Courgette Waffles with Beetroot Cured Smoked Salmon and Avocado

Smoked salmon is a Christmas morning classic in my household, and to top it off Ive used some of my friends beetroot cured cold smoked salmon from the Matakana Smoke House.

This is a riff on my waffle recipe from my recent book Wild Delicious. I adore waffles and what could be better than a Christmas breakfast with beetroot cured smoked salmon and savoury courgette waffles? The answer is absolutely nothing! It is the perfect start to Christmas morning, and the waffles are light and flavoursome and yet filling enough to keep you going through all the busy Christmas day cooking, prep and socialising.

If you fancy it you could separate half the mix into savoury waffles and keep the other half plain for sweet waffles depending on how many people you are feeding at the breakfast table.

Just be sure to use unsalted butter so that the sweet version doesn’t end up too salty.

I tend to use unsalted butter in all my sweet and savoury baking, preferring to add my own salt to my own taste preferences depending on the dish.

Mainland butter is ideal here in New Zealand, it is produced from grass fed cows and the butter its self is a rich yellow colour and has a perfect buttery flavour.

TIP

• Use hard, cold butter for any pie crust that you are making. The flaky texture in a pie crust is achieved when cold pieces of butter get trapped between layers of dough, then melt during baking to create small air pockets
• Butter plays a fundamental role in pastry making as it allows the pastry to be ‘waterproof’. Additionally, it adds crustiness and crumble to all dry pastries and brings softness and creaminess to risen doughs.

Ingredients

For the waffles

2 cups of plain flour, spelt works well but ordinary plain is great too

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 3/4 cups of whole milk

6 tbsp melted unsalted butter

2 large eggs

1 to 2 medium courgettes, grated

For serving

1 to 2 avoados, peeled and sliced

200 to 300g smoked salmon (I used beetroot cured smoked salmon for the photo)

8 Tbsp sour cream, mixed with 1 tsp beetroot juice

1 medium red onion, lightly pickled (see below for the recipe)

A handful of fresh herbs and leaves, such as baby beet leaves, rocket, coriander, dill, chives

For the pickled red onion

1 red onion, 1/4 tsp sea salt, juice of 1 lemon or two limes

simply slice the red onion very thinly into half moons, sprinkle with the salt and massage gently, pour over the lemon or lime juice and mix then set aside to marinade for at least 30 minutes.

Method

Warm up your waffle maker. 

Place the grated courgettes into a cheese cloth and squeeze out as much liquid as you can, set aside.

Place all the ingredients for the waffles, except for the courgettes, into a large mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined.

Let the batter sit for ten minutes before proceeding. 

Add the grated and drained courgettes, stir, then ladle half a cup into your waffle maker, or just enough to cover the base. Cook until lightly golden. Repeat with the remaining batter. Keep the waffles warm in the oven until you are ready to serve and all the waffles are made. 

Serve while hot with the smoked salmon, avocado, herbs, sour cream infused with pink beetroot juice, pickled red onions and a glass of ice cold white wine or your favourite bubbles.