Cleaning out the fridge

Half a dozen Plum Creek eggs, leftover troll caught King Salmon and asparagus, Farmers Market parsley, shredded Gre de champs and Valbert Vieux, a little 2% milk, and some salt and pepper. I consulted one of the finer food blogs around for frittata technique and got to work. I kept the oven at 425 (not 450), and just threw everything together in a pretty warm, buttered nonstick 8" pan. Once the eggs started settling I placed the pan in the hot oven. It firmed up in less than ten min.

Also on the plate are slices of a Frog Hollow Farm kiwi and some bread with the homemade rhubarb preserves from a few posts ago. A nice dinner, especially considering it was made with scraps.

Tastes like . . . Oregon?

Fresh Snake Hill Farm asparagus, toll caught King Salmon from Kate's Fish (more from them below), and some Quinoa w/ dried apricots, both from the Westside food co-op.

The salmon was a piece from the midsection, and was so thick that half a pound was only around an inch wide across the top. To get decent looking portions with good surface area for searing (however lightly) I split the fish into belly and loin pieces, removed the skin from each of the two pieces, and then laid the pieces on their sides for cooking. Pictured above is the loin piece--the belly was just about the same thickness. If the skin was still on it would be along the edge of the fish piece towards the bottom of the picture. Hate to loose the skin, but for simple stove top cooking it was just easier to cook the fish on its side. Enough of that. It was a great fish with a smooth salmon flavor and buttery texture. Seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked to medium rare in a mix of butter and canola oil, there's not much better.

As for the asparagus, again, it's asparagus season, so I'm going to get as much of it as I can. Cooked the same way I usually do it. Regarding the side effects, you put up with what you have to. The stuff is worth it.

The Quinoa. A quick rinse and then one part quinoa to two parts water with a little salt and some chopped up dried apricots for good measure. Simmered covered for about 20 minutes, and left to rest covered for another five, and that's all there was to it. The apricots added a nice sweetness to quinoa.

No sauce with this meal. The salmon was rich enough. Still, a sauce would have looked nice.

And some rhubarb preserves. Straight out of The Silver Spoon Cookbook, one cup of sugar to each pound of rhubarb (straight from the community garden), let steep for two hours, and then the resulting mixture is poured into a pan for 30 min. of simmering (with lots of stirring) followed by an additional 5 min. of simmering with some grated orange zest (Here the zest was from a Frog Hollow nectarine? courtesy of Stuart--his Flicker pages are linked on the right.). It's a shame to go from beautiful stalks to a brown blob, but the taste (and preservation power) is worth it. Great with ice cream, maple syrup, and some crushed nuts.

While I associate salmon and rhubarb with the Northwest (where I first tried rhubarb pie--I know, I was raised in a bubble), this last picture is pure Great Lakes. In addition to the salmon, I got a whole Walleye from Kate's for a side project. I got the fish filleted and wasn't in need of the bones, just flesh that day (although I was hoping for eggs, but unfortunately he wasn't a she). After the fish was cleaned and the fillets bagged up, Tom, the friendliest fishmonger in the CLE, was considerate enough to make sure I didn't leave the best part behind. Below are the tiny and tasty Walleye cheeks, skin on, over more of the quinoa with some parsley grown by a wonderful Bosnian couple that sell some great stuff at the Shaker Market every week. Really a nice little appetizer.

Pasta with Smoked Salmon Cream Sauce

Short post for a simple meal. More vegan Ohio City Pasta, this time in some slightly reduced heavy cream with some flaked hot smoked Sockeye salmon warmed in the cream while it was reducing (The salmon was only in the hot cream for a minute or two before serving.). Good payoff for not much effort.

New take on an old post

[Photo removed due to grossness]

This is just an alternative way to serve what I previously made here. It was my first time mixing the goat cheese, salmon, and chives together, and it looked better in person. The taste was the same as the alternate presentation, but this style is more conducive to serving at a potluck or for a big group.

In the future I'd crumble the goat cheese well before mixing in the flaked salmon and chives, and I'd mix more gently than I did here, avoiding the white speckles of cheese clinging to the fish and chives that aren't too attractive. With the addition of store bought crackers (something thin and crisp--i.e., not Ritz) it makes for a quick thing to serve to a group. A spoon or knife is necessary, as it's not too dippable. It may look salmon heavy, but it's not.

L.E.O.

Lox, eggs, and onion . . . not quite, but close.

