IMBB 5: One Fish Two Fish Bread(ed) Fish Goo Fish
with apologies to Dr. Seuss and any readers who didn't grow up with him.
What a joy to meet!
We only wish
to catch a fish,
so juicy-sweet
-Gollum, from... oh, you know the rest
Wena proposed a theme of fish for the most recent "Is My Blog Burning?". There were two dishes I wanted to try and I thought, well, why not make both? And for once, I included recipes, if you can call them that (see below). Melissa and I had both for a nice mid-week dinner, though I made many of the components the night before.
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We started with fried anchovies, a dish I first had at Bizou in San Francisco. Melissa was dubious about this dish; she's not a big anchovy fan. Still, she ate two to my three, so they couldn't have been too bad. Because they were salt-packed, though, they were very salty, despite the fact that I rinsed them and soaked them all day. Next time I'll fillet them to get more of the salt out. A pungent garlic mayonnaise and lemon wedges accompanied the dish.
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For our main course, I decided to make salmon rillettes. What are rillettes? Finding the answer to that question took some research. Lots of my cookbooks have recipes for pork or duck rillettes, but not even the rillettes article in an old issue of Art Culinaire has an abstract description I could use as a starting point for concocting a salmon version. So here is my answer, distilled from looking at various rillette dishes: rillettes are made by taking meat, cooking slowly in a lot of fat until very tender (for salmon this is on the order of 10 minutes, for pork shoulder, several hours), removing the meat and shredding it, and mixing back in enough of the cooking fat to form a paste. The result is a spread, which in my case had a pronounced but still delicate salmon taste. Typically, it's a way to use up excess meat from a carcass, but I bought a salmon steak just for the purpose.
Of course, I wanted our entrée to be more than just some goo. So I used Culinary Artistry to remind myself of flavors that work well with salmon. Horseradish, dill and cream were all mentioned, so I came up with the idea of making horseradish tuiles (thin cookies) as well as a dill-almond pesto. Finally a cream bechamel, made with a roux and some whipping cream. 'Cause you can never have too much fat on a plate.
To assemble, I piped some rillettes onto a warm plate, put a dollop of pesto on top, then put some rillettes and pesto on a tuile and laid that on top of the plated mound. I repeated the process with a second, smaller tuile. And on top of the topmost mound, I placed a piece of "salmon cracklings": salmon skin baked until it was crisp. Finally, a small dollop of cream sauce, with some more pesto swirled into it. It was surprisingly light texturally, but was nonetheless quite filling. It's definitely an ensemble I'd do again, but in the future I might do it as an amuse-bouche with the rillettes and pesto in a tuile cup.
My original thought on the wine had been a Pinot Noir. Its acidity does a nice job of balancing the fish's fat. If I had only served the entrée, I probably would have stuck with that idea. But the garlic mayonnaise was so strong that I worried it would overwhelm a delicate wine. I thought a rosé Champagne would work nicely, but Melissa pointed out that I should use one of the many bottles cluttering our apartment instead of buying a new one. The rosé idea stuck, and I decided to pour the 2003 Tablas Creek Rosé (which I used with the cherry-goat cheese beignets). A strong acidity for cutting through the fat and the hefty flavors of Rhone grapes worked nicely with both dishes. You may wonder why I wasn't worried about the delicate flavors of this wine being overwhelmed by the food. In low light, this rosé could easily be mistaken for a light red wine; it's that dark. There's plenty of flavor to go along with the deep, deep color.
Oh, right. The two non-fish courses. Melissa and I finished the meal with a simple cheese course with slices of goat gouda, and then we had a dessert of home made banana bread with whipped cream. I'll be curious to see if anyone managed a fish dessert for this edition of IMBB.
Fried Anchovies
Take some number of salt-packed anchovies, rinse, fillet, dry, and soak in olive oil for several hours. Meanwhile, make mayonnaise and add lots of garlic.
When you're ready to cook the anchovies, take them out of the oil, dry them off, and heat some vegetable oil to 350°. While the oil is heating, dredge the anchovies in flour, then buttermilk, then flour again, and place on a plate. When the oil is at temperature, drop the battered anchovies into the oil. Remove when golden-brown (about 5 minutes) and put on a plate covered with a paper towel to absorb the oil. Serve on a plate with lemon wedges and garlic mayonnaise.
Salmon Rillettes
A salmon steak (cross-section of the fish) netted me about 1 1/2 cups of rillettes, which was enough for dinner that night, lunch the next day, and a light addition to a salad a couple days later. Remove any bones you can from the fish, using either pliers or tongs to pull them out.
Melt two sticks of butter and an equivalent amount of duck fat in a medium pot over a modest flame. You want the fat to cover the salmon, so add more or less depending on the size of your fish. Place the salmon in the fat, and reduce the flame to low. You want to essentially poach the fish in the fat. Remove fish when tender and flaky (about 10 minutes) and let cool. Keep the fat.
Place the cooled fish into a bowl and shred it with a fork. You'll probably find some more bones in the process, so take them out as you find them. Start mixing in the reserved butter and duck fat, adding a little at a time. Mix until you have formed a coarse paste. Add salt and lemon juice to taste. Rillettes will keep for a few days if you press cling wrap to the surface and wrap it around the container. You will need to bring it to room temp before spreading/piping. Actually, it's a good idea to cool warm rillettes to room temp before serving. I didn't, and the warm fat was still liquid enough to "break" from the rillettes when I served it.
Dill-Almond Pesto
Put some dill, chopped toasted almonds, a couple cloves raw garlic, and just a bit of extra-virgin olive oil into a mortar and pestle. Smush carefully, scraping down the pestle (or is it the mortar?) frequently. Adjust the balance of ingredients. You want it to be overly flavorful because the final additions of oil and cheese will dilute the flavor. When the pesto is coarse but well-integrated (or your wrists need a break), add in more olive oil to make it more of a paste, as well as some finely grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese. Stir/pestle until you have a nice paste with a consistent texture. Adjust seasoning.
Salmon Cracklings
Remove the skin from the salmon steak by using a boning knife to scrape it off. If you hold the knife at a 15° angle or so, you should get a nice clean piece of skin. Bake on an oiled sheet pan in a 375-400° oven until crisp, about 10 minutes. Can be made several hours in advance.
Horseradish Tuiles
adapted from The French Laundry Cookbook (pg. 56 - garlic tuiles)
Soften 2 ounces of butter until it's still cool to the touch. Combine 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1 Tb sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt in a bowl. Beat one egg white into the dry ingredients until it's completely incorporated. Whisk the softened butter in a separate bowl until it has the consistency of mayonnaise. Whisk butter into dough in thirds. You want a batter that's creamy and smooth. Mine came out somewhat thick. Start adding in horseradish by the half-tablespoon until the batter is very flavorful. Now add in more, since the horseradish will mellow in the oven.
Preheat the oven to 325° and put a silicone sheet onto a baking sheet. Put a little dollop of the batter on the silicone, and use a small icing spatula to spread the batter into a thin circle (I actually made larger ovals and circles so that the bottom tuile would jut out more). Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the tuiles are browned and crisp. Let cool, and remove from pan. They can be kept in an airtight container overnight. Oh, and don't believe his recipe's yield of 2-3 dozen. I barely got 16 tuiles out of it. If you're Thomas Keller, you can make perfectly shaped, perfectly thin wafers. Mortals like you and me will end up with thinner, bigger cookies.
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