Smoked salmon with horseradish crème fraiche and beetroot
An elegantly simple yet visually stunning starter. The salmon is the stand out hero of the dish; so use the best quality you can buy and local sourced if at all possible.
Ingredients (serves four)
8 slices of smoked salmon
2 large beetroot
2 teaspoons of fresh grated horseradish
400g crème fraiche
8 quails’ eggs
8 breakfast radishes
1 cucumber
Cayenne pepper
White balsamic vinegar
Parsley for garnish
Serve with blinis and caviar or brown bread and butter.
Method
– whisk the crème fraiche till thick then add the horseradish with a squeeze of lemon and a couple of pinches of cayenne pepper. Refrigerate to set.
– Cut a cylinder from both beetroots, slice thinly and marinate in warmed white balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Boil the trimmings from the beetroots, simmer until soft and purée.
– Peel and de-seed the cucumber and salt, leave in the fridge for 20min, then simply dice.
– Slice the radishes and leave to crisp in iced water.
– Boil the quails’ eggs for 2 ½ minutes, refresh in iced water before peeling and halving.
– To assemble, place two slices of the salmon on a plate and scatter the quails’ eggs, beetroot, cucumber and radishes. Dot the plate with beetroot purée and generous amounts of the horseradish crème fraiche.
