Baked Salmon

• Sauté the onions (lots and lots; 4 or 5) until just barely soft.
  Cover the bottom of an ovenproof dish with olive oil & slightly sautéed onions.
  
  
• Sprinkle thyme from your back porch garden on the salmon; salt and pepper (white pepper please)
  Place salmon filets on top of onions
  Sprinkle with white wine (1/4 C; not a lot) and lemon juice.
  
  
• Bake at 150c (300F) for 10-15 minutes – or until just barely cooked.

Ta da!

Duck with Garlic, Tomatoes and Olives : Canard à la Niçoise : Lesson 13 : LCB at Home

Today there were a few deviations from the recipes; this will be occurring as confidence builds while executing these lessons. 

Daurade Crue à l'Aneth : Marinated Sea Bream with Fresh Dill

It started out as Sea Bream but since I'd done the same recipe with Salmon in class in Paris we figured to go with the cheaper/more colorful option.  Layered between a mix of lemon and lime juice, shallots (very finely and neatly diced), olive oil, salt & pepper and a few hours to marinate.  Quite a success.

Salade d'avocat : Avocado Salad with Tomato

Unexpectedly (not mentioned in the menu listing) was a veggie salad to accompany the fish.  It's simply diced avocado mixed with some lemon juice, olive oil, and salt & pepper; with diced tomato and a few decorative leaves of lettuce underpinning it and some decorative dill on top. It's all very '70s looking. And surprisingly tasty for something so simple.

 

Canard à la Niçoise : Duck with Garlic, Tomatoes and Olives

The star of the show.  Delicious.  But there's not a lot of meat on one of these; I was worried that there wasn't enough for 6 people.

When preparing the duck remember to remove the wishbone (at the neck end); it makes the cutting of the meat ever so much easier.

Followed the recipe as written more or less (see the book: Le Cordon Bleu: At Home) except for two things:

1) I could not get a duck like the ones in France so we went over to Chinatown and got a nice fresh one there; as a result the tail end could not be trussed shut (as you can see on the right of the picture [compare to the picture in Marinated Fish, Duck, Crepes : Lesson 13 : Le Cordon Bleu at Home).

and 2) triple the use of cloves and don't discard them at the end

and 3) I didn't cook the whole thing on top of the stove. In cooking school and in professional kitchens the finishing of the dish is almost inevitably done in the oven; it's cooked in a covered casserole so why bother taking up space on a burner or two - better to get it out of the way.  Bring the thing to a boil on top of the stove and then stick it in a hot oven.
Some day I'd like to try this in the sous-vide manner - maybe 65C [145F] for a few hours.

well... also 4) I cooked it for an hour and then removed it from the stove to go on "standby" until dinner-time was closer.  Did the last half hour in a 350F [175C] oven to get it back up to temperature and finish it off.
I would have been better off cooking it for 40 minutes at first and then 30 at the end; the meat was very nice but would have been even better if it was a bit less "done".

oh, and...  5) I did not deglaze with cognac but with Brandy from Jerez (Spain); also delicious and much more reasonably priced.

Crêpes à la Gelée de Groseilles : Crepes with Red Current Jelly

Another major change to the recipe.  No red currant jelly.  It's strawberry season so let's exploit the opportunity.

Make the crepes (the sweet sort), sprinkle the "inside" with Cointreau, roll 'em up, line either side with 'berries and dust with powdered sugar.  These were very popular and a nice light finish to the meal.

Note:  Also served were some green beans (there are never any vegetable dishes in French cuisine) and a few baked potatoes (since the oven was on anyway).

Salmon Mayo Steak

Sort of a recipe today.

Was wracking my brain for something fast, simple and tasty (an alternative to Slow, Complicated and Awful ?) when fish was suggested.
More technique than recipe - - but it gets raves.

• 3 Salmon steaks (2,5 cm [1"] thick)
• 1/4 C mayo (the g00d stuff)
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 T dill
• 2 T horseradish

1. Oil a baking sheet, place steak on sheet
   
2. Mix mayo, oil, dill & horseradish
3. Spread mixture on top of salmon steaks
4. Bake at 375 F [190 C] until top (mayo) is brown and fish is cooked (10 minutes maybe?)

The mayo mix has flavor and sort of melts down over the fish; nothing dries out - - delicious.
Make extra of the mayo mixture to eat with the salmon once it's on the plate.

Finished: Salmon Brochette, Chevre Toasts & more

An update to my previous post about the dinner. It was a simple, quick, dinner but turned out very nice. The whole thing took just over an hour from entering the kitchen to chowing down. That's with zero prep in advance and a couple of pauses to enjoy the company.

Speaking of which, the wine was a Arco de Morozán (2003) from the region of Ribera del Duero; very nice. We've been trying out Ribera del Duero wines as alternatives to Riojas because now that Riojas have been discovered by America the prices have climbed over the last few years.

