Summer kitchen | Salmon and courgette quinotto

This week, we’ve got a lighter spin on a classic dish: it’s a risotto, except we’re using quinoa instead of rice! It’s hearty enough to be filling but still nice and fresh for the summer. This is one to pair with a white wine, especially one with good acidity.

Ingredients (4 people)

4 filets of fresh salmon

2 onions

Olive oil

2 courgettes

250g quinoa

1 glass of dry white wine

50g butter

70g grated parmesan

Juice of ½ lemon

Salt and pepper

Chives

For the vegetable stock:

1.5L water

3 carrots

3 turnips

1 stick of celery

2 onions

1 bouquet garni (a bundle of parsley, thyme and bay leaf)

Salt, pepper, cloves

Method

Begin by preparing the vegetable stock: wash the vegetables and chop them roughly without peeling (apart from the onion, of course). In a large saucepan, bring 1.5 litres of water to the boil and add the vegetables and herbs. Cover the pan and let it simmer on a low heat for at least 1 hour, until it is reduced and concentrated. Season to taste and sieve, keeping the clear stock.

In a frying pan, simmer the salmon for 5 minutes, then put to one side.

Chop the 2 onions and brown them in a frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. Cut the courgettes into small cubes and add them into the pan with the onions, browning for 4-5 minutes. Put to one side.

Sauter the quinoa quickly in a frying pan with 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Once the quinoa has browned slightly, add the white wine and cook for a few seconds. Once the wine has reduced, add a third of the hot vegetable stock, mix and leave to cook for around 10 minutes. Add the stock gradually until the quinotto has absorbed it. Just before it has finished cooking, add the salmon and courgette, along with the butter, parmesan and lemon juice. Mix well. Season to taste and sprinkle with chives.

And that’s it, dinner’s ready!

Wine pairings

With a fish dish that’s at once round, unctuous and citrusy, the best pairing will be a dry white wine. We recommend a fresh wine to complement the unctuosity of the dish such as a cuvée from the Loire (Sancerre, Muscadet, Pouilly-Fumé), a Chablis, a Riesling or maybe a Pessac-Léognan. If you’re not a fan of acidic wine, a Mâconnais, Montlouis or Vouvray would go down well with this dish, too!

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