Dinner with Friends

The morning after

There's nothing better than hosting a dinner party (or any sort of party). Its too cold to be outside at night and due to the lack of dining space in the apartment we can't really have more than 3 guests at a time unless its a buffet style. Which is a shame as I would like to throw more parties or some themed parties. Yes, as you can tell, I love entertaining.

Baking is the easiest way to go with these things (especially in a small kitchen). There's less cleaning and your dinner can cook in the oven while you chat to your guests. I saw a Spanish baked fish recipe the other week. They used whole snappers baked on a bed of potatoes, onion, capsicum, lemon and tomatoes. I used salmon fillets (skinned and boned) since its easier to cook and doesn't everyone prefer salmon when it comes to fish? Its a really easy recipe where you can use any fish and any vegetables. I like using potatoes because they suck up all the yummy juices. I par-cooked all the vegetables to reduce the baking time. You can prepare this dish in advance and keep it in the fridge until its time to cook.

Throw in some easy sides of cous cous and a salad - you're done! I particularly like this fetta and cranberry salad because they both go well with cous cous and salmon. Throw all the baby spinach, cranberry, fetta and almond together and drizzle some balsamic vingar on top. If pomegranate was in season, I would have used that instead of the cranberries.

The dessert was the chocolate, raspberry and hazelnut cake (below) without the hazelnuts and Lindt chocolates from our guests.

Baked Salmon with Potatoes, Leek, Capsicum and Tomatoes

For 4 people

Yes, it turned out sideways again

Ingredients
3 large salmon fillets, cut in half vertically

4 potatoes sliced

half a leek, sliced finely

1 yellow capsicum, sliced finely

2 tomatoes, sliced finely

1 lemon, sliced

salt

pepper

(would be nice if you have Masterfood's lemon pepper seasoning)

Method
1. Par-boil the potatoes for 5mins.
2. Cover the bottom of the baking dish with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Layer potatoes on top.

3. Cook leeks and capsicum in a pan until soft. Layer this onto the potatoes and season.

4. When this has cooled down, place the salmon on top and sprinkle season.

5. Place tomatoes around the fish and lemon slices on the fish.

6. Bake in a 180c oven for approx 20mins (depending on the thickness and type of fish).