This is an incredibly easy, incredibly quick main course to go with beetroot salad and Hasselback potatoes. There is nothing intrinsically Scandinavian about it, but the flavours of this soft-fleshed fish dredged in sweet mustard are certainly borrowed from the Swedish palate. The sweet heat evokes the almost honeyed vinegariness of certain herring marinades, or that sauce which goes with gravad-lax, but this way sharpens it, gives it a modern, less cloying edge. The sugar in which the salmon pieces are dredged helps an almost caramelly crust to form, but the acrid heat of the mustard powder undercuts any sweetness.
All I ask is that you don’t dredge the fish until the absolute moment you want to cook it, otherwise the coating will make it claggy rather than crusty.
6 x 200g skinless salmon fillets
1–2 tablespoons olive oil
2 scant tablespoons caster sugar
2 heaped tablespoons English mustard powder
Put a frying pan on the heat with a tablespoonful of oil in it. I’ve specified olive oil, but don’t use the good – extra virgin – stuff here; at this heat, it would be a complete waste.
Mix half the sugar and half the mustard powder on a plate and dunk in half of the fish fillets, first one side and then the other. Cook them on a medium to high heat – you want to hear the pan sizzle – for about 3 minutes a side.
Remove to a warmed plate and do an action replay with the remaining the oil, fish, sugar and mustard powder. The salmon should be a burnished brown without, juicily coral within. Remember, too, that the fish will continue to cook as it waits for a few minutes on the plate before anyone starts to eat it.
Serves 6.