Salmon, et al.

Well I guess since this is basically all I do other than work these days, it’s fitting that my first real post is a cooking one. Salmon is basically the only seafood I can trust around here (well not even around here…I got this at Costco which is at least half an hour away), so I bought a giant thing of salmon fillet.

All day yesterday, I sat around wondering what I could do with it. Most salmon recipes choose to play off its fattiness and meatiness, which is why you often see mushrooms, cream sauces and butter with salmon dishes. I didn’t want to do that, seeing as this is the dead of a disgusting summer in Philly, so that’s what I did.

All fish goes likes acid acid, so I started with Salmon and lime. From there, maybe it was that song, but I decided I was going to go with Lime and Coconut. Coconut really opened the doors for me. Coconuts go well with a ton of things, like tropical fruits and spices, but I didn’t want to do a basic curry, because I’m Indian and that’s stereotypical. I’m all about breaking through racial barriers, or something.

So while I woke up this morning thinking about cumin and tamarind, I ended up only using coriander as far as savory complements to the salmon go. I wanted something orange to play off the bright red fish (I was stunned by the color initially, and equally stunned that it didn’t really fade when it was cooked), so…I bought oranges. From there I went for kiwis because limes and kiwis are roughly the same color (and I wasn’t going to eat plain lime pieces…they don’t sell kaffir limes here), I love kiwis, and kiwis worked well with the coconut when I tasted them, and with the dish because of their tart sweetness. (I realize now that I should have documented the cooking progress to make this more interesting, but I didn’t. Next time, I promise.)

The idea of making the sauce a “gel” came from this article featuring a recipe by Chef Grant Achatz of Alinea, in Chicago. He didn’t invent the concept, but I read it there first a long time ago, so that’s who I’m crediting (turns out, he also did a coconut ribbon, but for a dessert, and it looks way better than mine does). Agar is well known to those of you who work in labs as a gelling agent. It’s flavor-neutral, so “molecular gastronomists” use it in just this way to thicken sauces. As Achatz describes it, it’s easy to make a liquid out of a solid (purée it), and a solid out of a liquid (freeze it), but it’s a challenge to make a liquid out of a liquid. Using agar puts you right in between.

So I put the lime (juice) in the coconut (milk), added the agar, brough it to a boil, brought it down with gentle heat (all the while whisking whisking whisking), and poured it into a container to set in the refrigerator. My first mistake was pouring it too thickly (by that I mean it was maybe a quarter of an inch thick when I poured it in, but it should have been paper thin). Then I coated the salmon with a little bit of olive oil and salted generously and popped it in the oven at 250ºF for around 20 minutes. Garnishes aside, that’s all there is to it! Onto the recipe:

Salmon Coconut Kiwi Orange Mango

Coconut-Lime ribbon

1 1/3 cup coconut milk

1 tablespoons agar agar flakes

Juice of 1 lime

In a pan on medium heat, constantly stir ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil, still stirring, and reduce heat to low. Pour a thin layer into a container, refrigerate until it sets.

Slow-baked Salmon

1-1 1/4 inch thick Wild King Salmon Fillet

Olive oil

Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 250º F. Coat the salmon lightly with olive oil and season with salt. Place in a casserole dish and cover tightly with foil. Cook for no more than 25 minutes, prefereably 20 or less, depending on desired level of doneness.

Garnishes

• Cut the Orange and kiwi
• Find nice leaves of coriander
• Mango powder (amchur) can either be made with a dehydrator and a mortar/pestle or bought at an indian store.

Assembly/Presentation

Place a kiwi slice, an orange segment, and the salmon filet in a line diagonally across the plate. Drape the coconut ribbon over the three plated elements. Garnish.