Salmon in Blankets

Ingredients:

• Salmon

• Fennel seeds

• Streaky bacon

• Butter

Method:

Cut the salmon into bite sized chunks.

Put some fennel seeds on a plate and roll the salmon in the seeds, coating all sides.

Wrap a rasher of bacon around each of the salmon chunks. Repeat for all your salmon.

Heat a little butter in a frying pan over a fire and add the bacon wrapped fish.

Cook for 10-15 minutes, turning occasionally, until the bacon has browned and the fish is cooked through.

Alternatively cook in your oven at 200 degrees celsius.

Bacon

With a lack of refrigeration, salting would have been a preferred method of preservation and storage for the Vikings and Saxons. Though with salt being expensive, brining would have been more commonly used.

Bacon seems to have been produced in large quantities, at least by the Saxons. This recipe, while being a modern variation, makes use of ingredients that where available at the time and is based loosely on an old Yorkshire bacon cure.

Ingredients:

For the cure;

• 300g salt

• A few bay leaves

• 2 teaspoons juniper berries (crushed)

• 2 teaspoons black pepper (freshly cracked)

For the bacon:

• 1kg Pork belly

• 1 tablespoon honey

• Vinegar

Method:

The quantities given here are approximates, don’t worry too much about them being exact.

Mix together the cure ingredients.

Rub the pork belly with honey.

Add 1 handful of the cure to a food safe container, large enough to fit the pork belly.

Add the pork belly and rub the cure into the meat. Place in the fridge or somewhere cool for 24 hours.

Drain off any liquid that forms in the container and sprinkle another handful of cure over the pork. Repeat this process for 5 days.

After 5 days, rinse the pork with clean, cold water and pat dry. It should be feeling quite firm at this stage.

Rub the pork with a little vinegar and either hang somewhere cool or put it back in the fridge. Wait for a minimum of 5 days before eating.

Split pea pottage

Ingredients:

• Butter

• 6 rashers of Bacon (roughly chopped)

• 1 leek (roughly chopped)

• 2 sticks of celery (roughly chopped)

• 1.5L chicken stock (any stock will work)

• 300g Dried split peas

• Handful of wild garlic (finely 3chopped)

• 2 tsp fresh mint (roughly chopped)

Method:
Melt some butter in a large pan or cauldron.

Add the bacon and cook for a few minutes, until starting to brown. Add the leeks and celery and fry for a few minutes.

Pour in the stock and add the peas, garlic and mint.

Bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour, until reduced by a third and the peas are soft. If necessary top up with more water.

Taken from my book ‘Eat like a Viking!’ Available now on Amazon