Lunch Feature 23.07.10

Today's lunch feature was a very simple dish that I'm sure all came together well(I can't eat any of the shellfishes).
I did a fennel crusted spring salmon, which I pan seared along with a thick slice of lemon. I know that the lemon isn't exactly Okanagan per se, however, I do know a few people who have successful lemon trees in the valley. Anyhow, I do this because the lemon takes on a very different flavor that really compliments fish with out overpowering some of the more delicate flavors. I also had acidity in some of the other components so I didn't want to overdo it.

With the belly trim from the salmon I did a very quick brown sugar and course salt cure. About 70%/30% in favor of the sugar. Make sure to use course salt as the finer stuff will overwhelm the curing process and make it to salty. I let this sit in the cure for about 2hrs. At this point a lot of the moisture of the fish will have leached out leaving the salmon belly swimming in it's own juices. I then removed the fish from the liquid but did not rinse it. Here I cold smoked it for about an hour and a half until it was fully cured. If smoking is not an option you can always just cook it at a low oven temperature for a few minutes until cooked.
The smoked belly was then added into a hummus along with a small dice of cucumber, dill, lemon juice(more acid), XVOO, seasonings and of course, the chick peas.

The sauce is a spot prawn bisque. Perhaps one day I will do up that whole process on here, but that is for another day. This sauce was not made by myself unfortunately, however, it did look and smell very nice(I hear it tasted good as well). The secondary sauce is a creme fraiche(more acid)which is made by mixing a little bit of buttermilk into some whipping cream and then letting it sit out overnight to thicken.

For vegetable garnishes I did a quick pan braise of some great baby summer squash and a pea shoot salad tossed in a little bit of lemon olive oil(yes, a little more acid...are you all starting to get the importance of acidity in food? Use a little acidity in your food and you will find you use less salt and usually less fat as well)

It sold well, anything prawn always does, it's a bit of a cheat but hey, I sold 27 of them today. In this case I guess that cheating is okay.

Sean Peltier