Salmon Tartare on Green Olive Crostini-Parmesan Wafers

Its time I lost some weight, which is very difficult when living on the boat.
It’s always aperitif pre-lunch, wine with lunch, pre-dinner drinks and wine with dinner and this is 7 days a week.
We have just been on the boat for 8 weeks. Do the math!
Plus the salt sea air stimulates the appetite. (That’s my excuse for greed)

I was lucky enough to be given a pile of cookbooks from a good friend.
I was browsing through Mario Batali’s “Simple Italian Food.”
The food was very mouth watering I only got as far as the Antipasti
and I thought, why not have a week of eating Italian….Cut down on the wine and with all of this healthy food the pounds might just fall off.

Off I went to the supermarket to buy the ingredients…Bruschetta for lunch and various fish, meats, pasta and salad for dinner.

So Monday
Salmon Tartare on Green Olive Crostini
This serves 4

1 tablespoon capers rinsed and drained
Juice and zest of I lemon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
2 tablespoon black mustard seeds (I could only get yellow)
Check out about mustards seeds here.

8 oz Salmon filet, skin and bones removed
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
8 1/4 inch thick slices of Baguette or sour dough bread
toasted in oven 200C for about 4 minutes

1/4cup green olive pesto see below
2 scallions thinly sliced on diagonal for garnish

Pesto

1 1/2 cups large green olives pitted
1/2 re4 onion chopped
1/4 cup Pine Nuts
1 clove garlic thinly sliced
1/2 extra virgin olive oil approx

In a food processor
Combine olives, onion, pine nuts and garlic
Blend for 1 minute
With motor running slowly add the olive oil until it forms a paste

Allow to stand at least 1/2 hour before using


Now the salmon

In a blender combine capers, lemon juice and zest, olive oil, mustard and 1 tablespoon of mustard seeds for about 1 minute

Dice the salmon into 1/4 inch dice and place in large mixing bowl
Add caper mixture and stir to mix well
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper
(I found it didn’t need salt, so be careful)

Spread each piece of bread with 1 1/2 teaspoon pesto
Top with 2 tablespoon of salmon mixture
Garnish with scallion slices and mustard seeds.

So Day One Lunch

Keeping with the Italian theme, my friend Debbie arrived on Saturday, complete with a lovely bunch of fresh produce from her garden. Look at those herbs and courgettes


I needed to make a contribution to family dinner on Sunday and these little
Parmesan Basil and Lemon Wafers
inspired by Giada de Laurentiis were a great opportunity to continue use the fabulous fresh herbs.

So so simple this one.
Heat oven to 200C
Prepare oven tray with sheet of baking paper or a silcon sheet if you have one

1 cup finely grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons finely sliced basil
½ tablespoons grated lemon zest
Good grind of freshly ground black pepper
Mix together

Put onto tray in dessertspoonfuls
It makes 10-12
Bake for 3-5 minutes until golden and crisp
Don’t try and move from the tray till they cool
They are very hot little numbers

Serve with drinks…everyone loved them at family dinner.

I need to make a second batch for quantity and this time used the lovely fresh sage.

The lemon flavour really came through and both were equally successful.

A quick and easy canape.