Potato Porringer with Tomato-Salmon Filling
Ingredients
- 2 large potatoes, suitable for mashing
- 2 t oil
- 1 T minced garlic
- 1/3 c minced onion
- 1 T tomato paste
- 400 g crushed tomatoes
- 1/4 c zucchini
- 1/2 c shrimp or seafood broth or stock
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
- 100 g salmon
- 2 slices lemon
- 1 t oil
- 1 t butter
- 100 g bacon
- 1/2 t cornstarch
- 1 T seafood or fish broth or stock
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
- 1/2 t onion powder
- 1/2 t garlic powder
- 1 t sage
- 1 T mixed herbs, dried
- butter, as needed
- 1/2 c shredded cheese
Method
1. Clean and stab your potatoes. Place them in the oven at 400F and bake until done, usually 1 to 1.5 hours, until they feel slightly soft when groped.
2. Once your potatoes are in the oven, start your tomato sauce: Put oil in a pot, heat over medium or medium high heat until the oil runs freely. Then add garlic and onion, stirring constantly, cook for 1-2 minutes, until they are fragrant. Add the tomato paste, continue stirring constantly, and cook for a further minute (to ease the bitterness). Dump in the crushed tomatoes (you need one can, about 15 oz), stir to combine. Then add the zucchini, broth/stock, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine. Lower heat to simmer.
3. Simmer the tomato mixture uncovered until the potatoes are done. Stir occasionally.
4. Remove the bones from the salmon fillet and place in a baking dish. Place the lemon slices over it. Bake in the oven (which is still on at 400F) until done (it will flake easily with a fork). Depending on thickness, this could be 15 to 30 minutes. When done, break it apart into flakes and set aside.
5. While the salmon is baking, cook the bacon on the stove in a little oil and butter. (The butter will help brown it; the oil will raise the smoke point of the butter, which is rather low). When done, set aside to drain.
6. When the potatoes are finished, remove from oven. Lower oven to 350F. Leave the potatoes until they're just cool enough to handle.
7. If the tomato mixture has not yet thickened to desired thickness, mix together cornstarch and broth (or water if you don't have anymore broth to hand) to form a slurry, then add it to the tomato mixture.
8. Slice a long edge off the potato and scoop the innards out of the large piece, leaving about 1/2" depth of potato all the way around, giving yourself a nice bowl. Place potato innards in a large bowl. Do this for both potatoes. Set aside.
9. If you like skin in your mashed potatoes, roughly chop the remaining small potato pieces and toss them in the bowl with the rest of the potato innards; if you don't like skin, hollow out the small pieces and discard the skins. Crumble the bacon, and add it to the potato, as well as your preferred seasonings. We use salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, sage, and mixed herbs, shredded Red Leicester cheese, and if needed, butter. Set mashed potatoes aside.
10. Toss salmon into tomato mixture, stir to combine. Fill hollowed potato pieces with tomato mixture, and top with mashed potatoes. Place in a baking dish and heat through in oven for 20 minutes.
11. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
*SJ Notes 26 July 2009: I will plan to make the entire filling, use half that night, and freeze half for another night. If you want to make this for four people, just use four potatoes instead of two. And I haven't completely decided whether this should be an entree or a side dish; it's not substantial enough to be had by itself, like chicken pot pie, unless you have two, I guess. The next time I make it, I'll definitely add plenty of herbs to the tomato mixture: dried herbs at the beginning, and fresh chopped herbs just before filling the potatoes.