After a two weeks holiday visiting family in Dubai, husband is finally back. I went to pick him up on my way home from work from Heathrow. First the navigator took me to the wrong terminal, then because of my detour I got stuck behind an accident, then missed another exit and ended up in the car park of yet another wrong terminal. After paying £3.50 for the parking, I finally managed to make it to where I was supposed to be. Luckily he had been held up in customs while they tested his Gaz – Iranian pistachio nougat sweets covered with flour. The customs thought the flour might be cocaine.  

Once safely out with his stash of Gaz, my drug trafficking husband and I set off for home and while he had a long hot shower I got down to business of cooking him a nice supper. His sister had been spoiling him with amazing middle-eastern cooking for the last two weeks, so I decided not to compete.  

I have some amazing Finnish smoked salmon in the freezer from my last visit. You can get lovely smoked salmon here of course, but this is slightly different. Somehow I find the Finnish salmon to be smokier and the texture is also a bit different, kind of harder and denser. I am not super au fait with the preparation methods, but the stuff I have is “flame cold-smoked”, maybe that’s why it really smells and tastes of the open fire. 

It is amazing just as it is on top of a buttered slice of dark rye bread with a couple of sprigs of fresh dill, but works like heaven in pasta sauces, quiches and the like.

So I sautéed some leak, scallions and courgette with lemon, dill and white wine, added some cream and sour cream, added the chopped salmon and cooked gnocchi. And served it with a simple fresh salad to a very happy husband.

Smoked Salmon and Gnocchi (for 4)

500 g gnocchi

oil

½ leek

2 scallions

1 medium courgette

1/3 cup of fresh dill

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon

1/3 cup dry white wine

½ cup of fish or vegetable stock

½ cup of single cream

2 tbsp sour cream

Salt and lemon pepper

Fresh dill to garnish

Cook the gnocchi according to the pack instructions.

Chop the leek, scallion, courgette and dill. Heat oil in a deep non stick pan, sautée leek and scallion gently for a few minutes with a pinch of salt until softened a little, add courgette, dill, wine and lemon. Let simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add vegetable stock, lemon pepper. Once the courgettes are done, add the chopped smoked salmon and the gnocchi, make sure all is piping hot, check seasoning, garnish with dill and serve with your choice of fresh salad.