Copper salmon poached at low temperature in orange and
lemon rind-infused olive oil, orange-enriched green peas, trio of
carrots and pickled red onions
In a previous post, I told the story of this fabulous poached salmon that I experienced long time ago. Today is another story of a poached
salmon. But this one was not illegally fished at all, I simply and classically
bought it at my favorite grocery store and poach it in olive oil at low temperature.
The rightly named Oily Fish
Poaching (for the rest of this post, it will mean immerse the
food in a liquid to cook it gently) is naturally not a rare technique. It is
even very pedestrian when one talks about eggs (in boiling water), pears (in
red wine), or, here we are, fish (in a broth)… In the latter case, it allows to
cook particularly fragile and delicate fish (sole, turbot, cod…) without aggressing
it with a traumatizing contact with a hot metallic surface. But there are other
species of fish that particularly benefit from the poaching technique, in oil
this time. And funny enough, this is as if they had been premonitorily named
after their natural inclination for oil bathing: I obviously mean the oily fishes.
Tuna, mackerel, salmon, sardines, herrings, anchovies, wahoos, bonitos… Once
again, it is interesting to note that the oily fishes are generally those that
you can buy in cans, as if there was an harmony, an osmosis between the fat
inside and outside the fish… As a matter of fact, those fishes as a whole and
salmon in particular love oil and being cooked, poached, preserved… in oil.
A highway of flavors
But poaching in oil also offers another considerable advantage.
As everybody knows it, fats in general, and oil in particular, are fantastic to
capture and to convey tastes and flavors. No wonder why everything is better with
bacon! So, when you posh an oily fish in an oil bath flavored with herbs,
spices, essences… the surrounding oil captures those flavors, pass them to the
fish… rich in internal oil that will in turn capture them… et voilà! This characteristic
is a windfall for the cook and opens the door to many culinary possibilities.
To be noted that poaching in oil is a particularly efficient way to cook some
vegetables and infuse them with extra flavors, fennels with citruses or beets
with star anise, among an infinite number of other options.
In this particular case, the salmon steaks were poached at 150F
in oil infused with orange and lemon rinds, Timut pepper, bay leaves… They were
served with green peas blanched, cooked in a small quantity of French limonade
and mixed with a quickly made orange marmalade, with multicolor carrots cooked
in butter, and with quickly pickled red onions…
Levels of difficulty
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Cost
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Preparation
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Resting
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Cooking
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n
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$$$
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30 minutes
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30 minutes
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30 minutes
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Ingredients 4 servings
§ 1 Copper salmon fillet of 1.5 lbs. cut in 5 steaks
§ 1 big orange (organic)
§ 1 lemon (organic)
§ 1 lb. of green peas, shelled
§ 3 baby carrots (e.g. 1 white, 1 red and 1 purple)
cut lengthwise in 4 sticks
§ ¼ red onion, thinly sliced
§ 1 cup of olive oil (poaching)
§ 1 tsp of olive oil (grilling)
§ 1 tbsp of butter
§ 1/2 oz of sugar (marmalade)
§ 1 oz of sugar (pickling)
§ 1 tbsp of sugar (rubbing)
§ 1 tbsp of coarse sea salt (rubbing)
§ 1 oz of white (or other) vinegar
§ 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar
§ 1 tsp of soy sauce
§ ½ cup of French limonade (somehow a natural
Sprite)
§ Timut pepper
§ Bay leaves
§ Thyme
§ S&P
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Instructions
1.
Preparing and cooking
the fish
§ Handling them with caution as their flesh is
fragile, rub, each side, the steaks with the coarse salt and the sugar. Let
them rest for 20 minutes in the fridge, to eliminate water and firm them up
§ With a peeler, roughly remove the rinds of the
orange and the lemon. Put them in a pan with the Timut pepper corns, and
torrefy them so that they start exhaling their flavor. Take the pan out of
the burner and pour the cup of olive oil, and let the whole infuse
§ After 20 minutes, take the salmon out of the
fridge, and pat dry the steaks with a paper towel. They sweat like after a
hot sauna session! Please note that you don’t need to remove the salt and
sugar as they will be diluted in the olive oil.
§ Put the salmon steaks in an oven dish as small as
possible (otherwise, you would need more oil) to contain the steaks without
overlapping them, and pour the olive oil with the rinds, bay leaves,, pepper
corns… on the steaks. It should cover them entirely
§ Put in a preheated 150F oven for around 12 minutes
or till the salmon appears cooked at your convenience, taking account of the
fact that you will let it rest in this flavored old for 5/10 more minutes
§ Just before serving, remove the salmon steaks from
the oil, remove the possible secretions of white albumin and let it rest on a
grid for 1 minute to eliminate the oil
2.
Preparing and
cooking the sides
§ The marmalade: Take the orange and supreme it to
obtain rind/skin/membrane/seed-free segments. Press the trims to recuperate
the orange juice. Put the ½ oz of sugar and put in a pan with the orange
juice, and let it reduce by around 50%. Add a splash balsamic vinegar and of
soy sauce. Add the orange supremes and let them gently candied till obtain a
kind of marmalade (then, you should be close to serve). Add the marmalade to
the green peas. See below
§ The pickled onions: Put the 1 oz of sugar, the
white vinegar and an equivalent quantity of water in a pan, and put to
boiling. Add the sliced onions. As soon as it boils, remove the pan out of
the burner and let rest like that till serving
§ The carrots: Cook the carrots in butter and complete
with a thin layer of limonade till they are cooked, but still firm. Attention:
if you use purple carrots, cooked them separately from the other colors, or
simply steam them
§ The green peas: Blanch them 1 minute in salted
boiling water and cool them down immediately in iced water. Cook them in
butter and a thin layer of limonade (you can cook them in the same pan as the
carrots). When they are cooked at your convenience (I like them al dente, and
even a little bit crispier), mix them with the orange marmalade
§ Plating: Plate at your convenience, the green
peas, the carrots, the salmon steaks and finally the red onion pickles spread
all over the plate. Squeeze some lemon on the fish
§ Wine pairing : A citrusy sauvignon blanc ‘from
the Loire valley (Pouilly fumé for instance) or a light and crispy Rosé de
Provence will perfectly pair with this dish where the moist and flavored fish
is enhanced by the balance of sweetness and acidity
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Gallery
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| Ready for the oven |
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