Parsley Butter

A very quick one - just wanted to share. Saturday night I'd been planning to make a steamed marinated salmon dish but when I looked more closely at the recipe - after having bought the ingredients, obviously - I realised it involved marinating the fish for 24 hours in citrus juice which would probably ruin the fish. Would certainly 'cook' it before it came anywhere near heat. So I opted for ultra simple instead. Pan fried the fish skin side down for a crisp crust, then finished it for a couple of minutes in the oven. Steamed broccoli and potatoes to go with and made a simple parsley butter to make the plate special.

The trick with this is that you really want to end up with parsley flecked with butter rather than the other way round for a really intense fresh burst of flavour.

Parsley butter

2 tablespoons roughly choppped flat leaf parsley

20g unsalted butter

Dash lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Put the parsley, butter and seasoning into a pestle bowl and grind till you have a bright green emulsion. Add about half a teaspoon of lemon juice and mix again till it is incorporated.

That's it. Brilliant with the fish would also work a treat with steak or lentils or even melted atop a plain omelette.