Chevre Toasts

I left out the olives for decoration; there wasn't really enough room for them on top of the cheese.

The salmon, salad and rice on a square IKEA plate

The salad and rice could have been place more decoratively.

Crack open a beer and we're off!
Boil a kettle of water for use with the rice later (mine's 1,6 liters [1¾ quarts]). I almost always boil a kettle while cooking because you never know when it will come in useful.

These went according to plan except for the olives and toasting the bottom of the bread somewhat less than brown so that it could finish while doing the cheese. The previous recipe is in yesterday's post.

Chevre Toasts

Ingredients

• 1 baguette [french bread]
• 200 gr chevre [goats cheese], small rounds
• 1 tomato, deskinned and brunoised
  

Procedure

1. Slice bread, crosswise, 1cm thick [1"]
   
2. Toast under the grill, one side
3. Turn and toast very lightly on the 2nd side (toasting will finish when you do the cheese)
   
4. Put on the goat cheese rounds
5. Grill these for 4 minutes (until melty and browned slightly)
   
6. Meanwhile, deskin (fillet) the tomato
7. Brunoisse the tomato meat [cube] into small evenly sized cubes
   
8. Sprinkle tomato on the cheese (use the extra tomato to decorate the salad)
• Press the tomatoes down a little so that they don't fall off during transport
  

Notes

1. Fillet the tomato by cutting off the top and base, quartering, remove the juicy center, seeds and the ribs
2. Then, with only the "meat" remaining flatten each quarter tomato and use a filleting knife to separate the good part from the skin.
3. If the goat's cheese does not brown enough (before the bread "toasts"too much) use your trusty chef's torch to brown the tops

The Vanilla Rice has more rice and less milk than in the original recipe and turned out wetter than I wanted it to. I probably should have rinsed the rice before cooking it.

Vanilla Rice

Ingredients

• ¼ C milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 3 T oil
• 1 C rice
  
• 2 t salt
• 2 C water
  

Procedure

1. Split and scrape the vanilla pod
2. Drop vanilla guts and bean pods into milk
3. Heat until it just starts to boil
   
• Set aside for 10 minutes to infuse
  
4. Oil into a pan
   
5. Add rice, cook until translucent
6. Add salt
7. Add milk (having removed the bean pod pieces)
   
8. Add water (boiling)
   
9. Cook for 16 minutes (approx), until done or the liquid's about gone

Notes

1. Vanilla is surprisingly good complementary flavour for fish
   
2. Frying the rice a little in oil helps keep it from sticking together too much
   
3. Add the salt with the water at the start of cooking the rice; otherwise the rice won't absorb any of the salt/vanilla flavour

The Salmon Brochettes were done per the planned recipe except took a little longer than 5 minutes; more like 8. The Curried Salad went according to plan too; although I could have halved the amount of vinaigrette [dressing] I made and I probably used only 3T of curry (ran out - and a little more wouldn't have hurt). Oh, and let the vinaigrette sit while preparing the other dishes so that the spices can blend. The squeeze bottle will need to largish opening to make sure that the lime rind doesn't stick in the nozzle.

What with all those little notes about the Curried Salad I should probably just repost the whole thing.

Then there's the Lemon Cream Champagne and the Hagendas Balsamic that are still due.

Lemon Cream Champagne

Ingredients

• 1 lemon, juice of (fresh)
• ¼ C cream (light, cooking {not whipping})
• 1 Champagne (bottle or split)
• 1 T icing sugar (or another fast dissolving sugar)
  

Procedure

1. Mix champagne, cream and lemon juice together
2. Pour

Notes

1. That was blindingly easy
2. The sugar cuts the lemon acidity. I'd like to find an alternative for sugar; I'll have to do some chemical research on the topic.
   
3. This was one of those cute refreshers that you have between courses. In this case it was between dinner and dessert rather than between 2 earlier courses but that's fine, it's quite nice either way.
4. The champagne will not be super bubbly but some "champagne effect" will still be noticeable; some sort of smooth texture idea is what you'll get.
   

Hagendas Balsamic

Ingredients

• 1 tub (small) Macadamia Nut Brittle ice cream
  
• ½ C balsamic vinegar (from Modena, Italy)

Procedure

1. Reduce vinegar in a saucepan until it starts to coat the back of a spoon
   
2. Cool
3. Put into a plastic squeeze bottle
4. Squeeze over ice cream
   

Notes

1. Reduce slowly, it makes for a smoother tasting result over furious boiling
2. It will reduce to something like a third of the original volume; use a small small pan.
   
3. Oddly enough vinegar, when done this way, is sort of sweet; the acidics have been boiled off (I guess)
   
4. The selection of ice cream is up to you but I recommend a whitish product that has something resembling actual cream in it.
   

