Recipe: Cured vanilla salmon

Vanilla pods add a touch of sweetness to salmon. Photo / Michael Craig

Auckland chef Nick Honeyman demonstrated how to cure salmon using vanilla and this led to this salad.

Serves 4

400g of salmon fillets, skin off

1 Make a paste of 100g of castor sugar, 150g of plain rock salt, the zest of an orange and its juice.

2 Split a vanilla pod and scrape away the seeds, reserving them to use later. Finely chop the pod and mix this into the paste.

3 Cover the salmon fillets with the paste, gently rubbing the mix across the flesh. Place the salmon in a bowl and cover. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

4 Wash the salt off the salmon and dry.

5 Sear the salmon fillets in a non stick pan, a few moments of each side.

6 Cut the salmon into pieces and arrange on a bed of watercress, baby spinach leaves and whitlof. Add some nashi and persimmon slices for colour and crunch.

7 Mix the reserved vanilla bean seeds with 100ml of virgin olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Using a teaspoon, dress the salmon pieces with this beautiful rich oil.