Chef and popular TikTokker ‘Poppy Cooks’. Photo: Haarala Hamilton
Poppy O’Toole, aka Poppy Cooks, is a Michelin-trained chef who, after losing her job during lockdown, started sharing her recipes online. She rapidly attracted a strong audience on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok (4.8m followers). As she puts it: “Let’s be honest, some very viral potato recipes gave me the title of the internet’s ‘Potato Queen’ and helped turn my life around.”
Her fifth book, The Actually Delicious One Pot Cookbook, celebrates the easy recipes Poppy, who hails from Bromsgrove, near Birmingham, makes at home. “Some days you don’t want the faff – you want something where the mess stays in check and all the magic happens in one place.”
Poppy’s Tuscan salmon
Forget the leaning tower of Pisa, this should be the number one attraction in Tuscany. Fresh, homely flavours, subtle spices, flaky salmon and … OK, now my mouth is watering. Get me on a flight immediately. Arrivederci, bab!
Serves 4
Ingredients
Light olive oil
4 x 120g skin-on salmon fillets
1 banana shallot, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
250g cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
125ml white wine
200ml chicken stock
100g crème fraîche
90g samphire
1 lemon, zested
Salt and black pepper
Method
1. Heat a 30cm saute pan over a medium-high heat and add a drizzle of olive oil. Pat dry the salmon fillets with kitchen paper, then season well with salt. Place them in the pan, skin side down, and pan-fry for 5–6 mins, until the skin is crispy.
2. Carefully turn over the salmon, pan-frying for 45 seconds on each of the three other sides, until nearly cooked. Remove the salmon from the pan and set it aside on a plate to rest – place it skin side up so that the skin doesn’t go soft.
3. Add a drizzle more oil into the empty pan and throw in the shallot, garlic and cherry tomatoes. Fry over a medium heat for 3–5 mins, until the shallot has softened, then scatter in the smoked paprika and dried herbs.
4. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and pour in the chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper, then leave the liquid to reduce on a medium-low heat for 10 mins, until thickened slightly.
5. Stir through the crème fraîche and samphire, then nestle in the salmon fillets, with the skin just poking out of the top of the sauce. Sprinkle over the lemon zest and dig in.
Crispy potato cubes are my go-to here for an accompaniment, if you want one, but hunks of crusty bread or some rice are good quick options too.
From Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious One Pot Cookbook by Poppy O’Toole (Bloomsbury Publishing, £22). Photographs © Haarala Hamilton