TV chef Valentine Warner became a friend the Peter’s Yard team back in 2008. He remains a fan to this day listing us as one of his favourite suppliers.
This year he’s been working with us to create a series of simple and delicious Swedish inspired toppings to serve on our crispbread. Drawing on his love of seasonal ingredients and the simple idea of the Scandinavian open sandwich, Val has created four recipes that taste as good as they look.
Serves 4
This topping serves four using one very large Peter’s Yard crispbread, which can be cut with a sharp knife to serve. Alternatively serve on four individual standard size crispbreads.
Ingredients:
- ½ a large cucumber, skinned and very thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon of flaked sea salt
- 3 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 ½ tsp caster sugar
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp crème fraiche
- 2 tbsp very finely chopped chervil (or parsley)
- Zest from one lemon
- 1 small plaice filleted and skinned, cut into 4 smaller pieces
- 1 large Peter’s Yard crispbread (70g) broken up and blended to form a fine dust
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 70g butter
- 100g of cooked and peeled brown (not potted) shrimps
- ½ tbsp baby capers, drained, rinsed and drained again
- Salt
- Black pepper
Method:
- Put the cucumber slices in a colander and then sprinkle with the sea salt. Allow to drip for half an hour. Squeeze out the cucumber slices to extract the remaining water and place the cucumber in a bowl with the vinegar and sugar.
- Mix the chervil, mayonnaise and crème fraiche. Add the finely grated zest from half a lemon with a pinch of salt and put to one side.
- Dry the plaice fillets with kitchen paper. This is important to ensure that the beaten egg sticks to the fish flesh.
- Beat the eggs in a wide bowl. Pour the crispbread crumbs onto a plate and season with a little salt and lots of pepper. Dip each fillet in the egg and then roll in the crumbs until well covered.
- Melt 70g of the butter in a medium frying pan. Fry the plaice fillets until golden brown before turning and frying on the other side. Take care all the way through cooking not to burn the butter. They will need, at most, about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on kitchen paper.
- Drain all the vinegar from the cucumber slices and squeeze out any excess liquid.
- Smear a little mayonnaise mixture on the crispbread where the fish will sit. Place the fish pieces on top of the mayonnaise.
- Put a dollop of the mayonnaise mix on top of each fish fillet then place a small bundle of the cucumber on top.
- Scatter some brown shrimps and a few capers over everything.
- If you have any left, sprinkle a few whole chervil leaves on the fish.
- Divide in four and serve.
