Dinner Party Ideas #1 Easy Salmon and Roast Potatoes

This recipe is a useful, quick, yet impressive piece for a dinner party or just something a little fancy for a treat. Really quick to make and can be done in advance, just give it a little panache when serving and you can enjoy you're own party without being glued to the oven.

What you will need: Serves 4

• 4 salmon steaks (1 per person)
• 1 lemon
• Fennel Seeds
• Sea salt
• Table salt
• Rooster potatoes (but any kind will do)
• Olive oil
• Herbs (chives or rosemary)
• Pesto
• Greek yogurt

Step 1:
The potatoes will take the longest so start with them. Chop them up into small cubes to fill an oven proof dish (the smaller the cube the faster they will cook)

Step 2:
Drizzle some olive oil over the top and sprinkle the herbs over the dish. They should take about an hour but leave some extra time in case they take a bit longer (you can always keep them warm under the grill to maintain your timings). Roast for roughly an hour at 180 degrees in a fan assisted oven.

Step 3:
Pop the potatoes in the oven and get cracking on the salmon. Line a deep baking tray with silver foil and lay the steaks on top. Leave plenty of foil as you will need it to parcel up the salmon. Cover them with lemon juice, sea salt, table salt and fennel seeds. You can do this to taste depending on how salty you like your food ( I haven't used too much, just enough to make the top crunchy). I did use a lot of fennel however because the aniseedy flavour of fennel goes really well with creamy salmon.
The salmon should take about 30 minutes (but leave some extra time as you can always keep things warm), however more than 45 minutes and it may dry out.
Put the salmon in the oven 30 minutes after the potatoes so they're ready at the same time.

Step 4:
Parcel up your salmon so that no liquid escapes. The idea is that the salmon cooks in its own fat to make it really light and infuse the other flavours.

Step 5:
Whilst the salmon is cooking whip up the sauce, all you do is mix pesto with Greek yogurt (or cream cheese, sour cream or any combination or the above). For a dinner party you may want to do one light pesto and one heavy pesto to accommodate people's tastes.

I also whipped up a quick green salad to have on the side...

Step 6:
Take everything out the oven and have a look. If the salmon looks nice and pale pink and the spuds golden, you're all done!

Step 7:
Serving with panache. Make a bed of potatoes and balance your salmon steak on top so it looks proper fancy. Drizzle some sauce over the top and serve up to suitably impressed guests. Some nice white wine will go very well.

Hope this recipe was helpful for anyone planning a dinner party in the near future.
Thanks for reading!