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Salmon


ned

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I grew up in the northwest and never liked fish. Too bad for me huh? But then one day I was in Atlanta and my wife's father cooked some salmon that changed my perspective. He made a glaze out of honey and soy, some fish sauce, lime juice and shallot. He cooked portioned pieces of salmon filet in the broiler basting frequently until the fish was medium rare. Served with fine sliced scallion and sea salt. It's a delicious way to eat salmon and I've been cooking it this way myself since that fateful day in 1999. I'm starting to feel the need to branch out.

What do you do?

Edited by ned (log)

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What do you do?

As a cheesehead (!) I'm always making gratin in the winter: salmon and broccoli is a combination I like for it, and of course the key is using good cheese. I grew up with cheddar and a nice sharp, strong cheddar works for me. Sometimes I cut it / make it up with some parmiggiano - but of course local rules apply. I'd love to use gruyere if I didn't have to take up a life of crime to afford it.

You know the drill - make a bechamel; add grated cheese, *then* season; fix up in a dish with (raw) salmon fillets and (pre-steamed from frozen) broccoli, and bung in a fairly hot oven till it looks done. Mmm, gratin :smile:

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I marinate salmon fillets in miso, mirin, toasted sesame oil, and chopped green onion for a couple hours, then use a cast-iron grill pan to cook. Very nice. Recipe came from John Ash cookbook.

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A few ideas...

The first set of ideas start with searing the fish in a hot pan, usually in clarified butter, but it can be in oil. Salt and pepper the fillet, sear until crisp on the outside, but still rare.

One nice way of finishing this is with cream -- add cream to the pan, reduce, finish with herbs. Dill is classic, but others can be very nice. Maybe a bit of lemon with that... Another nice finish is simple browned butter. Or a reduction of some sort -- citrus is always good, the soy you mentioned works well, too, as does balsamic, etc.

Another set of ideas involve using the grill. Obviously you can just grill the fish (always very nice) but hot-smoking can be very good, too. Here you aren't going for the traditional 'curing' of cold-smoking, but a hybrid... Brine the fish (worth doing in any event) in a heavy sugar/salt mix, put it on a medium grill set up to smoke with some nice fruitwood or other, cover and smoke until done (nicely colored, warmed all the way through, but not so cooked that it flakes like smoked fish).

Braising can be nice, as can steaming in aromatics... Lately I've been preparing various fish and shellfish by putting them in a shallow pan on a bed made of a lot of aromatic herbs (lemon verbena, cilantro, basil, etc.) along with onion, garlic, etc., a bit of butter, and cooking it tightly covered on low heat... Quite nice.

I once had a piece of salmon at the French Laundry that had been slow poached in truffle juice; quite extraordinary. While I've never tried doing that myself, I have cooked salmon "en papillote" with truffle oil and butter, and gotten nice results...

I can't wait to see what other people come up with here!

jk

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Since I'm temporarily ensconced in an all-electric kitchen with a re-circulating almost non-existent exhaust, I've been cooking my salmon lately en papillote - 8 to 10 min per inch at 450 on top of a bed of lightly sauteed julienned carrots and zucchini with a splash of liquid and some small pats of butter. This cooks up wonderfully every time and minimizes the lingering smell that often accompanies stove-top cooking. I love to tear open those little packets to find the treasure.

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What do you do?

Raw in a variety of forms. Ceviche. Tataki. Gravlax. Painted with saikyo miso and grilled. Grilled and served with salt and lemon. Poached. En Papillote as others have described. Poêlé à l'unilatérale. Braided. Steamed with slivered ginger. Confit. Baked in a salt crust.

Kinda depends on what you're in the mood for.

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I do an easy marinade- soy sauce, french dijon mustard, chopped green scallions, garlic clove sliced thin (goodfellas style :wink: )

I either broil or grill it and I add sesame seeds at the top.

My husband loves it, but I am loving this thread, cuz salmon is one of my quick fixes and we like this verison so much, but I am bored of it as I make it too much since it takes no time at all.

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My favourite way to prepare salmon is to top it with julienned carrots, celery and lemon zest, chopped shallots, garlic, parsley, seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with a little white wine and olive oil. Covered with a piece of buttered foil and baked in a hot oven for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Ready for the oven

gallery_27944_2966_449149.jpg

Ready to eat

gallery_27944_2966_465434.jpg

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IMO the absolute best way to eat salmon:

Buy the freshest, best quality salmon you can (sashimi grade).

