It’s easy to forget that summer’s rhubarb can be as lovely in savoury dishes as sweet ones. In this salad with cucumber and a sweet honey marinade it is the perfect foil for oily fish such as mackerel or - as here - salmon. In the time it takes the salmon to roast I would boil some new potatoes too, to serve alongside.
Servings - 4
3 ridge cucumbers, approx 400g
150g trimmed but unpeeled rhubarb, the pinker and thinner the stalks the better
4 large spring onions
75ml white wine vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp sumac
1 tbsp olive oil
4 salmon fillets, approx 150g each
leaves from 6 sprigs each of tarragon and mint
1 tbsp capers, rinsed
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Cut the cucumbers in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds, then chop down the lengths of the cucumbers at angles to end up with small, angular chunks. Slice across the rhubarb very thinly. Slice the spring onions thinly lengthways. Toss the cucumber, rhubarb and spring onion pieces together in a bowl. Mix the vinegar, salt, honey and sumac. Pour that over the bowl of cucumber etc, and toss round. Set aside while you roast the salmon, giving it the occasional mix.
Season the salmon. Get the oil hot in a large frying pan and lay the fillets in skin-side up. Leave them for 3 mins to sear, then turn them over and put the pan into the oven for 20 mins for the fillets to cook through. (25 mins if the fillets are thick.) Once cooked, set the salmon fillets aside to cool a little.
Chop together the tarragon, mint and capers. Spoon the salad onto a serving plate or individual plates. Scatter over half of the chopped herb and caper mix. Flake the salmon over or around the salad. Pour over any salad marinade left behind in the bowl, scatter over the rest of the herb and capers, give it a good grinding of pepper, and serve.
(This recipe originally featured for Borough Market.)