It’s Friday Night…

…let’s eat pan-fried salmon and roasted pumpkin! Well, that’s what we’re having anyway. Are you excited? I am.

The marinade I made for the salmon fillets is a riff on a recipe I originally got from God knows where; I’d give you a source but it has escaped my memory. I’m getting older and it shows. For two salmon fillets, stir together 2.5 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 to 1.5 teaspoons agave syrup (you can substitute honey if you like.) Feel free to adjust the quantities of soy sauce vs. agave syrup depending on whether you’d like the end result to be more sweet or more savoury. Coat the fillets and leave to marinate for 1 hour in the fridge (or 30 minutes if you’re feeling rushed or greedy, or both, but the longer the salmon gets to soak, the more intense the flavours. As if you didn’t realize this.)

The pumpkin I used today is the Hokaido variety; the supermarkets are full of these now. Chop up your pumpkin into manageable chunks, (I used half of one Hokaido as I was also making roast potatoes), spread evenly in a baking dish of your choice, brush with a bit of olive oil, grate over a bit of nutmeg, pepper and salt, and throw those babies in the oven (I meant “place gently”.) Our oven is a bit off and takes ages to get going, but in the end 40 minutes at 220C was perfect, just make sure to check regularly–cooking times can vary. When your pumpkin is done or close to it, pan-fry the salmon together with the marinade using a little splash of olive or rapeseed oil (you won’t need much as the marinade will help prevent things from sticking.)We had roast potatoes too but you really don’t need them; the pumpkin and salmon combo is perfectly satisfying on its own. Especially if you pair with a nice glass of wine.

In other news, Poppy is under the impression that the planting season is not over:

Apparently the sunshine on this picture is an indication of the weekend weather to come. This bodes very well for the fleamarket tomorrow, fingers crossed. Happy Friday!