Smoked salmon with fennel salad

Serves 4

Smoked salmon has many uses apart from the classic thinly sliced version with its accompaniments. I quite like the way they serve it in Russia, where the prime centre cut is thickly sliced vertically. It's called fillet Tolstoy or Balik salmon and it really gives smoked salmon a new meaning.

Smoked salmon has many uses apart from the classic thinly sliced version with its accompaniments. I quite like the way they serve it in Russia, where the prime centre cut is thickly sliced vertically. It's called fillet Tolstoy or Balik salmon and it really gives smoked salmon a new meaning.

You can find it ready trimmed in specialist shops or you can just trim the tail and belly part away from a normal side of smoked salmon and use the other flesh for smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, a mousse, pâté or sandwiches.

You can serve this style of smoked salmon on its own, or with an accompaniment like this refreshing fennel salad.

300g centre-cut smoked salmon
1 fennel bulb
1tbsp chardonnay vinegar or a good-quality white wine vinegar
1/2-1tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground

Remove any green fern from the fennel and then chop it. Using a mandolin - or, if you don't have one of those, a very sharp knife - quarter the fennel bulb, cut away the root and shred it as finely as possible.

Mix the shredded fennel with the fern, vinegar and oil and season it. Leave for 1 hour, giving it an occasional stir.

Finally, slice the salmon vertically into slices, about 3/4cm thick, and arrange on a plate with the fennel.