Part I: Gravlax

Back in December, I caught Chuck Hughes' Christmas special on The Cooking Channel, and I watched him make gravlax.  It seemed simple enough, and we had the many of the components on hand (aside from the salmon), so why not try it out?

We put my mortar & pestle to use to crush the szechuan peppercorns, and to mix up the salt, dill and brown sugar.  I only had Kosher salt on hand, rather than coarse salt, so if that is the case for you, I'd recommend using a bit less salt than the recipe calls for.

For your salmon, either buy 2 filets, or buy 1 that you'll cut in half.  You want to have 2 pieces of salmon that are mirror images of each other so you can sandwich them, one on top of the other.  Take your salt/sugar/dill mixture and crust both pieces of salmon.  The thicker parts should get more salt/sugar/dill.

Sandwich the salmon together with the salt/sugar/dill mixture in the middle.  Tightly wrap your salmon sandwich in plastic wrap, and place on a cookie sheet.  You'll want to place another cookie sheet on top, then place it in the fridge with about 1lb. of weight on top.

Let it sit in the fridge for 24hrs.  You'll notice a lot of liquid will seep out, and the flesh of the salmon will darken and lose its translucence.  When that's happened, your gravlax is ready!  Just remove all of the salt/sugar/dill, rinse off the flesh with water, and pat it dry.  When you're ready to eat it, just slice off pieces on the bias.

Now we know what you're thinking...what do I do with a couple hunks of cured salmon?  Well, for part II of this post, we'll show you we made our own bagels, and how to build the perfect breakfast bagel.  You should "Like" our Facebook page to get instant updates too.  Stay tuned!

The Sorrel of the Story...

We were a bit unsure of how to best use our sorrel, so as always, we turned to the interwebs to see what kinds of recipes are out there.  Since we haven't had seafood in a while, and salmon went on sale at the market today, we decided to go with a pecan-crusted salmon with sorrel sauce.  It came together really easily and quickly, and made for a great week night meal.

Justin tackled the fish, making the crust by simply throwing the pecans, basil, and tarragon into a food processor, and grinding it all up with a bit of butter.  Then you just slather it on your salmon fillets, and pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, I took care of the sauce.  You start by chopping the sorrel and shallots, and giving them a quick saute with some cooking wine.  Once the sorrel has wilted, add in the cream.  Since we're back on the Paleo diet, we substituted coconut cream for the whipped cream.  Add a squeeze of fresh lime juice, and let it reduce down.  We also threw in a small pat of butter to help cut the coconut flavor.  Once it's reduced down to your desired consistency, give it a quick blend to smooth out the sauce and finely chop the sorrel and shallots.  Then just season with some white pepper and salt.

To compliment our fish, we threw together a simple salad using the mixed greens we picked up yesterday.  We sliced up some red onion, diced up one of the golden delicious apples, gave a rough chop to some of the celery tops, and thinly sliced some carrots.  For the dressing we mixed together some grapeseed oil, a bit of whole grain mustard, and some orange muscat vinaigrette.

The crust on the salmon gave it a nice herby crunch, and the sauce added a nice, creamy, earthiness.

Gimme Back That Filet o Fish

Since the meats we got in Tuesday's share were all frozen, we made a quick stop in Eastern Market to pick up a protein to go with some of our fresh veggies.  We decided to go with some nice salmon filets, atop a parsnip and turnip puree, with a side of red kale.  Luckily the salmon was not as annoying as this fishy.

So let's get cookin'!  The puree took the most work, so I got to peeling the parsnips and turnips, while Justin chopped them.  After a little salt and pepper, those went into the oven to roast.

While the parsnips and turnips were roasting, Justin made the brown butter.  If you haven't made it before, its a very simple technique that adds a great nuttiness to your food.  You just melt some butter in a pan and let it caramelize until it turns brown and tastes nutty.

As soon as the butter browned, we added some black mission figs cut side down, and half of a red onion, and let them cook down and get coated in the delicious butter.  Once the turnips and parsnips were roasted, those were added to the brown butter, figs, and onion.  We kept it all in the pan for just a few minutes, to allow everything to be coated in the butter, and let the flavors kind of meld together.

Then it was time to puree!  If you don't have an immersion blender, you should really consider getting one.  We've used it to make sauces, soups, purees, smoothies and shakes.  Its such a versatile tool and it doesn't take up a lot of space.  Anyway...back to the puree...

The only other thing we added to the puree was some flat leaf parsley and a touch of heavy cream.  The figs added a nice sweetness, but the tang from the turnips still came through.

While the puree rested, we got to the rest of the meal.  Justin seasoned the salmon with some smoked applewood sea salt, lemon salt, a touch of cayenne, some brown sugar, and some fresh dill and thyme.  We popped those into the oven for about 12 minutes, and they came out perfectly cooked.

While Justin took care of the fish, I got to work on the red kale.  Using the same pan that we browned the butter in, I sauteed a shallot and some garlic.  Then I tossed in the kale and let it wilt down a bit.  I noticed the shallot and garlic were starting to stick to the bottom of the pan a bit, so I deglazed the pan with a little lemon juice and red wine vinegar to give it a little tang, and to pick up all the buttery bits at the bottom of the pan.

By the time the kale had wilted, the salmon was ready.  We're getting a lot better at this whole timing thing!  Everything came together wonderfully!  The salmon had a nice sweet, smokey, herby taste, while the puree was sweet with a hint of tang, and the kale gave us some crunch.