Buy yourself a razor sharp yanagiba (sashimi knife)

Trim the salmon

Using proper technique, with a single stroke applying no pressure, slice the salmon properly into neat slices

Enjoy dipped into some sashimi soy sauce and a touch of wasabe and lemon juice...

Ever since I have started making salmon sashimi myself, I haven't eaten it cooked - it is THAT GOOD.

I feel that if the salmon is of great quality, spanking fresh, has a nice amount of fat, there is no better way to eat it than raw.

Edited by infernooo (log)
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Some great ideas; thanks!

This recipe can be simple enough for every day or else dressed up for a more elaborate meal: poached salmon salad. Serve it with some nice buttered bread for a light meal.

Poach salmon (full treatment, court boulliion with some wine, etc; for a weekday if I don't have some white wine open I'll use some lemon juice, onion, carrot and parsley.)

While the salmon is cooking, par boil some spring vegetables--asparagus, peas and green onions; let cool to room temp.

Make a vinaigrette--wine vinegar, olive oil, shallots, s&p; finely chopped cucumber is a nice addition.

Dress some salad greens with half of the vinaigrette; use other half to dress vegetables and toss together with greens. Break salmon into pieces and serve on top.

This is adapted from a recipe by Paul Bertolli in Chez Panisse Cooking. You can very the vegetables used in the salad depending on the season and can use salmon that has been poached the day before so it can be very quick. (It also makes a beautiful first course for a more elegant meal; I've used it at Easter a few times.)

Edited by ludja (log)

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My hubby has named this the salmon candy

equal parts Dijon mustard and good apricot jam heated together in pot or microwave

season fish with salt and a touch of cayenne and smear with must/jam

bake at 400 till a solid medium for us. It really doesnt seem to work too rare with the sweet

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tracey

Edited by rooftop1000 (log)

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One of my favorites

An Asian marinade of soy, mecap manis, sweet Thai chili sauce, lime juice and or rice wine vinegar, minced ginger and garlic and a good shot of shiracha. Grilled on the Weber flesh side down then once turned coat the flesh with remaining marinade while the skin gets good and crispy.

Made this 2 days ago. Just wonderful.

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I roast a piece of salmon in a hot oven for 10-12 minutes. While it is cooking, i saute some sliced onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, capers, crushed red pepper and s & P. When salmon is done, top with tomato mixture. Really good.

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I am a bit embarrassed to admit this, but one of the best ways to prepare salmon is on the George Foreman Grill (it was a gift)

We get farmed Atlantic salmon trimmings for real cheap - half the price of salmon steaks. They are irregular in size and shape but are just as delicious if not more so since the white bands of fat seem to be wider on the trimmings. They go directly into the grill right out of the package. They come out beautifully seared and ready for home made terriyaki or maple sauce.

I have tried other species but none compare - similar fish such as Trout and Char don't do nearly as well, and juicy white fish like Haddock slowly explode with steam.

Other than that (and chicken thighs with skin) I find the GF Grill quite useless and certainly not worth the price.

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I also cook mine in parchment, and enclose some citrus so as not to have the heavy salmon smell that seems to permeate the house for days after I cook salmon. I have been using the "organic" Scottish salmon (though there's some controversy over their use of "Organic", the farming methods are organic though there's no such certification, and the salmon itself is extra-exquisite!)

I top the pieces with fresh tarragon, top that with slices of orange, and bake. It's delicious. Here's one that I fancied up a bit in plating so I could photograph it:

gallery_11181_3820_72476.jpg

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I was going to put this under Dinner!, but this is a better place.....

Living abroad, you miss those bits of home......strangely, as my wife points out I miss things from home that I never had when I was there. The worst case was when my mother visited us in Egypt and Yoonhi found out that I'd never had those handmade pancakes with maple syrup I'd always moaned about.

But I digress.

When I was growing up in Vancouver, in Kitsilano, like most people of my background, we didn't eat fish unless it was sole, and then it had to be rendered almost unrecognizeable in a white sauce of some sort.

....I'm being uncharitable....my mother actually once made an halibat ("a halibut?")with a very nice crispy coating made from corn flakes, as I fondly recall.

