salmon with silverbeet coconut rice

Salmon is a favourite in our household, particularly Atlantic Salmon, which seems to be available all year round in Sydney (as are Ocean Trouts).  Oozing with omega-3 and vitamin D, and so easy to make.  A bit of salt and pepper, a few minutes each side on the pan, and done!  

The challenge is finding a side to accompany complement it and round out the food pyramid; i.e. some veg and starch.  Rice and some kind of soft, wilt-able greens came to mind. While plain rice and fresh salad would have worked find, I wanted something different. And I wanted to integrate (sneak in) the greens with the rice for two preschoolers who will be at dinner.  Coconut-flavoured rice also came prominently to mind, thus, 'tis was how this rice dish was born. 

Silverbeet (Swiss Chard, Spinach) Coconut Rice
Ingredients
- 1 can of coconut milk (size would depend on desired fragrancy; I used a full 400ml can)
- 1 cup of rice
- 3-4 (packed) cups of freshly chopped chard (any soft greens should work)
- pinch of salt

Direction
1)  Add coconut milk and water to pan, to a total volume of ~700ml.  Add a pinch of salt. Bring to boil. 
2)  Add rice, stirring until boiling point is reached again (this prevents the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot).  Reduce heat to low and simmer, covering, for 15 mins. 
3)  Increase to medium heat.  Stir in greens, one cup at a time. Keep stirring untill all greens are incorporated.  Turn off heat and replace lid.  Let stand for at least 5 mins. 

salmon and cucumber filo

After several disappointments, we recently decided to join yet another CSA: Nevermore Farm.  Two things that set this one apart from the others were: (1) it was recommended by a friend, and (2) they were amazingly obliging! One of our problems with CSAs in the past was that we often get way more veggies than we can consume. But Nevermore was able to fulfill our requests of a delivery only once every two weeks and for each box to have a higher fruit to veggie ratio (it is much easier to snack on fruits than veggies!)!! We received our first box last Thursday and we were very satisfied =)
One of the intriguing ingredients that came with the box was two funny looking cucurbits. Several Google image searches suggested they could be Armenian cucumbers.  Neither of us are really cucumber fans and despite cyberspace's positive opinions, we failed to see their uniqueness... However, not one to waste food, we decided to make something out of it, and this is when I came across this recipe: Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Nest. As with most other recipes I find, I modified it based on what I had at home at the time.  Although I don't know how the original recipe would have tasted, I quite enjoyed my version ;-)  I especially like this recipe because (1) it was dead easy to make (meaning I was not grumpy to cook after a long day's work), and (2) it was healthy!

ingredients

1/2 can ~15oz (425g) pink salmon in brine (we made two meals out of this can)

2 sheets of filo pastry

1 cup of coarsely grated cucumber

1/4 cup crumbed feta cheese

Melted butter

procedure

1.  Prepare filling: Using a fork, shred the salmon. Squeeze out as much water as you can from the grated cucumber. Combine and mix well the salmon, cucumber, and cheese.  

2.  Prepare the "nest": Cut the sheets in half to make four sheets. Stack the four sheets on top of each other, brushing each layer with melted butter. Divide (cut with a sharp knife) the stacked sheets into six equal sized rectangles, each large enough to fit into your muffin tins. Gently pressed them into six holes of your muffin pan; they should be like cupcake cups. Bake until slightly golden at temperature according to the filo manufacturer's directions

3.  Take the slightly golden filo cups out of the oven and fill each cup with the salmon and cucumber mixture. Return to oven and bake for another 3-6mins or until filo has reached desired browness. ( Alternatively, one could bake the filo cups until done, fill the cups with the mixture and serve without rebaking. )

4.  Gently remove from muffin tin and serve immediately. 

Enjoy.