Ingredients:
- Eggs, well beaten (2 per person, I use a fork to mix them)
- Shallots, peeled then cut in half root to tip and sliced
- Smoked salmon, flaked (here, hot smoked sockeye salmon)
- Goat cheese, crumbled
- Butter
- Heavy cream (optional)
- Salt and pepper
- Lightly buttered toast
Method:
- Add butter to a heating nonstick pan
- Once butter is melted, add shallots and some salt and pepper
- When shallots are softened (but not browned) add flaked smoked salmon
- While salmon is heating through (it's already cooked) mix cream (if using) and eggs
- Pour eggs into salmon-shallot mixture, add a little salt (the salmon has plenty) and pepper, and stir continuously
- When it just about to your liking add and mix in goat cheese
- Remember that the eggs will continue to cook off the heat (both in the pan and on the plate)--I tend to turn off the heat once the eggs are just more than half cooked

Grab some coffee, turn on Meet the Press, and enjoy a leisurely Sunday.

North by Midwest

If I had remembered to take a picture of the uncut whole side of the fish there would be a more complete record. But I didn't, so the photos start with the cure, skipping the most important step--getting a good fish. This is the rest of the fish that was used in the New Orleans recipe below. To recap, it's half of a fall Coho Salmon from the Copper River in Alaska.

A few things about salmon. First, I'm not going to comment on farmed salmon. I've already taken up enough space with the three pictures. For the rest of this post, unless otherwise indicated, salmon refers to fresh wild salmon. Second, the infamous Copper River. I believe the hype about Copper River salmon is as much about great marketing as anything else. I've eaten great wild salmon caught elsewhere in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and even Michigan. It's all been good. Maybe there's some merit to the claims of the exceptional taste of the hardworking salmon caught in the Copper River, I don't know. When I'm lucky enough to be able to pick between different types of salmon I'm not too concerned about their provenance. I pick which looks best regardless of where it's from. I don't discriminate based on point of origin (I may take fishing methods/fishery management into account though.). Third, while I'm not concerned about the fish's domicile, I do pay attention to what type of salmon it is, which generally means choosing between Chinook (King), Coho (Silver), and Sockeye (Red). They're all good.

Chinook salmon are large and have a high fat content. It's also usually the most expensive type. Coho are generally smaller, and that's what I used here. Sockeyes are my favorite. I like the color and flavor of Sockeyes, and as long as its not overcooked I don't think there is any better variety. The preference is personal, and I don't suspect everyone agrees. But in my experience, which has included bartering with an Alaskan fisherman for huge fillets of salmon flash frozen in cryovac bags to buying a fresh from the water Chum salmon (variety not recommended) out of the back of a guy's pickup truck at a gas station, I always go back to the Sockeye. Incidentally, if it's frozen and thawed well it's amazing how long salmon can stay stored in the freezer without dramatically decreasing in quality (I got my salmon fix through long Midwest winters by buying a whole scaled and gutted fish in season, portioning it out and freezing it at home, and then thawing portions from the freezer when the mood arose.).

Okay, enough about that. The top picture is of the majority of one side of a filleted salmon cut into four pieces. It was cut once along the length, dividing the thick portion and thin portion (belly) of the fillet (The thick portion takes a little bit longer to cook through.), and then again across the width of each half. When I first did this, I learned to cut the fish into small individual portions at this point. Using four big pieces here was easier to handle than lots of little pieces, but, as the edges/crusts are likely the best part, in the future I'll go back smaller pieces.

The salmon is covered in a curing mixture made up of equal parts salt and sugar. I need to get approval from the folks who gave me the recipe before releasing the details, i.e. types of salt/sugar. As you can see, it will start to leak, otherwise known as cure. I let it sit like this for about an hour before draining the dish and brushing off the majority of the mixture with a paper towel.

Next, it's off to the smoker, where it smoked at a very low temp for around three and a half hours. I converted the charcoal smoker to electric by putting an inexpensive single electric burner in the area designated for coal, and placing a pie pan on the burner element to hold the smoking mixture. I kept the burner on high the whole time. It still didn't get too hot. The electric smoker makes it easy and helps alleviate any temptation to peak at the fish. It's constantly cooking, slowly.

After a few hours I flake off some of the fish to check if it's done. Also, if it starts oozing white stuff, that's a good indicator. I think the white stuff is fat coming up, but I could have sworn I read that it was tissue or muscle or something (I didn't do very well in biology.). Once done let it come to room temp, wrap in plastic wrap, bag it (it smells smokey), and enjoy at your leisure. It's great with crackers and in omelets, and I'm thinking about throwing it into the food processor to make some kind of mousse (I don't claim to have made up the idea.) . . . there are lots of things to do with it.