But, we didn't eat salmon. I probably hadn't had any salmon until I started dating and got onto the sushi bar circuit.

But, once we moved away, I had to have salmon.

My fondest memories of Egypt are sitting out ont the beaches on the Gulf of Aqaba with a bbq going and everyone's contributions of wine, beer, and other ingredients, and our salmon grilling over the fire for the common good.......

Now, every year the wife totes back a cooler full of BC salmon, generally Spring, caught by her brother-in-law. This works out to about 30 kg, roughly 5 or 6 fish. Fully frozen, it's good for the 35 hours door to door run. And the fish has enough oil in it that the freezing doesn't affect it.

For cooking, we maintain the law of simplicity.

Take the salmon away from the bone, with the skin on.

Lightly salt.

Put it on the grill for a quick sear on the flesh, then turn it over onto the skin and let it slowly cook.

Take it off when the juices and fat on top are getting frothy.

Toss down some fresh dill to serve it on, and a twist of lemon and some good salt and pepper for the heathens amongst us. The meat just squirts at you slightly, the extra oil in this fish keeping it from drying out.

Meanwhile, the head and bones are back in the kitchen, being stocked up with tamarind and some fresh vegetables for a nice, tangy soup to go with rice.

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When she goes home this summer (I'll stay out here and make money to pay for her shopping) I'm tempted to have her bring back some cedar planks and give that a try. Anybody have any comments on planking? It seemed to be the big thing last summer.

I've thought a lot lately of salt encasing a salmon (what do we call this technique?), and seeing what happens, but I've been threatened with a slow death if I waste any of the fish. I may buy some of the farmed stuff from Scandinavia that we can get here, and see what happens.

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I like making this when Vidalia onions are in season...it's a sort of oven-poached salmon.

I line a roasting pan with foil (for easy clean up). Place the salmon (I use a large skinless filet) in it. Add dill, fresh or dried, on top of the salmon. Lay thin slices of Vidalia (or a sweet) onion on top, covering the salmon. Add some crushed garlic. Add a cup or so of white wine. Cover the pan with foil and bake in an oven preheated to 350°F for about 30 minutes.

My garlic turned blue :blink: once when I used this method, but it still tasted great. :wub: It doesn't get much easier than that.

 

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I also cook mine in parchment, and enclose some citrus so as not to have the heavy salmon smell that seems to permeate the house for days after I cook salmon.  I have been using the "organic" Scottish salmon (though there's some controversy over their use of "Organic", the farming methods are organic though there's no such certification, and the salmon itself is extra-exquisite!)

I top the pieces with fresh tarragon, top that with slices of orange, and bake.  It's delicious.  Here's one that I fancied up a bit in plating so I could photograph it:

gallery_11181_3820_72476.jpg

Salmon, tarragon, orange and cauliflower. What a wonderful combination of flavors, texture and color. Seems like this would be a nice transition dish from winter to spring. Thanks for the idea!

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Salmon and pecans are a wonderful combination. Salmon with sorrel, if you can find it, is also a fine combination. When I can get sorrel I often make Pecan-Crusted Salmon with Sorrel Sauce, a recipe credited to the Pepper Mill in Clearwater, Florida. When I can't get sorrel or I'm feeling lazy I'll just punt: coat the salmon in a butter/pecan coating, give a quick sear in the pan and a slow finish in the oven while I make up some other sauce.

Mm... Salmon! :wub:

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Salmon is wonderful with syrupy coating of soy sauce and Asian flavors (see posts above), pan-roasted and plated on a bed of garlicky bitter greens with sweet potato fries. Wedges of lime.

However, one of the two reasons I will ever buy fresh dillweed (otherwise merely tolerate the stuff, though perfect in this dish) is salmon. Crush a clove of garlic with salt and mix it into thick plain yogurt with lots of chopped dillweed and freshly ground Sichuan pepper. Marinate for about 15 minutes or so, then bake in oven preheated to 450 F for around 10 minutes, maybe more. Good w parsleyed potatoes or rice and asparagus.

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I got a recipe from a Joyce Goldstein cookbook for salmon that I like very much. You basically poach the salmon in a dry white wine, then reduce the wine with cream and fresh tarragon into a syrupy sauce, to which you add sauteed mushroom slices. It works well for the frozen peices of salmon I get from Costco.

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