Richard Lipton

Salmon

I see salmon in the grocery store and get nostalgic for whole fresh Atlantic salmon. Even though I can tell and smell it as fresh, there is nothing better than filleting, deboning, and curing a salmon from start to finish. That and the fact that all parts of the salmon (one of the few fish with this attribute) are edible in some way, shape, or form. The skin has natural oils, which can be roasted to make good salad toppings. The head and bones make an awesome salmon stock basis for soup or rice flavoring. The flesh is one of the best for omega 3 that help lower cholesterol naturally.

That being said, salmon is very versatile and lends its unique flavors to more foods than normally possible. Thinking outside the box on a daily basis is fun, especially when you have others like you nearby, ready, willing, and anxious to taste new and varied delights made from an old standby.

Here are a few thoughts and unique ideas on a hard-to-come-by fish here in Louisiana. Don't like salmon? Substitute any fish of choice for salmon in these recipes. Play, have fun, and bon appetit.

Salmon and Rice Wrapped in Pastry

Serves 4

1/2 Cup (1 dl) rice

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed

2 Tbsp butter

4, 6 oz (120 g) salmon fillets, skinned

1/2 Cup (1 dl) leek, minced

1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp water

6 oz (180 g) shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, chopped

Bring 1 cup of water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add rice and boil until tender, 18-20 minutes, stirring constantly. Melt butter in heavy cast iron skillet over medium low heat. Add leek and sauté until soft, 3-5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cover until mushrooms release their juices, 4-5 minutes. Uncover and increase heat to medium-high. Sauté until liquid evaporates, 2-4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and add rice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cool thoroughly.

Butter a large baking sheet. Stretch 1 pastry sheet gently and cut into 4 equal squares. Divide rice mixture among centers of each square equally. Set salmon fillets atop rice.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring pastry corners up around salmon to enclose completely. Pinch to seal, brushing with egg mixture to help seal tightly. Arrange salmon pockets, seam side down, on baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C). Brush top of pocket with egg wash. Bake until golden brown, 25-30 minutes. Transfer to plates and serve. Use a sauce of your choice (see article and recipes for sauces).

Salmon Gefilte Fish

Serves 20

1, 7 lb salmon fillet, skinned

4-1/2 quarts (4-½ liters) cold water

6 medium onions, peeled, quartered

5 carrots, peeled, chopped

2-1/2 Tbsp kosher salt

1 Tbsp sugar

1-1/2 tsp white pepper

Sliced Carrots

5 large eggs

Sliced Cucumbers

1/4 Cup matzo meal

Sliced Radishes

Line 2 baking sheets with plastic wrap. Cut salmon into 1 inch (2-½ cm) pieces. In

batches, grind salmon finely in food processor, scraping the sides as needed. Transfer fish to a large bowl. Add 3 onions, 1-1/2 Tbsp salt, and pepper to the processor. Pulse until onions are finely chopped. Add the onion mixture, eggs, and matzo meal to the fish. Stir to blend well.

Using damp hands, working with 1/4 Cupful (½ dl) at a time, shape fish mixture into dumplings, each about 1-1/2 inches wide by 2-1/2 inches long (4 cm wide by 6 cm long). Arrange dumplings on plastic covered sheets. Cover and chill to set while preparing a stock.

Place salmon head, skin, and bones in a large pot. Add water, chopped carrots, sugar, remaining onions, and remaining salt. Boil over high heat. Reduce to medium, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. Using slotted spoon or strainer, remove all solids from the stock and discard. Return stock to a simmer and gently drop fish dumplings into the stock. Cover and simmer until dumplings are cooked through, 25-30 minutes. Remove dumplings with slotted spoon and place in a large baking dish. Strain enough stock to cover them halfway. Refrigerate, uncovered, until cold, 3-5 hours minimum.

Cover and keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Serve with sauce of choice (see recipes in article on sauces) and garnish with sliced vegetables, if desired.

Saucy Finale

Out of the five mother sauces, Espagnole, Veloute, Tomato, Bechemel and Hollandaise, Hollandaise is the most recent and the most "painful" to create as well as eat. Hollandaise is classified as an emulsion or, basically, the blending together of two or more ingredients that do not normally blend well. Other typical emulsions are mayonnaise, and oil and vinegar based dressings. The reason that Hollandaise got to be the lucky mother sauce was due to the fact that presently more sauces are created from that then any others. At the time I went to culinary school in the late 1980's, it was still a question whether or not it was a "true" mother sauce.

