Salmon Mornay
A healthy fish mornay for those that don't like fish.
Ingredients
- Optional extras
Method
- 1
Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat and add a light layer of extra virgin olive oil. Sauté the onion, garlic and mushrooms until the onion is softened and the mushrooms are lightly browned.
- 2
Add the curry powder and mix it through.
- 3
Add the 1/4 cup of oil to the onion mix, then add the flour. Stir until there are no lumps of flour. Allow it to heat through and lightly bubble, but not brown.
- 4
Slowly pour in the milk, stirring after each addition, until the sauce is smooth and thick.
- 5
Drain the liquid from the tinned salmon into the sauce and stir it through. Break the salmon apart as you add it to the saucepan. You can keep the bones in, as they are soft, edible and full of calcium. Mix well.
- 6
Add the cheese and the remaining vegetables and stir them through the sauce. Leave to cook through on low heat.
- 7
While the mornay is cooking, prepare the brown basmati rice.
- 8
Optional: if you have an oven, prepare some mashed potato. Once the mornay has heated through, spoon it into an ovenproof dish, top with the mashed potato and extra grated cheese, and bake until the cheese has browned.
- 9
Serve with the rice, garnished with parsley if you like.
Nutrition (per serving)
Estimated from the FSANZ Australian Food Composition Database. Actual values will vary depending on the specific products used — not a substitute for individual dietary advice.
Salmon for those that don’t like fish
I know that some people have an aversion to eating fish. I’m not talking about an allergy as that is completely different! I’m more talking about a general dislike of the fishy flavour of fish. I have secretly tested this recipe on some family members who have expressed a dislike of salmon and other fishy tasting fish. And guess what… they didn’t realise it was salmon.
We have all heard that salmon is a good source of omega 3 oils and that they are good for us. Well they are good for our heart health, reducing inflammation, mental health and cell structure. So having Omega 3 oils is essential to good health. You can get these oils from other foods, but it is typically less easily converted to the useful form that our body needs, than from oily fish. That is why fish is often the best option – if you can tolerate it or are not allergic.
Another issue I have with salmon is that it is often farmed. This means that the salmon’s diet is not the same as in the wild and therefore the nutritional profile of the fish will be different. After reading a study that examined the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of salmon in the wild versus farmed, the ratio was definitely not ideal, but still ok. We want to make sure that we are getting more Omega 3 oils in our diet than Omega 6. When we have higher 6 oils we leave ourselves open to more inflammation and related chronic diseases/conditions (1). So eating salmon was one of those foods that was naturally way higher in omega 3’s to omega 6.
So in the wild, salmon have a ratio of 1:20 of Omega 6 to Omega 3. In farmed fish we are seeing ratio’s of 14:20 of Omega 6 to Omega 3 (2). So the ratio is still in favour of the Omega 3’s but it is much better with the wild caught salmon.
Unfortunately this puts us in a conundrum. On one hand we want to preserve the fish stocks in the wild by eating farmed fish. But farmed fish are of lesser quality nutritionally speaking.
I can’t tell you what to do. What I do is eat both. You can’t buy fresh wild caught salmon at a reasonable price that I can find in Australia. You can buy tinned wild caught salmon. Whilst I prefer to have fresh caught fish, I value the nutritional benefits of having wild caught even if it means it comes in a tin. The down side of buying it in a tin, besides it not being fresh, is that it has salt added to preserve it. Again, not ideal.
My conclusion:
We don’t live in an ideal world. We need to do our best to be kind to our planet in more ways than just fishing.
We also need to consider our whole diet as being of importance to our long term health, and not get too caught up in the ways of food production. Although, I believe how food is produced is important. Eating wild vs farmed or vice versa is still good for you. So eat the fish. Make your own health and environmental decisions and be kind to one another and don’t judge others by the decisions they make. There is no ideal option.
Anyway, enough ranting about fish.
I hope you find this a tasty and healthy recipe.
Want to try more Fish recipes? Have a look at these:
