Salmon and Ricotta Pancakes

James here,

gourmet tuesday was cancelled this week as I had to go away with work. Next week is cancelled as well due to holidays. So Clare gets a fortnight to conjur up her next masterpiece and prevent a Knocker backlash.

We kind of agreed to try and put something on the blog every week so as to keep some momentum. So while I appreciate many of you (39 different viewers across 3 continents!) are only checking in for Clare and Knocker’s reviews, it’s up to me, here in the outskirts of Leeds in a hotel with a power cut (I was watching Napolean Dynamite – good film) to come up with something from the past.

Salmon and Ricotta Pancakes

Last night in the hotel, when the power was working, I watched the the Channel 4 Dispatches programme, Sandwiches unwrapped. It was essentially going on about the £5bn sandwich industry and whether we are truly getting in our sandwiches what it says on the packaging and should the packaging be more explicit about some of the bad stuff in the sandwiches (amounts of fat etc). Now I don’t want to bang on about sandwiches in shops because you make your choice. In some places you pay the premium for your filling of choice (I’m sure we’ve all visited the all-day breakfast in baked bean bread after a night out) and in others you don’t chose ones with meat in, because you can’t trust the quality and hygiene. When it comes to organised buffets at events or training courses however, you don’t get the choice – or rather, you get the choice of quarter sandwiches of; cheese and pickle, tuna and mayo, ham and cheese, egg mayo, chicken and mayo, and the one that exists in no other situation - coronation chicken. Now this is of course absolutely fine. It’s sustenance to get you through your event. However, it would be nice to see a little more originality.

Such as, Salmon and Ricotta Pancake (BBC website) which is an incredibly easy and light dish, and is rather appropriate for this warm weather we’re currently having. When I made this I couldn’t find any ricotta so made it using cottage cheese instead, which probably works just as well. The combination of salmon, cottage cheese, chives and avocado is incredible and I’ve even had it with jacket potatoes instead of beans and cheese! There’s next to no washing up as well and I reckon this is ideal for a cheeky showing off to guest on a Saturday lunch. Of course, you'd just need to have salmon, cottage cheese, chives and avocado in fridge so might have to think ahead in this instance.

If you're into sandwiches you might want to try these links.
British Sandwich Association
http://www.sandwichproject.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwich
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/sandwiches.html

I feel a whole lot less odd!


By the way, we’ve finally started to fix the weekly herb-buying issue by planting our own herbs in pots. It was quite an obvious solution really and thanks to the people who recommended it. I got sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano from the stall at the Ealing Jazz festival on Sunday. Great festival – especially with a cooler bag to keep the beers nice and chilled.

As I mentioned earlier, next week is cancelled due to holidays, so I’m going to try and cajole Knocker into starting his guide to London pubs that do simple food and serve a nice drop of Carling. It’s quite important that we support pubs in these difficult times, as apparently ‘nearly four pubs per day are closing’ due to the credit crunch, smoking ban and cheap booze in supermarkets. Not quite sure what ‘nearly four pubs’ means but we get the message that this is serious. By my reckoning that means that there will no pubs left in the UK by 2047. It doesn’t bear thinking about. And if everyone starts piling down the Wheaty.....well....!

That said, some pubs need a kick up the @@@@@. Went to The Black Lion on the river at Hammersmith at the weekend. Where every other pub on the river was mobbed this one was half empty. At £10 for a barbecued burger, 15 minutes to pay the bill and an automatic service charge, it’s not hard to see why. It’s a real shame as it’s a nice pub and has herbs in the garden. On another sad note, they’ve done up The Blue Anchor on the river so it's no longer a dive and looks like every other renovated pub.

And finally, ….Northern Foods has relaunched Fox’s buscuits. This is not particularly interesting in itself, but it reminded of a brilliant website http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/ Genius!

And absolutely finally.... it's fantasy football time again, so don't forget to start up a league. We quite like this one http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ and I'll be trying to defend my title again this season. Because I won it last season. Beating everyone else in my league!

Until next time.

Cheers