As mentioned it is both "painful" to make as well as to eat Hollandaise Sauce. Making this particular emulsion requires a double boiler and a strong arm. Using egg yolks, mixed with a touch of lemon juice, salt, white pepper, and Tabasco, over a double boiler, beating them with a wire whisk, so as to aerate the egg yolks and make them fluffy, just long enough to slightly cook them without scrambling them, is "painful" to be sure. After the egg yolks have turned a bright yellow and have been sufficiently aerated, we then add clarified butter in a steady stream, while whisking constantly, until a sauce consistency is

Reached (thereby creating the emulsion). If you stop in the middle of the sauce process in the double boiler or pour the butter in too fast or whisk too slow, the sauce will break and all will have been for naught. You will be left with a buttery egg mixture that will neither look nor taste good.

If you make it this far, and it is OK to mess up the first couple of times, then we get to the "painful" part of eating the sauce. What we now ingest on top of eggs or chicken or fish is pure 100% Grade A "bad" cholesterol. Guaranteed to harden your arteries and clog up your inner workings really fast, this sauce tastes really good but should only be eaten in small doses.

When mixed with a tarragon and white wine reduction, it becomes béarnaise sauce (seen normally on grilled filet mignons). Add minced jalapenos, chopped cilantro, and orange juice, and you create a Peppery Orange Hollandaise sauce good for fish and chicken. When you make this sauce, please remember to use unsalted butter for the emulsion or leave out the extra salt if you use salted butter.

Here are a couple of other sauce recipes that are a little healthier than Hollandaise and 10 times healthier. Bon Appetit

White Butter Sauce

Serves 6

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 Tbsp white vinegar

3 sticks unsalted butter, diced

1 small shallot, minced

1/2 tsp salt

In a medium saucepan, simmer the wine, vinegar, and minced shallot over medium low heat until the liquid is almost evaporated. Stir in the heavy cream, bring to a simmer, and cook until reduced by 1/3, about 5 minutes longer. Whisk in the butter in 6 batches, adding the next batch when the previous one has been incorporated. Strain the sauce through a cheesecloth into a double boiler. Season to taste with salt and white pepper. The sauce will keep for about 20 minutes when held over warm water.

Tarragon Cream Sauce

Serves 10

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp dried tarragon

1/2 Cup heavy cream

1 large shallot, diced fine

1/2 Cup milk

1/8 Cup dry white wine

1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Melt the butter in a small saucepan until butter begins to turn hazelnut brown. Add the tarragon and shallots and sauté until the shallots are tender. Add the wine and simmer 5-10 minutes. Stir in the flour; add the cream and milk and cook until thickened, whisking often. Just before serving, stir in the parsley, if desired.

The Secret is in the Sauce
Part 1
Chef Richard M. Lipton

An old line used often in many movies and in life still holds true, "The secret is in the sauce". Herbs, spices, and sauces can liven up dishes in ways no "season salt" brand ever could. The joys and flavors of cooking with natural ingredients brings long term health benefits as well as immediate gratification to even the most simplest of palates.

Basically stated, you get as much now as you will down the road, without high blood pressure, hypertension, heart attacks, and/or strokes. We still have an abundance of fresh herbs available in our grocery stores and even more, and less expensive, at the local nursery. Go out and buy a Basil or Rosemary plant, water it regularly, and pluck the leaves whenever dinner approaches. The flavor from these plants will liven your taste buds and enrich your lives a thousand fold.

Where do all the great and simple sauces come from? Good question. The French identified and "created" what we now know as "mother sauces". These are the sauces from which all others are "born". There are 5 in all. Can you believe it? Five simple sauces that are the base for every other sauce made in any restaurant in the world today. They are Espagnole, Tomato, Veloute, Bechamel, and Hollandaise. Here is a description of each one and what can be derived from them. As far as recipes are concerned, look for part two next week. Recipes for these sauces can be found on the web or email me and I will send you whichever one you would like to try.

1) Espagnole - sauce that is brown and stock-based. Common sauces in this group include Bordelaise, Chasseur, Chateaubriand, Diable, Diane, Estragon, Lyonnaise, Madère, Madeira, Moscovite, Mushroom, Piquante, Porto, Robert, Romaine, Tarragon, and Zingara.

2) Velouté - sauce that is made with white stock and roux. Common sauces in this group include, Allemande, Ravigote, Suprème, and White Bordelaise.

3) Béchamel - sauce that is made with milk and pale roux. Common sauces in this group include Crème, Mornay and Soubise.

4) Tomato Sauce - Self explanatory - Common sauces in this category include spaghetti sauce, marinara and a wide variety of tomato sauces.

5) Hollandaise - an emulsion of egg yolks, lemon juice, clarified butter, salt, and white pepper. Derivatives include Bearnaise and any other flavoring one would like to add to their hollandaise

Bon Appetit until next week.