Lime, Chilli and Gin cured Salmon with pickled cucumber and radish, avocado and wasabi mousse, pea shoots and trout crisp

Well, I thought this was a pretty good competition entry, until I realised that it was entered by me, and I'm not a teachers pet so I had absolutely no chance whatsoever. Anyhow, I still thought it was good enough to share on here, as my family enjoyed it and i thought it was one of my nicer looking plates of food.

It may look difficult, and too chefy, but I promise you it's really easy. The salmon can be prepared ahead. And even though the pickled vegetables look complicated, there really simple. All you need is a really sharp knife and a peeler if you don't have a mandolin.

The avocado mousse is super delicious and creamy, just make sure you do it no more than an hour before, otherwise it will discolour. If your serving a lot of people it can easily be plated up before hand, if your luckier than me and have loads of bench space.
Its also be easily adaptable, swap out the salmon with sea trout if you can't find salmon. If your intolerant to dairy just take out the cream, it will be less creamier but otherwise the same. If you can't get hold of the cucumber or radishes both can easily be swapped with carrots or courgette both which could be sliced either way depending on the thickness, but since the radishes were in season i used those.

Ingredients 

For the trout:

X4 100g portions of trout

2 limes, zest

2 chillis, finely chopped

150g salt

150g sugar

150g Gin                                                           

For the pickle:

1 cucumber

100g radish

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

½ tsp sugar

¼ tsp salt

For the mousse:

1 avocado

2 tsp wasabi

1 tbsp extra thick double cream

Pea shoots

1.    Remove the skin from the trout and set aside. Thinly slice the trout.

2.    Dissolve the salt, sugar in the gin, before adding the lime and chilli. Lay the slices of trout on a tray before covering in the cure. Cover and leave to cure for 1hr (or until firm) in the fridge.

3.    Meanwhile, make the pickle by dissolving the sugar and salt in the vinegar. Finely slice the radishes and the cucumber lengthways before adding into the liquid. Leave to pickle for 1hr, stirring occasionally.

4.    When almost ready to serve, blend together the avocado and cream. Add wasabi to taste. Season.

5.    Pat the skin dry, before lightly oiling, season and place on a tray in a hot oven (190c), until golden and crisp.

6.    When ready to serve, wash the trout to remove the cure.

7.    To serve, smear the mousse on the plate, place the trout on top, roll up the cucumber and sprinkle over the radishes and pea shoots.

Simple Coconut Biscuits

This is a delicious coconut biscuit, which pairs wonderfully with the previous two desserts, but could also be a gluten free and fancy take an on Anzac biscuit. These are perfect to serve with any tropical dessert, like my passion fruit posset and my passion fruit granita. They would also be perfect with any tropical sorbet or ice cream, in place of the the typical boring and bland wafer.

These are quite obviously no lookers, but if you like coconut then there one of the best coconut biscuits you'll have (as its basically just all coconut).They also seem really healthy as its just egg white which is high in protein, and sugar... errr......maybe not! but at least they don't have butter!!

The only downside is that you have to do the Great British Bake Off pose by constantly staring into the oven until it's baked, as they can quite easily go from a lovely golden colour, to a super dark brown colour, which makes the coconut taste bitter.

These are super fragile, so be careful when you handle them. Along with either of the passion fruit desserts from my previous posts, these can be made up to 3 days ahead just kept in a airtight container, to make dinner party hosting, that little bit easier and less stressful.

Ingredients 

1 egg white 
100g desiccated coconut
1 tsp sesame seeds 
50g caster sugar

1. preheat the oven to 180c 
2. beat the egg whites until fluffy 
3. stir in the sesame seeds, sugar and coconut 
4. lay out teaspoonfuls of mixture onto a non stick lined baking trays, lightly press the mixture in rounds
5. bake for 8 mins, or until golden brown at the edges
6. take out and leave to cool slightly and "set" before moving to a cooling rack and leaving to cool completely