Making a "fancy"ish dinner sometimes consists of using flavours or ingredients that are not everyday choices. In this case: lime for the salmon, curry in the salad (with lime to complement the fish marinade), vanilla in the rice, champagne in the intermezzo, balsamic in the dessert.

This is a bit of a mess what with it being across two posts and with the changes and all; but that's the consequence of my thinking process and I figured I would share what a disorganized mind I have.

Salmon Brochettes, Curried Salad, Chevre Toasts

Update: "What I Actually Did"^SM (no, not really a servicemark) is posted at Finished: Salmon Brochette, Chevre Toasts & more.

We're having someone over for dinner and since the s.o. was in Berlin last week and is dieting this week I haven't really been cooking anything much (just that quick fish thing I made the other day). Thus today's a chance to do something presentable.

No pictures yet since I'm writing this in prep for the dinner thus there will be post-dinner edits about what I actually did. At the moment it's just a plan.

Menú

• Chevre Toasts [goats cheese]
• Salmon Brochettes with Lime and Rosemary
  with
• Curried Salad
  and
• Vanilla Rice
• Lemon Cream Champagne
• Hagendas with Balsamic (reduced)
  

Grilled Salmon Brochettes

Ingredients

Salmon

• 600 gr Salmon filets
• salt
• pepper

Marinade

• 2 garlic cloves
• rosemary sprig (fresh)
• 100 ml olive oil [3oz]
• 2 T lime juice (fresh)
  

Procedure

1. Deskin the filets
2. Cut into 2cm cubes [½"]
3. Salt & pepper them
• Set aside
4. Mince the garlic, really finely
5. Mince the rosemary leaves
6. Add oil & lime juice
• Whisk to blend
7. Turn on the grill
   
8. Pour marinade over the fish, coating completely
9. Wait 10 minutes
10. Put on short (wooden) skewers
11. Place under/over the grill for 5 minutes
• Turn once, half way through
12. Meanwhile, heat the marinade
13. Spoon marinade over the brochettes and serve with the salad on the side
    

Notes

1. 10 minutes for the marinading only or the fish will "cook" in the lime juice
2. Soak the wooden skewers for 10 minutes to prevent/minimize burning
3. Warm the plates slightly (good for the fish and the rice, bad for the salad)

Ingredients

• 1 C rice
• 3 T oil
  
• ½ t salt
• 2 C water
• ½ C milk
• 1 vanilla pod
  

Procedure

1. Split and scrape the vanilla pod
2. Drop into milk
3. Heat
   
• Set aside
4. Meanwhile, oil into a pan
   
5. Add rice, cook until translucent
6. Add salt
7. Add milk
8. Add water (boiling)
   
9. Cook for 17 minutes (approx), until done or the liquid's about gone

Notes

1. Vanilla is surprisingly good with fish
   
2. I actually use more liquid than this but I'm using Bomba type rice which absorbs a lot of fluid
   
3. Frying the rice a little in oil helps keep it from sticking together too much
   
4. Add the salt with the water at the start of cooking the rice; otherwise the rice won't absorb any of the salt/vanilla flavour

Curried Salad

Ingredients

• Salad greens (baby), 1 bag
• 3 limes' rinds
• 4 T lime juice
• 4 T curry powder
• 125 ml olive oil [4oz]
  
• ½ t salt
  
• pepper, black, fresh ground
• Maldon salt
  

Procedure

1. Put ingredients (except the salad greens) into a plastic squirt bottle
2. Shake well
3. Pour over greens
4. Sprinkle on Maldon salt
   

Notes

1. Doesn't get much easier then this
   
2. If lacking a plastic squeeze bottle feel free to whisk by hand
3. Maldon salt is a flaky crystal salt that's delicious over salads or meat; very tasty

Chevre Toasts

Ingredients

• 1 baguette [french bread]
  
• 200 gr chevre [goats cheese], small rounds
  
• 1 tomato
  
• 8 black olives, pitted
  

Procedure

1. Slice bread, crosswise, 1cm thick [1"]
   
2. Toast under the grill, both sides
   
3. Put on the goat cheese rounds
4. Grill these for 5 or 6 minutes (until good and melty and brown)
   
5. Chop (¼s or so) the olives
6. Deskin (filet) the tomato
7. Brunoisse the tomato to the size of the olive bits [cube]
   
8. Sprinkle olives and tomato on the cheese

Notes

1. Filet the tomato by cutting off the top and base, quartering, remove the juicy center, seeds and the ribs
2. Then, with only the "meat" remaining use a filetting knife to separate the good part from the skin.

The Lemon Cream Champagne and the Hagendas with Balsamic I will leave 'til later 'cause I have to get to the kitchen now.

Thanks to one of my favorite cookbooks - Le Cordon Bleu: Quick & Light for the inspiration.