Weekends I cook. It’s become my hobby, I guess, and I feel like I’m getting better. I stopped following recipes a while back, because I think it’s cheating. Anyone who is paying attention can make a good recipe turn out well.
So anyway. Last week I used Thai/tropical flavors against my salmon, but this week I wanted to try something else out. I spent a lot of my downtime at work doing ingredient research, and came up with a lot of different flavor pairings until I finally decided to both play with the fattiness in the salmon, and cut through it. To play, I chose pine nuts, which are fatty nuts (lol). I also chose Fuji Apple (after not being able to find Asian Pear…I am two weeks too early for its local growing season according to the Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market) because it’s sweet and tart, which met both of my goals wih the dish (play with and cut through the fat). I pickled the apple to play up the tartness with some acidity and to introduce some spices into the mix for a deeper flavor. I picked radish for some crunch in the dish, as well as for its zing (actually, to be honest, I picked it because I was seduced by their redness at the farmstand). Radishes get that zing from a combination of glucosinolates and myrosinase (an enzyme), which come together to form allyl isothiocyanates, also found in mustard! So I obviously wanted a sharp mustard in there to complement the radish, but I didn’t want too many elements on the plate, so I mixed it in with the pine nuts. I also put some tarragon in there because I wanted the anise-y tarragon somewhere in the dish to complement the anise in the pickled apple. I’ll stop babbling and get to the recipe:
Pickled Fuji Apple Sheet
3 Fuji Apples, sliced
2 inches Peeled ginger
5 whole Cloves
3 Star Anise pods
2 cups Cider Vinegar
2 tsp Sugar
2 tbsp Agar Flakes
Half the spice
Bring Apples, Vinegar, Spices and enough water to cover apples to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 more minutes, or until apples are soft to the touch.
Always whisking…
Remove apples, let cool, puree in a food processor and strain into a sauce pan. Add approximately 1 cup of spiced cooking water/vinegar. Add agar, and soak for 15 minutes. Bring up to a boil, whisking constantly, reduce heat, still whisking, and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour a little onto a large, flat surface, spreading as thinly as possible with a spatula. Set in refrigerator for 10 minutes.
You gellin’?
Pine Nut Mustard
3.5 oz. Pine Nuts
3 tbsp Dijon Mustard
Tarragon leaves
This rounds the flavor of the nuts. Also, like my red pan?
Toast pine nuts in skillet and move to a food processor, tear in a few tarragon leaves, stream in a little olive oil at a time until a paste is made. Transfer to a bowl, fold in Dijon Mustard.
Pinenut Butter!
I cooked the salmon exactly the same way as last week, only I topped it with some Maldon Sea Salt I found today (see next post). Delicious salt, that.
I hope this plating is a little more acceptable to my critic out there. It’s aight, not exactly how I wanted it to turn out. I accidentally ripped the gel, and I didn’t want to re-heat and re-set it because my dinner would have gotten cold.
That dill is just for you Joy, it has no other purpose here.
Anyway, that was fun. Let me know what you guys think. Would any of you even eat this? I loved it, but who am I to judge?
