It won’t be long before Christmas is just around the corner. But first the third Advent comes and with it there will be a wintry salmon with homemade lemon ribbon noodles and vanilla fennel. That sounds more complicated than it is and the noodles are quick to prepare yourself. With their light, fresh lemon taste, they bring a bit of summer into this dreary winter. You can also find this dish at Kptn Cook and can check off the ingredients from the list in the supermarket.

I stood there in the kitchen and stirred everything together and while cooking thought about how it could all go together and was pretty surprised afterwards how delicious it was. Everything really went together so well and I was glad I cooked for two people again, but not having a guest and was able to feast on both portions. This dish is definitely a nice, light alternative to goose, red cabbage and dumplings, even if this classic should of course not be missing at Christmas.

Apart from the salmon and the spices, it is also a very cheap dish. When it comes to salmon, I often buy frozen fish fillets from the organic supermarket and can recommend the fillets from Follow Fish , which are not caught in the wild, but come from species-appropriate breeding. You often notice differences in quality, especially with frozen salmon fillets. But also the salmon from Deutsche See and of course fresh salmon are a great decision. Incidentally, I like to eat the skinless one, if you don’t like it that much, just buy the skinless fillets.

The ingredients for 2 people

• 2 salmon fillets (a total of 200-250 g, with or without skin)
• 1 orange
• 1 fennel (about 300 g)
• 1 lemon
• 2 eggs (size M)
• 190 g flour
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 200 ml whipped cream
• 1 dried chilli
• 1 star anise
• 2 cardamom pods
• fresh dill
• Frying fat such as ghee or clarified butter
• some flour to dust the work surface / dough
• Salt pepper

The preparation

(Duration about 50 minutes including waiting time for the pasta dough)

1. First prepare the pasta dough. To do this, rub the zest of the lemon, cut it in half and squeeze out the juice. In a bowl, mix the flour with eggs, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of lukewarm water and 1 teaspoon of salt to form a dough. Add half of the lemon zest and half of the juice to the batter. Knead everything into a smooth dough with your hands. Shape a ball and let it rest in cling film for about 30 minutes.

2. Now marinate the salmon. To do this, place the salmon in a deep plate and drizzle with about 2 – 3 tablespoons of olive oil. The dried chilli, or if you like, you can cut the fresh chilli into fine rings and crumble over the salmon. Pepper a little. Then open the cardamom and add the two capsules to the fish. Rub the peel of the orange and add some orange zest. Then add half a teaspoon of turmeric to the marinade and turn the fillets in the oil with the spices so that all sides are nicely marinated. Add the star anise. Set the fish aside.

3. Remove the peel and white skin from the orange with the knife. To do this, cut off the ends of the orange with a knife, place it on a board and generously remove the peel from above. Simply peeling with your hands is not enough. Then fillet the orange. To do this, separate the fillets on the right and left of the side walls with a sharp knife. Set the fillets aside in a small bowl. Squeeze the remainder over the bowl and collect the orange juice in it.

4. Wash the fennel and cut in half. Then remove the stalk and cut the fennel into fine strips. Halve the vanilla pod and scrape out the pulp with the back of a knife. Heat a larger pan. Just a little oil or ghee with it. Put the fennel in the hot oil and reduce the heat. Add the scraped vanilla pod. Sauté everything until the fennel is soft. This takes about 10 to 12 minutes. Then add the cream and vanilla pulp and simmer over low heat for about 7 to 10 minutes. Season only lightly with salt.

5. Put about 4 liters of water with salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil. In the meantime, divide the batter into two small balls. Roll out each ball very thinly on a floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a rectangle. So thin that you can almost see through it. If you have one, you can of course also use a pasta machine. But with my small kitchen I don’t know where to stow it, even if I would really like to have one. Dust the rectangles very thinly with flour and roll up the dough from the narrow side. Use a knife to cut into strips about 1 cm wide.

5. Heat an oven to 100 ° C. As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat and let the pasta slide into the water. It is important not to add these rolled up into the water, but rather unroll them beforehand and add them to the water as long ribbon noodles. Let it steep in the water for about 5 minutes. Then skim them off and set aside briefly in a bowl.

6. Heat another pan. Add the ghee and the marinated salmon. Salt. First fry with the skin side crispy for about 2 minutes. Then turn once and fry the other side. Place salmon on a plate or in an ovenproof dish and place in the oven to cook for about 7 minutes.

7. Fry the pasta one after the other in the fat that has remained in the pan. Possibly add some ghee or butter. Mix with the remaining lemon juice and lemon zest and season with a little salt.

8. Add the orange fillets with the juice to the vanilla fennel, mix everything carefully and season with a little salt. Finely chop some dill.

9. Put the fennel cream in a deep plate. Arrange lemon ribbon noodles on top and place the salmon fillet on top. Sprinkle with dill and finally pour some fresh pepper over the dish.

10. Serve and enjoy.

First make the pasta dough

Add the grated lemon zest to the batter and form a ball

Marinate the salmon with the spices, oil and orange

Marinate the salmon with the spices, oil and orange

Roll out so thin that you can almost see through

Shape into a roll and cut into strips about 1cm wide

This is what the finished lemon ribbon noodles look like

Cook in salted boiling water for a few minutes

Garnish with dill and serve