The best salmon you will ever have

[hrothgar]

Here's a new recipe that I recently perfected that marries some traditional Mexican techniques with some modern high tech

 

 

“Quick” Onion / Habanero pickle - Habaneros can be omitted (or use less assertive peppers)

<<If you aren't used to habaneros, tread carefully>>

 

Ingredients

 

• 
   
  
• One large red onion
  
• 2 habaneros seeded and finely chopped
  
• Juice of one grapefruit
  
• Juice of one lime
  
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  
• 2 teaspoons coriander seed + 15 white peppercorns (crushed)
  
• Salt to taste (half teaspoon is about right)
  

 

Directions

• 
   
  
• Combine all ingredients except the onions in a nonreactive bowl. Glass is good, metal is bad. Stir well
  
• Bring a pot of water to a boil
  
• Slice onion into even 3cm slices
  
• Drop onions into the boiling water and immediately empty into a strainer
  
• Run cold water over the onions, add onions to the the liquid ingredients, store in the fridge
  
• The pickle can start being consumed the next day
  

The fish

 

Ingredients

 

• 
   
  
• FRESH salmon (this is a simple recipe and very reliant on the quality of your fish)
  
• 2 tablespoons mustard oil
  
• 1 tablespoon grape seed oil
  

 

Directions

• 
   
  
• Brine the salmon for 30 minutes
  
• Wash well
  
• Place the salmon in a ziplock bag with the mustard oil. Force out all the air and seal. Distribute the oil so it covers all the salmon
  
• Place the salmon into 113 degree water bath for 12 minutes (I use my immersion circulator. I’ve heard rumors that slow cookers work equally well)
  
• Get a cast iron frying pan screaming hot. Coat with the grape seed oil (grape seed oil has a high smoke point. Other neutral tasting high smoke point oils will work equally well). What’s important here is that you want a lot of thermal mass (cast iron), at a high temperature, with some oil to conduct the heat, and nothing bursting into flame
  
• As soon as the fish is done, remove the fish from the ziplock bag, place the fish skin side down in your frying pan, crisp the skin to taste
  
• Remove the fish from the pan, slice, top with some pickle (cause you need acid), serve
  

[kenberg]

I just had the following conversation:

 

Me to spouse: This guy on the bbo forum puts up some recioes from time to time, this sounds good, maybe you would like to try it.

 

Spouse to me: Yes, it looks really good, why don't YOU try it?

 

 

Becky is quick that way.

[hrothgar]

I just had the following conversation:

 

Me to spouse: This guy on the bbo forum puts up some recioes from time to time, this sounds good, maybe you would like to try it.

 

Spouse to me: Yes, it looks really good, why don't YOU try it?

 

Becky is quick that way.

 

FWIW, I consider this recipe

 

1. Really really good

2. Quite easy

 

There are only two hard parts

 

The first is finding some way to keep a water bath at 113 degrees (especially after you add a big piece of salmon)

This one will require some trial and error on your part, however, thermal mass is your friend

(You wan a large pot of 133 water, preferably sitting in a cast iron pot)

 

The second is getting nice crispy skin...

 

This is soemthing of an art.

Practice makes perfect.

 

You might want to cut some salmon into lots of little pieces so you can practice, practice, practice

[cherdano]

I wish we had a "hrothgar recipe" tag on BBF.

[jillybean]

I wish I had received a dinner invitation.

[hrothgar]

folks are welcome to swing by for dinner any time they are in the greater Boston area

[matmat]

113 seems like a very small target. Does the fish turn rubbery if i cook at 112 and fall apart at 114? :D

 

 

Sounds yummy, except for the grapefruit bit.

[hrothgar]

113 seems like a very small target. Does the fish turn rubbery if i cook at 112 and fall apart at 114? :D

 

Sounds yummy, except for the grapefruit bit.

 

In terms of the temperature, I was simply cribbing off Nathan Myhrvold

 

You have considerable lattitude with respect to citrus...

If you don't like grapefruit, try a blood orange or a meyer's lemon or even yuzu...

[JLOGIC]

Richard I'm makin a trip to Boston just to eat your food man haha.

 

Edit: BTW this is obvious but I can vouch for Richard as an awesome dinner companion, even my sister loved him!

