Hot Smoked Salmon Bruschetta

I wish I did spend all my time nipping round farmers markets and picking choice hand grown vegetables and rare breed meat but unfortunately I don't  I tend to buy the majority of my food, like most people, from Tescos, Sainsburys, M&S or suchlike. But that's not all that bad and one thing that seems to have slowly risen to prominance on the poorly stocked shelves of the supermarket fish counter is the hot smoked salmon fillet. It's become something of a regular on our shopping list (or Chopin Liszt as we so amusingly call it when in humorous mood),

Tonight demanded a nice quick and fresh meal as it's so lovely outside and the sun is setting ever later. Hordes of swifts are swarming in the skies above Bedford, returning as every year with their little cries of relentless energy. The atmosphere cries out for fresh, simple and tasty meals to match the season and complement the lift of late spring.

First off finely chop some peppers and onion and add to a pan to cook slowly while popping the oven on to heat up to 200 degrees. The onions and peppers I used slowly and gently caramelised but to be honest you can do them for as long as you want. Short and sharp they'll be a bit more crisp and long and slow they'll be soft and sweet. Either will be very suitable here.If caremelising, it's worth just adding a dash of water to the pan every so often to prevent oxidisation on the surface of the peppers. Whatever you do though, don't season them while cooking, this will drive the water out and dry them too much. Seasoning them once cooked is much nicer as you get the flavour and moisture within with a salty crunch outside.

While these vegetables are softening get a little bit of cucumber, maybe a quarter of one per two people and slice off the outer skin then slice the remaining inner flesh thinly. Take these slices and pop into a bowl and soak them in white wine vinegar and leave to one side. Cucumber in vinegar is something of a family favorite side dish to salmon that will always be reminiscent of my youth. The absolute master of adding acidity to cucumber slices is my father but here we'll use it in a slightly different way which will become apparent later on.

Once the oven is hot, take a nice cheap, non farmers maket, plastic wrapped, par-baked baguette or ciabatta. Slice it in half and pop on a baking tray to expose a sliced side upwards on the tray. At the same time take a couple of our friend Mr Tesco's hot smoked salmon fillets and pop into the oven with the bread. They'll both take about ten minutes.

The last thing to do with our vegetables is add a little herbal flavour. I rather like the french approach to take a bunch of fresh herbs and add variety of flavour but concentrate of the key herb you want to push to the front of your dish. I used a big bunch of parsley and a similarly large amount of thyme. It was a citrus thyme but not a true lemon thyme which can be over-powering somteimes. A little bit of sage and a handful of chervil was added to the mix then chopped up and added to soften into the onion and pepper mix, with the heat turned off, preserving the flavour. This is a great way to add herbs, just add into a sauce or dish when you turn the heat off. It leaves enough temperature to wilt the leaves and make a homogenous mixture but not too much to take the flavour away. Herbs like parsley, chervil or tarragon will lose the vast majority of flavour within minutes of being cooked. Chervil in particular hates being cooked but is such a lovely delicate and rare flavour that I can only imagine has fallen out of favour with kitchens because people just kill it off all too easily.

Ten minutes in and we're ready to go. Plating up is easy: Take a couple of half breads on the plate. Spoon the caremelised peppers and onion onto the bread. Then place the salmon fillet onto the top. Finally, take our vinegary cucumber slices and strain the excess vinegar off them. Lay the slices on the salmon then  top with some fresh leaves.

Finally drizzle some olive oil over the dish. Use a good olive oil of course. I've been using a nice Olive oil with a gimmick that I bought from my local Italian shop. I t's wrapped in gold foil to prevent oxidisation by sunlight!

You'll hopefully find that when you slice in, to eat the dish, you've made a dressing with the oil and the vinegar that's soaked into the cucumber. The only difference being that the acidity that is there presents itself on the bite rather than the tongue. This makes for an extra little bit of zing and excitement to our supermarket summer supper......