A great dish that be served as an elegant appetizer, or as part of a main course accompanied with a simple mixed green salad tossed with a lemon caper vinaigrette.
Serves: 6-8, depending on parcel size. Plenty of couscous for some great leftovers.
Ingredients
For Salmon:
1/2 lb of smoked salmon, choose the center pieces as they make for better parcels
For couscous:
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 1/4 cups pearl (Israeli) couscous
1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
2 cups of coarsely chopped baby arugula
2 cups vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 pound feta, crumbled (about 1 cup)
capers for garnishing
For chive oil:
1 cup of chopped chives
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic glove
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Preparation
For the chive oil:
1. Place chopped chives and garlic into food processor and process til finely chopped.
2. Stream in olive oil
3. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4. Strain mixture into a glass bowl. Give about 30 minutes to drain.
5. Discard solids.
For the couscous:
1. Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then toast couscous, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and pale golden, 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Add broth, water and salt and bring to a simmer, covered, until liquid is absorbed, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 10 minutes.
3. Place couscous into a large glass bowl, stir to cool it down. Add 2-3 TBs. of the chive oil. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4. Add the garlic, mint, baby arugula and tomatoes.
5. Add the 1/2 cup of olive oil.
6. Add the crumbled feta.
7. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
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Nicely done on the photos Son. These are important tips and tricks.
Cheers
J
What do I think is inside?
A stripper!
I reckon only real chef can make this kind of pretty and sophisticated food.
Joe- anytime you want to drop some pearls of wisdom, please do so… pun intended =P
Steamy- ohhh…you’re so appropriately named. You know…my mom does have some cooking secrets that you’d like.
Rasa- oh please, you and steamy inspire me and have made me ruin several keyboards…Steamy, get your mind out of the gutter.
Love this idea and it looks amazing!
I am certain this must taste spectacular… reading the recipe makes me mouth water for lox! But… if I may be extremely picky, and I say this with the deepest respect, but the presentation… it looks like a solid mound of pink flesh on a plate! Maybe something on top of the packet to dress it up a little? I’ll leave it to your (much more developed than mine) palette to think of what, exactly, would work, but I was thinking creme fraiche or some of the cous cous as a teaser as to what is inside?
I’m usually not all that concerned with look, but all your platings are often so amazing that this one struck me as a little bare.
Of course, who am I to judge? It sounds delicious!
(OT: Something in the code is wigging out on my PowerBook G4 on Firefox 2.0.0.4: Every so often while I’m typing in the comments box one of the photos you posted above pops up for a ‘closer look’. If it happens on other I’ll mail you, but thought I’d let you know.)
K- I really appreciate the feedback. C, is normally there to the critic too but she was in Spain. Too bad you don’t live closer! I had tohought about the couscous as a teaser too. I like to put elements that are in the dish as a garnish, ergo, the chives. As I look at the pics now, maybe it’s the proportioning of it all. hmmm…
Interestingly, I was just speaking Jaden, over at steamykitchen.com about plating. How she has this great loose style to plating and that I tend to be more on the tight style. I’ll keep your words in mind for the next plating.
Oh yeah, the dish was excellent. I was eating the couscous as leftover all week long and if you knew me, you’d know that to be a great indicator for a great dish.
Thanks for the tangential info on the glitch. If you find any more, pass them along.
Hi, we are building our own website for selling some organic(natural)food. May I use your photo in our website?
ive done them yesterday.. i omited the mint leaves and half of the garlic and added a finely diced onion and a teaspoon sweet pepper. they were delicous and the look was de luxe
thx for the recipe!