This pretty dish belies the simplicity of making it. Salmon is lightly cooked to avoid dryness then lavishly coated with finely snipped chives. It’s served with trendy maftoul or giant cous cous mixed with crumbled feta cheese and chunks of avocado. With lemon juice and a swirl of olive oil, it’s a beguiling mix of salty, creamy, tangy and lemony that goes extremely well with the nutty cereal. Asparagus or green beans would go well with this.
Serves 4
Prep 20 min
Cook 15 min
Ingredients
Method
Heat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Bring the stock to the boil. Add the maftoul. Simmer gently, partially covered, for 15 min. Turn off the heat and leave, covered, to plump and absorb remaining liquid. Lightly oil the salmon, add a squeeze of lemon, season with salt and pepper and arrange skin-side up in a small foil-lined baking tin. Roast for 12-15 min, depending on the thickness of the fillets, until the fish is just cooked – have a feel around with the point of a sharp knife, it should slide through but the inside still be pink. Meanwhile, finely slice the chives. Run a knife round the length of the avos, twist apart, remove the stone, dice in the shell. Tip the plump maftoul into a bowl, add chunkily crumbled feta, 1 tbsp lemon juice, the avo and 1 tbsp olive oil. Deftly remove the fish skin, smear with juices then lift onto warmed plates or a platter. Cover with snipped chives. Add remaining chives to maftoul, lightly toss and tumble next to the fish.
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