Smoked salmon on spaetzle with asparagus and a mustard sauce

I have been working on this one for quite some time, and I think it's now ready for human consumption.

(the measures are vague, but since I don't measure, anyway......)

Spaetzle is a pasta-type 'filler' from northern France/Switzerland/Germany, depending to who you talk to.

I made this for two people.

For the salmon:

2 lightly-smoked salmon fillets
2 tsp mustard with grains still in
small splash white vermouth
large splash double cream
1 tsp mustard

For the spaetzle:

100g flour
big pinch salt
1 egg
4 tbs water

For the asparagus:

Asparagus spears
boiling salted water

For the garnish, and as a sauce base:

Handful of pancetta cubes

Method:

Put the flour and salt into a bowl and break the egg in, stirring to mix. Slowly add the water, and beat for a couple of minutes until you have a smooth paste. Put the bowl into the fridge for 30 minutes to let the flour absorb the water. Coat the upper surface of the skinned salmon fillets with mustard and leave aside. Render the pancetta cubes slowly until they are just beginning to crisp and have given up most of their fat. Remove them with a slotted spoon, keeping their fat in the pan. The rest of the process should take between 10 and 15 minutes, so time accordingly. Drop the asparagus into boiling salted water for 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, retaining the water, and keeping it at a rolling boil. Heat the plates in an oven and keep the asparagus warm. Pop the salmon under a hot grill. Don't bother to turn them: they're already cured, so you're just sealing the mustardy top. Reheat the pan with the pancetta oil and throw in the vermouth, letting it sizzle for a few seconds. Stir up any sticky residue from the lardons. Add the double cream and extra mustard, stirring for a few seconds. Reduce the heat and simmer slowly while finishing the spaetzle: slowly pour the paste through a large-holed sieve or a slotted spoon (I used a potato ricer with the large holes) into the boiling asparagus water. It will break up into little pieces and will separate and float as you stir. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain through a sieve, and divide between the plates. Put a salmon fillet on the spaetzle and dress the plates with the asparagus and the sauce and sprinkle over the pancetta cubes.

This is my kind of food.

Seriously good seafood

'Masterchef, the professionals' is currently showing on BBC 2, and that always gets my imagination going. I half-designed a dish as I was shopping and it was finalised (as usual) during the preparation and cooking.

The dish could appear on a menu as 'Pan fried cod with crab cakes and asparagus'.

First, I prepared the crab cakes:

Ingredients:

• 100g cooked white crabmeat
• 1.5 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 spring onion , finely chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 egg , beaten
• 2 handfuls fresh breadcrumbs

Mix the crab, mayo, onion and parsley. Divide into 10, shape into balls (this is messy!), then dip each portion in the egg and coat in breadcrumbs. Firm up in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Prepare the sauce and asparagus: peel the bottom half of each asparagus stalk and simmer them whole, removing them from the water before they are soft. Cut the stalks in half, put the tips aside and put the bases in a blender cup. In the meantime, gently soften a finely diced shallot in butter and then add a glass of white wine. Allow to bubble and add a little fish stock/juice from the asparagus/juice from the crab meat with a good dash of double cream and some chopped tarragon. Put this mix into the blender with the asparagus bases and whizz until smooth. Check for seasoning and put aside.

Heat a knob of butter in a non-stick frying pan. Fry the crab cakes in batches until golden and remove to a side dish. Keep warm along with the plates which will be used for serving.

In the same pan that was used for the crab cakes, put the cod fillets in to brown, about 30 seconds a side.

Plate by pouring sauce on each plate, put the cod in the centre, add a few crab cakes round the edges, strew the asparagus tips over the whole thing and serve with much panache.

It took an hour from start to finish to prepare and it's one of the few dishes that I have been satisfied with at attempt number one.