Teddy Bears Picnic

You may remember the last time we cooked this delicious maple syrup marinated salmon. It was served with mini tarts and you can find the recipe here Salmon.
This time we decided to serve it with pasta but we stuck with the lime oil roasted tomatoes as they are an excellent side kick cutting through the rich thuggish nature of the salmon.
Farmed salmon is a very ecologically sound fish to eat. They are purpose bred for us to eat and the resource footprint is small (much more guilt free than eating snapper or john dory).



Salmon fillets
Maple syrup
Tomatoes
Lime oil
2 courgettes (zucchini) grated
4 cloves of garlic minced
Spaghetti
Salt & pepper

Take a piece of salmon per person. 150g/5OZ is plenty as this fish is very rich (the fillet in the photo was over 200g/7OZ and was too much). Marinate in 1 tablespoon of maple syrup per piece for at least an hour.
The thing to get on first is the slow roasted tomatoes, simply slice in half and place on a baking paper lined oven tray. Grind black pepper over them and sprinkle a little lime oil over (go easy with the lime oil it has a very strong flavour). Place in your oven at 160C/320F and roast for at least an hour (till almost collapsing).
When the tomatoes are approx 15 mins away from being ready start your pasta and your salmon.
Pan fry the salmon with a little spray oil to sear and brown it and then place in the oven with the tomatoes for approx 10 mins.
Cook your spaghetti. While these are cooking take the courgette (zucchini) and the minced garlic and cook down in a little spray oil with salt and pepper until it is almost pesto like in its mushy goodness.
Drain the pasta and add the courgette and garlic to it, mix well. Serve as per photograph. Ignore the few rocket leaves in the picture. We were originally going to serve it with rocket but decided against it after we found the leaves were not looking to healthy.
I thought I would just let you in on a little secret while I'm about it. I have used all kinds of garlic presses and mincers and up until recently have never used or owned one that really worked well. A few months ago I bought one of these. It is the Tupperware garlic press and is not only an excellent piece of design aesthetically but functionally it is near perfect. No more chopping up garlic for me, I highly recommend it (you have to love that lifetime guarantee).