Getting back to my roots

An uncle of mine was asked to make a family recipe for a potluck at his daughter's school. He brought a brisket, and said that his recipe worked out great, which, no doubt, it did, as he's a great cook. While he was telling the story to my Mom (he's married to her sister) and me I asked about the recipe, hoping to adopt it, as our heirloom recipe collection is woefully deficient for reasons beyond our control. One of the first ingredients he listed off was sundried tomatoes. Now, I'm not from a Mediterranean bloodline, nor did I believe my uncle was. When I asked about how the sundried tomatoes found their way into his family recipe he replied honestly. He said something to the effect of "This was the way my mom would have made it if she had tried this recipe." At first I felt cheated, or at least like he had cheated, but I don't anymore--family recipes evolve. I've yet to get the entire brisket recipe from him, but I have no doubt that it is excellent. As great as my Mom's, who's to say.

All that being said, the picture above is a variation of the bagels and lox I grew up with. I don't think it's any better than the standard Sunday morning fare, although this version could easily be made safe should the occasion call for unleavened bread. So, like my uncle's brisket recipe, even though it's not entirely traditional, I don't think it does the original any grave injustice.

Ingredients:
- Smoked Salmon* (This not Lox, or Nova, or the like, not that I don't love the stuff, becuase I do. This is Pacific Northwest/Native American style smoked salmon, hot smoked sans dill. For another presentation, smoked tuna would be great, if you can get it.)
- Goat Cheese (I used Cypress Grove Purple Haze. I like the herbs in it, and it seemed appropriate to use a good Northwest cheese with a good Northwest fish.)
- Water Crackers
- Chives, cut into small batons
Method:
- The picture is self explanatory (Minimal assembly required.)

So, hot smoked salmon instead of lox, goat cheese instead of cream, and water crackers instead of a bagel. I don't think my Mom would be offended, and I'm sure she'll let me know if she is.

*Smoked Salmon
I'll put the process for making this up shortly. It's pretty simple, but you'll need a smoker. While this recipe would work with cold smoked, thinly sliced salmon, that's not the point of this snack. The Northwest stuff is different, but equally good. Plus, the way it flakes is great for portioning.

New Orleans

I'm not saying salmon is a traditional Creole ingredient. But I'm sure they'd understand, particularly if their nearest significant body of water was limited to a lake with a maximum depth about the same as a decent above ground swimming pool. What is "authentic" is that the Coho, or Silver, Salmon was fresh. Picked up by the fishmonger at the airport this morning after arriving on a flight from Alaska. Around here it's impossible to beat Kate's Fish at the West Side Market. Kate's attitude may be as seasonal as the fish, but the prices are fair and the selection is honest. Today I saw them throwing away pounds and pounds of Halibut that wasn't up to par. They'll get reimbursed for the fish from their connection, but they passed on a lot of sales this afternoon. Most of the rest of the dish is pure New Orleans, or at least as best as this Jersey guy can do it.

There are three components: The fish, the shrimp remoulade (which is really two components in itself), and the fried green tomatoes. I take no credit for the shrimp/fried tomato combination. I copied if from Upperline in New Orleans, where I had one of the best meals of my life. Chuck, at The Gumbo Pages (http://www.gumbopages.com/) discusses the recipe, and has a great New Orleans themed website. Danno, at NOLA Cuisine (http://www.nolacuisine.com/), has some great recipes and commentary too. Danno doesn't know it, but he's my hero.

The salmon part is simple. The rest, while by no means difficult, is a bit time consuming. But if everything is laid out beforehand preparation goes pretty quickly, and there are ample times to pause and grab a drink. The sauce is best if it hangs out in the fridge for a bit, so you'll want to make that first. Here it is:

Shrimp Remoulade*

Remoulade
Ingredients:
- Egg yolk
- Lemon juice
- Whole grain mustard
- Creole mustard powder (If you can get Creole Mustard, which shouldn't be too tough, that can be used in place of the mustard powder and whole grain mustard. It'd likely be preferable.)
- Oil, of neutral or pleasant flavor (I used half peanut and half olive.)
- Bell pepper, roughly diced (Mine was a California Wonder that was mostly red with some green.)
- Onion, diced (I used a sweet white onion from the North Union Farmer's Market at Crocker Park.)
- Celery, roughly diced
- Chile pepper, roughly diced (A Habanero is great here.)
- Carrot, roughly diced
- Ketchup
- Cilantro, chopped well
- Salt and pepper
- Cayenne
- Water to thin it out
Method:
- Put egg yolk, mustard, mustard powder, cayenne, lemon juice, and some salt and pepper in the work bowl of a food processor (I use a mini food processor, and it's great for things like this and pesto. I don't have a full size one, but I'm sure it would work too.)
- Pulse that stuff to combine it
- Now add oil slowly, through a hole in the processor's lid if it's there (It should be there.)
- Enjoy the magical process of watching these liquids form into a viscous mayonnaise (It's enjoyable to do this part by hand, but you'll see in a second why I used the processor here.)
- Once there's a nice thick mayo, stop adding oil
- Add diced bell pepper, onion, celery, chile pepper, and carrot, some ketchup and process
- When sauce has just little specks of the veges showing, and no more big chunks, stop processing
- Thin with a bit of water if you'd like (Keep in mind that it will thicken up a little bit in the fridge. If you're going to err, err on the thick side. It's easier to thin it out later than mess around trying to thicken it up.)
- Now add the cilantro and pulse
- Congratulations, you have made a remoulade
*It appears that there are as many ways to make a remoulade as there are people who make it. Take a look at The Gumbo Pages and NOLA Cuisine, and if that's not enough, or you don't trust internet sources, compare James Peterson's treatise, Sauces, to the lovely The Silver Spoon cookbook. If there's a consensus, I can't find it. So I took some license, as did those before me.

