Salmon With Blueberries

Over the last couple of weeks I've become a huge fan of the New York Time's "Dining&Food" section. Their articles are really interesting and the recipes are always very inspiring.

Last week they had a recipe up for King Salmon With Agrodolce Blueberries. 

That's a weird combination, I thought. But for some reason it made total sense to me, and so I decided to give it a try. The preparations are quick and easy. Therefore it is perfect when you are in a hurry or don't really feel like cooking anymore. And it's a nice and ideal starter or appetizer you can surprise your guests with.

What I liked so much about this was that the acidity of the blueberries and white wine vinegar  in combination with the cinnamon, honey and thyme really balances out the particular fish oil flavor of the salmon. 

INGREDIENTS (for 6 Persons):

• 6 (240g/8-ounce) fillets wild king salmon
• Sea salt, as needed
• Vegetable oil for baking sheet
• 2 shallots, peeled and very thinly sliced
• 375ml/1.5 cups white wine
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 4 springs fresh thyme
• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
• approx. 160g/1.3 cups blueberries
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons honey
• Black pepper

PREPARATION:

Run your fingers over the salmon flesh and pull out any pinbones. Season fish generously with salt and let rest at room temperature while you prepare the sauce.

Heat the oven to 200°C/400°Fahrenheit . Oil a large baking sheet.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, simmer together shallots, wine, vinegar, thyme, cinnamon and a pinch of salt until most of the liquid has evaporated, 15 to 20 minutes. Toss in blueberries, butter and honey; cook until berries soften and turn the sauce pink, 2 to 4 minutes.

Place salmon on baking sheet. Spoon berry mixture over salmon and season with pepper. Bake until salmon is cooked to desired doneness, 8 to 10 minutes for medium-rare.

NOTES:

Next time I think I will try to sear the salmon on one side at really high heat for a minute or two because I think some roasting flavor may go really well with it.

When I prepared this recipe it I only had fish for two people. I thought it could have used more sauce/blueberries and a tiny bit more sweetness from the honey. But i also messed up the conversions. So I wouldn't worry about that. Just try the sauce in between, and if it's not enough blueberries, liquid or honey, just add more...

I also left it in the oven for too long. My salmon wasn't medium rare unfortunately. 

Fish cooks so quickly!

But still it was all juicy and soft! Delicious.

Guinness Pie (New York Times/Jamie Oliver)

Hopefully this is going to be the last wintery-cold weather recipe for the next six months at least.

Don't get me wrong. This pie tastes delicious. But I'm so looking forward to spring and seasonal food such as asparagus, strawberries, peaches, rasberries, arugula etc...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I haven't been cooking that much lately, or at least not that much new or worth posting. But luckily I have a very ambitious fiance in Wil, at least when it comes to all kinds of meat dishes. He is currently curing his third bacon (which we are going to smoke afterwards), made pork rillettes and his own trotter gear (which is part of this guiness pie recipe, as well).

And yes, Wil also prepared this Guinness Pie, which he found here in the New York Times.

He altered the original recipe a little bit, but, of course, I will provide you with the info (in red) of what he did different and how it affected the dish in the end.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter

2 large red onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

- Wil used celeriac instead of celery, and added 3 medium potatoes, 1 large parsnip, 2 medium black radishes and 1 small violet turnip, and 1 small leek all chopped in bite-sized cubes and pieces.

10 mushrooms, trimmed and sliced

- Wil used dried wild mushrooms instead. They are much more flavorful than fresh cremini mushrooms or portobellos

3 pounds brisket (preferably second-cut) or stew meat, chopped into bite-size pieces

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons flour

1 sprig rosemary

About 4 cups (2 cans) Guinness or other stout

1 cup trotter gear (recipe to come!) or 8 ounces freshly grated Cheddar

For the pastry:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour  

- Wil used whole wheat flour, which gave the pie crust a much heartier flavor.

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt 

- he added a pinch of sugar and a dash of cinnamon to the dough, to make it less bland.

1/2 cup (1 stick) very cold unsalted butter, diced

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten.

 Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large, ovenproof pan fitted with a lid, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 10 minutes.

3. Add the carrots, celery/celeriac, potatos, parsnip, radishes, turnip, dried mushrooms and remaining 2 tablespoons butter and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are dark in color and the moisture released by them has evaporated, about 15 minutes (that doesn't count for the dried mushrooms, of course!).

4. Season the beef pieces all over with salt and pepper. Add the beef, flour (Wil coated the meat in the flour) and rosemary to the pan and cook/brown over high heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes.

5. Add enough Guinness to just cover the beef. Cover the pan and put it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from the oven and stir. If using trotter gear, stir it in now (Wil went a little heavier on the trotter gear. It's just too good and rich!). Return to the oven and cook for 1 hour more. If it remains thin, set the pan over medium-low heat, remove the lid and reduce the liquid. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If using Cheddar, fold in about half.

6. While the stew is cooking, prepare the pastry: sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, quickly work the butter into the dough until it is the texture of coarse meal. Add ice water, a splash at a time, until a firm dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

7. Place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and, using a rolling pin, roll to the thickness of a computer mouse pad. Pour the stew into an 8-inch-square, 2-inch-high Pyrex dish or a deep 9-inch pie pan. If using Cheddar, scatter the remaining cheese across the top. Place the dough on top of the pie and pinch it closed around the edges using the tines of a fork, then slash the center lightly with a knife. Brush with the egg yolk, place on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, or until the pastry is puffy and golden.  

Serves 6. 

The original stew was adapted from Jamie Oliver; the original pastry was adapted from Fergus Henderson.

Notes: 

Feel free to go heavy on the spices and seasoning. If you decide to use paprika, that's great and will definitely be a good fit. But please remember that this will give your British stew certainly a Hungarian twist. That's not bad at all. But if you want to keep it British you may better want to save the paprika for your next Gulasch. I would suggest, instead of using it here to rather find spices other than paprika to finish up your Guiness pie, even if this seems to be a bigger challenge.

Regarding the pie crust, I can say, that we are still trying to find the recipe for the perfectly soft but at the same time crunchy crust. The dough also should be flavorful, but not compete with the stew flavors either.

The whole wheat with some sugar, salt and cinnamon was an excellent decision. But the consistency was still a little bit too caky. We'll work on that and let you know how it goes...