Salmon with Parsnip Purée

Mr. P is picky about fish. From experience I know that if it's got any bones in it he will agonise over every mouthful and this doesn't make for a happy meal for either of us. Luckily he has no qualms about eating salmon and I am able to buy wild salmon here at a reasonable price. Therefore I am always on the lookout for tasty and innovative ways to serve this wonderfully versatile fish to make sure it's often on the menu.

Nigella has a couple of recipes that we like very much. The Salmon Kebabs with Pomegranate Molasses and Honey from Forever Summer that I make using whole salmon fillets, and from How to Eat there's Exceptional Salmon, the one with bacon that she did in Fast Food from the first Nigella Bites series, and Sugar-Spiced Salmon with Chinese Hot Mustard, a gem of a recipe that is all but overlooked unless you are carefully searching for it ... all very tasty and easy to do.

Flicking through my recently received copy of delicious. 5 of the Best by Valli Little, I came upon this recipe that appealed to me immediately because I had some parsnips sitting in the refrigerator that I'd been wondering what to do with. Also all around us are beautiful orange groves, the trees laden with fruit that is just dropping to the ground and spoiling as nobody knows what to do with such bounty. I mean there is only so much fresh orange juice anyone can imbibe no matter how healthy it is. So with basket in hand, and small dog by my side, I went off to harvest some ... with the permission of the owner of course.

This was an absolutely delicious combination of flavours! A fabulous light meal and, in fact, you don't even really notice that there is no carbohydrate, the puréed parsnips are so yummy! I had salmon fillets of exactly 125g each, which for us could have been a bit bigger ... maybe 200g. Definitely a keeper recipe and something nice for an informal dinner party if you don't mind having to do a bit in the kitchen between courses. With my adaption of the procedure, see Cook's note below, it becomes a doddle to have everything prepped in advance.

Salmon with Parsnip Purée
Serves 6

• 500ml orange juice
• 800g parsnips
• 90g butter
• 1 heaped tsp grated orange rind
• 80ml single cream
• 2 tsp sumac
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 6 salmon fillets about 125g each
• 20ml light olive oil
• 125ml white wine
• 3 oranges, segmented
• 2 heaped tbsp chopped fresh chives

Note: Australian tablespoons are 20ml.

Preheat oven to 160ºC/325ºF/gas mark 3. Heat the orange juice over a high heat; boil for 5-6 minutes, until reduced to 100ml. Set aside.

Cook the parsnips in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until soft, drain and cool slightly. Transfer to a food processor and add salt, pepper, 75g of the butter, the orange rind and cream, and whiz until it forms a smooth purée. Set aside in a warm place.

Combine the sumac and flour on a piece of non-stick baking paper and season generously with salt and pepper. Dip the skinless side of the salmon fillets in the spice mixture to coat (mine were skinless and I actually rolled the fillets in the mixture and coated them all over). Heat the remaining butter and oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the salmon, seasoned-side down, and cook for 1 minute. Turn and cook for another minute. Transfer to a baking tray and place in the oven for 5-6 minutes. Add wine to the orange juice and cook over a high heat for about 5 minutes until reduced by half. Add the orange segments and heat through. Stir in the chives. Put a generous serving of parsnip purée on each plate, top with a piece of salmon and drizzle with the sauce.

Cook's note: I prepared the sauce in advance, reducing the orange juice, adding the wine and reducing again, then adding the orange segments to let them absorb all that concentrated goodness. When I was ready to cook the fish I just needed to carefully reheat it adding the chives. This meant that I cooked the fish in the pan without resorting to heating the oven. I found 2 minutes per side was sufficient. Quite a bit less faffing around to my mind!