not cold.

* I used "Saare Hõbe" cold smoked salmon strips from Ösel Fish.

Looking for a new way of preparing salmon?

I (and several other Estonian foodbloggers) have discovered a delightful recipe from the 7th issue of the always beautiful and inspirational Finnish food magazine, Glorian Ruoka & Viini (Gloria's Food and Wine). Whereas confit, the old French cooking and preserving method, usually describes food (traditionally goose, duck or pork) that has been salted and then slowly cooked in its own fat, then here's it's a fillet of salmon that has been cured in a sea salt mixture and then slowly cooked in olive oil. The resulting dish is dark opaque pink, extremely moist and delicious both hot or cold. In the magazine, the salmon was served cold on a bed of lentil salad. We enjoyed it both hot and cold, simply with some good home-made mayo.

Salmon Confit
(Aeglaselt küpsetatud lõhefilee)
Serves 4



500 g salmon filet

Salt cure:
2 Tbsp flaky sea salt (I used Maldon)
1 tsp caster sugar
0.25 tsp freshly ground black pepper

For the confit:
2 organic lemons, thinly sliced
250-300 ml olive oil

Mix sea salt, sugar and pepper and spread over the fish fillet. Cover with clingfilm and leave to season in a fridge or cool place for up to 3 hours.
Wipe off the salt mixture, and place the cleaned fish fillet into a small oven dish, where it fits snugly (the better the fit, the less olive oil you need).
Layer lemon slices over the fish, then drizzle enough olive oil on top, just to cover the fish.
Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the fish fillet.
Cook in a pre-heated 75 C / 167 F oven for about 40 minutes, until the internal temperature reads 38 C / 100 F.
Remove the fish from the oven, cool until it's reached the room temperature. Serve at once or cool completely in the fridge.

Photo updated in October 2010

Toast Skagen is a very festive and popular Swedish starter. It's not cheap - both good shrimps (preferably from the waters around the Smögen island) and whitefish roe (ideally from European whitefish/Vendance (Coregonus albula) or Powan (Coregonus lavaretus)) are pricy. But if you are looking for that special starter for a special occasion, then this is very elegant, good-looking and delicious*.

This beautiful appetiser was developed by one of the best-known Swedish culinary heroes, Dr Tore Wretman (1916-2003), who served a version of this dish in his Stockholm restaurant already in 1958. Skagen, by the way, is a name of a beautiful fishing port on the Northern coast of Denmark, which has been popular with Swedish and Danish artists for centuries. Who knows, perhaps Wretman was inspired by one of his trips to the area :)

Summer. Finally here! Our little baby daughter turned 4 months on Satrúrday and we celebrated this with a picnic in park with a gorgeous seaview. There were a number of lovely dishes on offer - rhubarb muffins, two dishes from David Lebovitz (pain d'epices and cheesecake brownies), an excellent local Brie, and more. One of the items we had brought were these tortilla wraps with a curried tuna and chickpea mixture. I saw the filling idea on a Swedish recipe booklet many years ago, prescribing the use of one of the ready-made dip mixtures. As I had no access to that particular product, I had to come up with my own.

Despite of the curry powder, the filling  of these tortilla wraps is surprisingly mild. But chickpeas add a lovely bite to these, and the wraps are surprisingly filling, making them an excellent choice for either a leisurely picnic in a park or for a snack after a long and exhausting walk in the wild.

Soft Tortilla Wraps with Chickpeas and Tuna
(Tortiljarullid tuunikala ja kikerhernestega)
Makes 8

8 soft wheat tortillas (medium size)
400 g canned chickpeas/garbanzo beans
200 g canned tuna fish
150-200 g sour cream or creme fraiche
2-3 tsp curry powder
salt, to taste
fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)

Rinse the chickpeas and drain; drain and flake the canned tuna.
Crush the chickpeas with a fork, mix with flaked tuna and sour cream. Season with salt and plenty of curry powder, and fresh parsley.
Spread the mixture on wheat tortillas, leaving about an inch free on all sides. Either roll up or wrap into an envelope (tuck the sides in first, then roll up).
Wrap in clingfilm or pack into a picnic container and place into the refrigerator for about 12 hours to let the flavours mingle.

On our resurrected Scrabble night some 10 days ago (after a 3-month gap since the birth of our daughter), we had this Jamie's dish on the table. Well, almost his dish, as I made several improvements to it, you see :) For the original version, see Jamie's Ministry of Food. I thought it was quite a looker, and would happily make it again. My much-less-tapenade and cherry-tomatoes-instead-of-regular-ones version, that is...

Salmon en Croûte
(Lehttainas küpsetatud lõhe- või forellifilee)
Serves 4

500 g puff pastry (I used yeast puff pastry)
600 g trout or salmon filet (skinned, if possible)
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp tapenade (I used Belazu)
a small bunch of fresh basil (just leaves)
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
150 g mozzarella cheese
1 egg, for brushing

Carefully remove all pin-bones from the fish filet. (I like to cut off the thin side of the salmon filet and use that for another dish - perhaps soup - on the following day. I think the thick part of the filet looks much more festive, plus you it's easier to cook the fish uniformly). Skin the fish, if you wish.
Roll out the pastry into a 30x40 cm rectangle, transfer into a lightly floured oven tray.
Place the fish filet on top, right in the middle. Season the fish with salt and pepper, drizzle with some olive oil.
Spread the tapenade thinly on top. Place halved cherry tomatoes, cut-side down, over the fish. Top with basil leaves (I left them whole). Finally, shred the mozzarella cheese and place on top.
Fold the pastry over the filling, leaving an opening in the middle to show off some of the filling.
Lightly whisk an egg and brush the pastry with it.

Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C/400 F oven for 30 minutes, until the fish is cooked and puff pastry lovely golden brown.

Serve warm, with some green salad.

Take note - this is the first time I've blogged about a mussel dish, as well as first time I cooked mussels. But the resulting dish was a great success, and according to everybody who tried this, the recipe is definitely worth sharing. So that's what I'm doing :)