Salmon & Potato Bake

A hearty dish for the household, Salmon & Potato Bake combines good carbs and protein plus helps empty the fridge of some pesky leftovers.

Salmon: Yes you can used tinned salmon, but if your budget stretches, treat yourself to fresh salmon. Rich and flavour, a little goes a long way. When buying fresh at your local fish or deli counter I would suggest picking fillet ‘steaks’ rather than a ‘side'(which while it represent good value in some instances, will be too much for this dish AND likely to be packed full of bones). Once home, it’s good practice to search for and pull out any stray bones before cooking. You can feel them with clean fingers but running your hands up and down the flesh – they will feel like splinters. Borrow a pair of eyebrow tweasers and pull out bones in the direction they are embedded, whereby you don’t needlessly rip the fillet to smitherenes in the process.

Potatoes: Any potatoes will do. If they are ‘new potatoes’ they will have very thin skin which you can scrape off with a fingernail. These just require washing. If you have burly old spuds, they will have thick rubbery skin and these will require peeling. Any scraps, discard into the compost.

Salmon & Potato Bake

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 1kg potatoes
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion, finely diced
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 2 handfuls of baby spinach
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (mashed cooked pumpkin)
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1/2 tsp minced ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 salmon fillets, deboned and skin removed
• 1/2 cup grated cheese

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a large oven-proof casserole dish, or spray with oil.
2. Wash and prepare potatoes (peel if necessary), then slice into 3mm rounds. In a pot of boiling salted water, simmer for approximately 4 minutes. Remove from heat and drain away water. Layer half the sliced potatoes in the bottom of casserole dish.
3. In a small fry pan over medium heat, add oil and red onion. Saute for 5 minutes until soft. Take off the heat and mix through flour until the onion/oil can absorbed it all. Scatter half the onion mix over the layered potatoes.
4. Wipe down fry pan and use again, this time adding spinach and boiling water. Allow to wilt for several minutes over a medium heat. Remove from heat, drain but reserve the water (approx 1 cup), and squeeze out any excess moisture from the leaves. Layer half the cooked spinach over the potato/onion layer.
5. Crumble the vegetable stock cube into pumpkin puree and add the reserved 1 cup of spinach water. Combine well. Add ginger, salt and ricotta. Layer half of the mix over the potato/onion/spinach.
6. Slice fresh salmon into small bite-sized chunks and add to the oven dish.
7. Repeat another layer with the remaining potato slices, onion mix, spinach and pumpkin mix. Top with grated cheese and bake for 35 minutes until golden brown.