[y66]

I've had good luck with the screaming hot massive cast iron skillet part. Have not tried the brining or immersion. This combo sounds ideal, esp. for thicker cuts. I think it's also important to minimize time and temperature change between end of cooking and start of eating.

[hrothgar]

I've had good luck with the screaming hot massive cast iron skillet part. Have not tried the brining or immersion. This combo sounds ideal, esp. for thicker cuts. I think it's also important to minimize time and temperature change between end of cooking and start of eating.

 

Quick comment about the "brining"

 

Normally, when you brine a protein, you're trying to impart flavor / moisture.

 

The purpose here is very different. If you sous vide a piece of untreated salmon, you often have weird strands of white protein extruding from the fish.

(it looks like the fish is bleeding egg white)

 

The brining will pull these proteins out of the fish and you end up with a nicer looking product.

(This step can be safely skipped, however)

[helene_t]

113 seems like a very small target. Does the fish turn rubbery if i cook at 112 and fall apart at 114? :D

 

 

Sounds yummy, except for the grapefruit bit.

Maybe have been written in Celcius originally. 45 is a half-round figure.

[Gerben42]

Maybe have been written in Celcius originally. 45 is a half-round figure.

 

I was already wondering how I would manage this, my water tends to boil off at 100.

 

Reminder to self - whenever visiting my American colleagues, stop by for a dinner at Hrothgar's place :)

[Aberlour10]

I think Hrothgar would be the right person for the detailed inquiry and finally answer to the question>>> why did my several Chateaubriand tries sucked heh

[helene_t]

Btw grape seed oil has a low smoke point compared to most other refined oils: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

[ggwhiz]

My wife is fond of all seafood and Salmon is an absolute favorite. This is my get-out-of-jail free card. Thanks!

 

I learned that if you cook as a guy, every woman in the world will say "that was great, you should do it more often" regardless of how it turns out.

[y66]

Edit: Sunday 4/24

 

Tried that immersion technique last night with very good results, including comparison with non-immersed version. Will definitely do that again. It is surprisingly easy to maintain a precise temperature when using a large crock pot and a digital thermometer.

[1eyedjack]

There is a small issue that I do not understand. The absence of a pressure cooker in the instructions suggests to me that the reference to "113 degrees" is in farenheit, which would be, as Helene observes, 45 celcius.

 

Well, we have just eaten a side of salmon. It was a completely different recipe, but I would not expect the cooking time and temperature of the fish to vary dramatically. We sealed it in tinfoil with some bits and pieces and cooked it in the oven for 20 minutes at gas mark 5, which is 190 celcius or 375 farenheit, and it still came out fractionally undercooked. Not dramatically, and quite edible (indeed very pleasant), but I think it certainly could have done with another 5 minutes.

 

Even allowing for variations in ovens and the normal inaccuracies, that is still quite a gulf compared with 12 minutes at 45 celcius.

 

I realise that the recipe in this thread calls for a secondary cooking process. Perhaps that accounts for the difference.

[hrothgar]

Well, we have just eaten a side of salmon. It was a completely different recipe, but I would not expect the cooking time and temperature of the fish to vary dramatically. We sealed it in tinfoil with some bits and pieces and cooked it in the oven for 20 minutes at gas mark 5, which is 190 celcius or 375 farenheit, and it still came out fractionally undercooked. Not dramatically, and quite edible (indeed very pleasant), but I think it certainly could have done with another 5 minutes.

 

Even allowing for variations in ovens and the normal inaccuracies, that is still quite a gulf compared with 12 minutes at 45 celcius.

 

Comment 1:

 

Water is MUCH more effective at conveying heat than air

 

Comment 2:

 

The texture of this dish is VERY different than more traditional preparations.

 

The preparation is actually called "mi cuit" which translated as "partially cooked" or some such

 

 

If you like sushi, you'll love this.

If you don't like sushi you might want to beta test.

 

Also, the temperature never gets hot enough to kill bacteria (needless to say , you want to make sure you're using fresh fish)

[cherdano]

folks are welcome to swing by for dinner any time they are in the greater Boston area

Once we are back from Europe this fall, it is just an hour and a half of drive...