Salmon with celeriac gratin & green beans

I am a huge fan of salmon and want to constantly incorporate more of it into my menu. So, whenever I see an interesting recipe with it I want to try it out as quickly as possible. When I flicked through my October copy of BBC Good Food magazine and saw this recipe I marked the page immediately. But as usual, it took me quite some time to get around to making it, but I can proudly say that I've made it twice already (once without the gratin) and fell further in love with the way this tastes like.

I have to admit that I'm not that keen on the celeriac gratin, but I think that the fact that this was the first time I've had celeriac in such a form might have had something to do with my opinion of it. Or maybe it's because I'm very used to eating potatoes with my salmon that I just found it slightly out of place. Nevertheless, the taste was interesting and I would definitely give it another shot when I'll make it again.

Salmon with the whole-grain mustard coating is a totally different story! I fell in love with it. I love the way the mustard adds so much flavour to the salmon and balances out its richness. Here I have to take a second and thank this blog as it is the sole reason I now eat mustard - all thanks to the honey-mustard chicken that I made to push myself further in trying to find new recipes to post. The second time I made it I used a whole chunk of salmon, rather than individual fillets, and my dad who usually doesn't eat salmon at all helped himself to a second portion!

If you leave aside the celeriac gratin, this dish is very easy and quick to cook and requires very little preparation. And even if you make it with the gratin, one of the beauties of it is the fact that you put it in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes and then can do other things in the meantime. So, if you want to try out an amazing new way of cooking salmon and want something tasty, filling and warming, this is definitely something to try.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)
- 400g celeriac, peeled
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1/2 chicken stock cube
- Fresh thyme
- Grated nutmeg
- 2 salmon fillets
- 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 250g green beans

Directions
Heat the oven to 180C fan/200C. Slice the celeriac as thinly as you can and find a baking dish that would fit all of it in. Add a layer of celeriac, sprinkle with garlic, thyme and seasoning and repeat the layers finishing on a celeriac layer. Mix the stock cube with 230ml of boiling water, season with nutmeg and pour over the celeriac. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

When the gratin has 15 minutes to go, place the salmon on a baking sheet, cover with mustard (add some salt and pepper if you wish - I find that mustard on it's own is enough) and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the green beans. When everything is ready, arrange on a plate and enjoy!

Recipe from BBC Good Food magazine October 2013