herb crusted salmon with horseradish bread sauce & cole slaw

August 1, 2010

Herb-crusted salmon with horseradish bread sauce
High Heat, by Waldy Malouf, pg 162

½ cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
¼ cup fresh dill
1 T chopped fresh tarragon
1 small shallot, minced
3 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup plus 1 T prepared horseradish
coarse sea salt or kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup plus 3 T extra virgin olive oil
4 skinless salmon fillets
½ cup fresh bread crumbs

In the bowl of a food processor or blender, combine the parsley, dill, tarragon, shallot, 1 T of the lemon juice, 1 T of the horseradish and 1 large pinch of salt and pepper. With the motor running, drizzle in 3 T of the olive oil to form a thin paste. Reserve ¼ cup of this herb paste to use as garnish. Lay the salmon in a pan in a single layer and brush with the remaining herb paste, turning to coat both sides of the fish. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500° F or light the grill. Unwrap the salmon.

In the oven: Place the salmon in a roasting pan and roast until done to taste, about 9 to 12 minutes.

On the grill: Place the salmon on the grill (or use a grill basket) and cook, turning once until done to taste, about 4-6 minutes per side.

While the salmon is cooking, place the bread crumbs in the bowl of a food processor or blender with the remaining ¼ cup horseradish, 1 T of the lemon juice and a pinch of salt and pepper. Blend to combine. With the motor running, drizzle in the remaining 1/3 cup of olive oil and process until smooth.

Whisk the remaining tablespoon of lemon juice into the reserved herb paste, add a little more olive oil if necessary to make a pourable herb oil. To serve, place a pool of the bread sauce on each plate, top with a salmon fillet, then drizzle the fish and plate with the herb oil and garnish with fresh dill.

How I did it: I used an 8 oz fillet, skin on. For the herb paste, since you pulse it in the food processor, I didn’t chop the herbs or the shallot too much. Tasted the sauce and adjusted the flavors, coated the fillet (top only) with the marinade, and sat it aside.

Started the briquettes. And this time, I waited long enough for the briquettes to get really hot. I should have started them before starting on the herb paste.

I made the bread sauce. I used almost all of the horseradish in the remoulade yesterday and the herb paste today, so I didn’t have nearly enough for the bread sauce. I reduced the recipe down to work with the horseradish I had and it didn’t work well. I used brown rice bread crumbs which have a much coarser texture than wheat bread crumbs. There wasn’t enough of the mix to blend into a paste in the food processor. Through no fault of the recipe, it didn't work out. I threw it out. I'll try it again later when I have all the proper ingredients.

Then I made cole slaw. That was an adventure!

Cole Slaw

½ head green cabbage
1 granny smith apple
½ yellow onion
celery seeds
½ cup mayonnaise, or so
1T rice wine or white wine vinegar, or so
2 tsp Dijon mustard, or so
2 tsp sugar, or so

(If you like to make cole slaw, invest in an electric slicer. They're reasonably cheap and very handy).

Cut the half head of cabbage in half again. Slice thinly using a mandolin or electric slicer. Shred the apple and the onion in the food processor, combine with the cabbage. Sprinkle liberally with celery seeds.

For the dressing: Start with about half a cup of mayonnaise, add 1 T rice wine vinegar and 1 Tsp Dijon mustard, stir and taste. Add about 1 tsp of sugar. Stir and taste. Adjust the vinegar, Dijon and sugar to your taste, make sure you have enough dressing to cover the cabbage mixture to your liking. (I don’t like mine too soupy).

How I did it: I had all the vegetables shredded when I remembered that I used all my mayonnaise in the remoulade yesterday. So I had to make some mayo. I washed the mixing bowl of the food processor three times making this dinner!

Mayonnaise

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 egg
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 T rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
salt

In the bowl of the food processor, crack the egg and turn the motor on. Add the mustard, vinegar and salt. Drizzle in the olive oil with the motor running continuously. After all the oil has been emulsified, turn off the motor and taste the mayo. Add more vinegar, salt and mustard to suit your taste.

The type of olive oil you use will make a huge difference in the flavor of the mayo. This time I used Spanish olive oil and it was very fruity when finished, so I added more vinegar, salt and Dijon. Usually, I use extra light virgin olive oil and it needs very little adjusting at the end.

Congratulations, you just made mayonnaise in under four minutes, with no trans-fatty acids or hydrogenated oil.

Remember that you can mess with this mayo recipe in so many ways! Add garlic, add roasted garlic, add onion, add herbs, change the vinegar, change the mustard, add tomato paste, change the olive oil, omit the egg (I’ve never done this, but I think it would work). I wonder how it would be using a nut oil instead? Walnut mayo? If you try that, skip all the other ingredients, turn on the motor and drizzle the oil over it until emulsified. Then taste it and see what would go with it. Hum...