Marine Harvest Kitchen Theatre at Scotland’s Salmon Festival.
Marine Harvest, Scotland longest established salmon farming company hooked up with five talented Scottish chefs in the Kitchen Theatre at this year’s Scotland’s Salmon Festival to demonstrate a range of healthy and nutritious Scottish salmon dishes.
I was delighted to be there with the chefs, chatting about their dishes and of course the top quality Scottish Salmon being used in the demonstrations.
The country’s no 1 food export proved that it was a the ideal healthy quick cook ingredient for mid week family meals with chefs demonstrating the versatility of salmon in a range of different dishes and cuisines.
With salmon being hailed as the ultimate healthy fast food, the chefs delivered range of quick easy and exciting meals for family dining, along with a few more simple but impressive dishes for special occasions.
Tomatin Whisky and tonic cured salmon prepared by Chef Chris Bond took inspiration from the Distillery’s, Tomatin and Tonic, a twist on a gin and tonic, using whisky instead of gin.
Combining salmon with lemon, dill and a few aromatics produced a stunning and elegant dish; perfect as a starter or a light lunch.
Chef Mark Heirs used Loch Ness gin to cure salmon for his Gin cured salmon with a warm beetroot salad and again, produced a salmon dish that showed the elegance of a whole salmon side as a centre piece for a special meal.
Mark was also keen to demonstrate the versatility of salmon for quick and healthy mid week family meals, all guaranteed to be on the table in less than 20 minutes.
These included, salmon with chorizo and lentil stew and salmon and tomato stew with fennel salad.
Quick and easy to prepare was also the theme for Inverness chef, Alfie Little’s dishes.
His roast salmon with a spicy broth and salmon and seafood in a bag were both cooked up in under 20 minutes again endorsing salmon’s well earned label of the ultimate fast food and demonstrating its versatility with different ingredients and flavours.
MacDonald Hotels chefs, Kat Wardrope and Ed Blackhall brought a touch of culinary elegance to the table with two showstopper salmon dishes.
Impress your dinner guests by cooking Kat’s vibrant salmon, beetroot buckwheat, smoked beetroot and lime crisp. The dish has a few elements that can be cooked ahead, meaning less time slaving in the kitchen and more time to relax.
Ed’s showstopper, salmon, pickled walnut crust, samphire, salmon roe, Pernod scented cucumber gazpacho and beetroot crisps, was equally impresssive with the gazpacho bringing the freshness of summer flavours to the dish.
Food loving locals were given lots of tips including how to get that crispy, crunchy skin when cooking salmon and advice on the best pans to use when cooking salmon at home – stainless steel or non stick? With a range of top quality non stick pans provided by Stellar Kitchenware and Judge Cookware being put to the test by the chefs, the Stellar Rock Titanium pans and Stellar Radiant were clear winners.
Scottish rapeseed oil producer, Summer Harvest Oils generously provided their cold pressed oil for the demonstrations and all chefs agreed that using Scottish rapeseed oil was the perfect choice for pan frying salmon.
Download the Marine Harvest Recipe App for fantastic Scottish salmon recipes including some of those cooked in the Marine Harvest Kitchen Theatre.