My cousin Petal, her husband The Banker and their lovely kids are visiting us from the States. They have been out and about doing their thang and we have been away at a wedding so last night we had a relaxing meal at home together.

When thinking about what to make, we needed something quite quick to put together. We kept coming up with things that we thought were ‘American’ and what we really wanted was something sort of British if there is such a thing…

After discussing pies endlessly, we settled on Scottish Salmon as we didn’t really feel like eating a pie on a warm summer evening. We served the salmon with crushed new potatoes with brown shrimp and spring onions (we are loving these crushed potato variants)  watercress sauce and french beans – because we are francophiles or because they go well, who knows?

I’m pleased to report that it was both seasonal and British and that it barely justifies a recipe – so I’ll just canter through it as if we are chatting, if that’s ok with you?

Make the simple watercress sauce but adding plenty of roughly chopped watercress to some crème fraiche along with a little lemon juice, a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar.

Boil the potatoes in their skins in some lightly salted water, drain them well, add a little white pepper, and some chopped brown shrimps, a knob of butter and a drizzle of olive oil.

Whilst the potatoes are on to boil, also boil the green beans for about 5/6 minutes in rapidly bubbling water.

Once you have drained the potatoes and whilst the beans are finishing, season the salmon with some salt and black pepper, pain fry on a medium to high heat, skin side down, after about 2 minutes turn the salmon over and turn off the heat leaving the fish to finish cooking in the residual heat of the pan. Obviously it should be cooked to your own taste, but this method should leave it nicely pink in the middle.

Drain the beans and add a small knob of butter to them.

Assemble and serve there would have been a picture but…..having a really lovely chat we forgot about that and just tucked in – really quick and simple!