One of the aromatics I love bringing back from the hills of Crete is fennel pollen (the tiny dried heads of wild fennel flowers) which I have heard called ‘the spice of angels’. How apt! They have a more aromatic, stronger flavour than the normal fennel seeds we buy in supermarkets and can be bought in the UK from specialist food suppliers. Here I am using them to flavour the mayonnaise. Salmon and the flavours of anise in the fennel and sweet cicely go beautifully together! However, cicely is a wild herb. If you cannot find it, it can be substituted with fennel or dill or a mixture of both.
Ingredients
Serves 2
- 2 fillets of salmon (approx. 150g each)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- A squeeze of lemon juice
For the salad
- 1 large cucumber, washed and sliced with a vegetable peeler
- 1 fennel root, finely sliced with a mandolin or a sharp knife
- 1 shallot, peeled and cut into thin rings
- A handful of sweet cicely leaves
- 50ml white wine vinegar
- 50g granulated sugar
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- A squeeze of lemon
For the fennel and sweet cicely oil
- 100g sweet cicely leaves
- 120ml sunflower oil
- A few fennel fronds taken from the fennel bulb
For the mayonnaise
- 1 egg
- 100ml olive oil
- 100ml sunflower oil
- 1 tsp mustard
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- ½ tsp fennel pollen
- A squeeze of lemon
Method
Start by making the mayonnaise which you can keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Break the egg into the jug that comes with a stick blender. Add the oils and the remaining ingredients, place the stick right over the egg and blitz until you see that the mixture is coming up the sides as a thick mayonnaise. At that point that the vinegar, oil and egg have emulsified you can stir the stick so as to incorporate everything together. Add lemon and the fennel pollen, stir, taste for seasoning and transfer to an airtight container in the fridge till needed.
For the fennel and sweet cicely oil, blanch the leaves and fronds in boiling water for 1 minute and then drop in icy water. Strain, squeeze the water out and pat dry in a clean towel. Blitz in a small processor adding the oil gradually as you increase the speed. Strain through a muslin lined sieve and transfer to a squeeze bottle. Keep in the fridge till needed.
For the salad, start by pickling the shallot and fennel bulb.
Put the vinegar, sugar, fennel seeds and 100ml of water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and take away from the heat. Drop the sliced fennel and shallot in the water and leave to cool. Transfer to a bowl, add the shaved cucumber and the sweet cicely leaves. Drizzle with the oil and a squeeze of lemon for freshness and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
To serve, place the salmon fillet on a plate, drizzle some fennel and sweet cicely oil around it, arrange some salad next to it and add a generous spoonful of the fennel mayonnaise next to it.