Shrimp
Ingredients:
- Bell peppers, chopped
- Onion, chopped
- Carrot, chopped
- Celery, chopped
- Old Bay Seasoning (Or the like. I imagine a liquid crab boil would be nice in here too.)
- Peppercorns
- Salt
- Shrimp, uncooked, shell on, preferably (Thawed if they were frozen. I thaw them by putting the frozen shrimp in a bowl in the sink and letting cold water slowly run over them. It goes fast. Once they are thawed they go in the fridge, but I tend to do this at the last minute so they go right from thawing to cooking.)
- Ice bath (Bowl of ice water.)
Method:
- Get a pot full of water similar to what you'd use to make pasta
- Put bell peppers, onion, carrot, celery, Old Bay, peppercorns, and salt in the water
- Bring the pot and it's fillings to a rapid boil
- Add shrimp
- Once water starts to simmer again turn off the heat
- Let the shrimp steep in the infused water for about five minutes
- Remove shrimp and place in ice bath (The veges, sadly, get discarded.)
- Once shrimp have cooled peel them (Try one to make sure its cooked through. It should be, and it should taste good. Also, work on getting the whole tail out of the shell. I believe that last little bit of the tail is the best part.)
Putting it together:
- Combine shrimp and remoulade a few minutes before serving

Fried Green Tomatoes
Ingredients:
- Green tomatoes
- Cornmeal
- Bread crumbs (I used Panko, 'cause that's just what folks use these days.)
- Flour
- Egg
- Cayenne
- Salt and pepper
- Oil for shallow frying
Method:
- Set up three bowls next to each other
- Put flour seasoned with salt, pepper, and cayenne in one bowl
- Put egg with a bit of water mixed in in the next bowl
- Combine equal parts bread crumbs and cornmeal in the third bowl
- Preheat pan
- Slice tomato
- Add oil to pan and get it hot enough so tomato will sizzle when placed in there
- Dip slice of tomato in flour, then knock off excess flour
- Dip flour coated slice in egg wash
- Dip now egg and flour coated slice in bread crumb mixture
- Place in pan and brown each side
- Let rest on a paper towel

Salmon (the easiest part)
Ingredients:
- Salmon (Or any fresh fish that's not too flakey)
- Oil, for high heat (Mixing Canola and butter works great, but I just used Grapeseed oil here.)
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Preheat pan to get it very hot
- Add oil
- Season both sides of fish with salt and pepper
- Place fish, presentation side (here flesh side) down (Shaking the pan right when the fish is put in, and every now and then thereafter, will help ensure the fish doesn't stick if you're using an uncoated pan.)
- When colored nicely flip over, lower heat a drop, and let it cook through (If it's not cooking through or is a particularly thick piece of fish, throw it in a hot oven, assuming the pan has oven safe handles, or cover the pan. Putting it in the oven is preferable to covering the pan. Try both methods and I think you'll agree.)
- Serve

Thats it. I put some leaf lettuce down under the fried green tomatoes--it traditionally goes with shrimp remoulade. I also garnished with diced and whole chives, and diced avocado, because I had both laying around. It's a good meal. Blackened Redfish may have been even better, but this wasn't too bad.

More on New Orleans

Catfish Po Boy at Johnny's Po-Boys, Muffuletta at Central Grocery, Hurricanes at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, dinners at Brigtsen's and Upperline, Roast Beef Po Boy at the Gumbo Shop, Coffee and Chicory and Beignets at Cafe Du Monde, music at jazz clubs, bars, and in the street, dancing . . . it just kept going. We also saw the Lower 9, the 17th Street Canal, other devastated neighborhoods, and scenes that would make you think Katrina hit two weeks, not two years, ago. It was my first trip to New Orleans, and I hope it won't be my last. The place is like it's own world, and even though I can't compare how it is now to how it was before the storm, I can say that there is no reason not to go. Things are up and running. It's as safe as anywhere else--I've never seen so many police. And you'd have to try to find a bad meal. This town convinced me that I could never be a food critic. It's just too much. There was so much goodness it was overwhelming. Now I'm just looking forward to getting a chance to go back.