Salmon "Chops" with Celery and Black Truffles

Phone: Beep-boop-boop... Boop-boop-boop-beep. Ring.... ring....

Friend: Hello?

Me: Hi. I'm doing a tasting in about an hour, wanna come over?

Friend: Sure! We'd love to! Oh, I can't wait! Perfect timing! How cool! What are we having? Oh, I don't care -- I'll eat ANYTHING you make!

Me: Salmon with black truffles and celschmwubwa.

Friend: Salmon with what?

Me: Black truffles and celerblummble.

Friend: Black truffles and WHAT?!

Me: Celery. Salmon with black truffles and celery.

Friend. Celery, huh. What time did you say it would be ready?

Me: Oh, in about an hour or so.

Friend: Yeah, about that. See, we have to, um, be somewhere or something in an hour, so, yeah, I don't think we can...

Me: You suck.

Friend: Celery sucks more.


Nothing says lovin' from the kitchen like CELERY, right? Wouldn't you jump at a dinner invitation that included the word CELERY? I mean, c'mon, mmmmmm-mmmmmmm, who doesn't love CELERY? Oh yeah, me. And probably most of you. I've made a French Laundry dish with celery before, and it wasn't bad -- actually, it was one of my favorite dishes thus far, but really. One dish with celery was enough. Must I suffer through another one? Apparently so. I swear, the lengths I'll go to please you rascally rabbits.

Let's see, where to begin. Oh yes, with the CELERY. FFFfffggglllllleeaauurrgghhh....


I washed and peeled them, and then tried really, really hard to understand the instructions in the book. Apparently, I was supposed to peel them and at the same time cut off the rounded parts, slice it lengthwise on a mandoline, cut the slices into a fine julienne about one inch long, then do two salchows and a triple lutz while wearing a blindfold (ten points if you get that reference). Celery on a mandoline didn't sound like something I wanted to risk this particular afternoon, so I threw all caution to the wind and said, "HA! You cannot outsmart ME, Thomas Keller, with your wily celery slicing methods! I will cut them into matchstick-like shapes by HAND instead of risking femoral artery damage while using my mandoline! And YES I know the femoral artery is not on the hand! I am just using that reference because it is funny and I heard it on ER once! Ha-HA!"


Okay, so they aren't perfect, but it's celery fer cryin' out loud. I kind of felt like being mean to it. Maybe I'll be mature NEXT year. Soooooooo, I blanched the celery in salty boiling water, cooled it in an ice bath, then dried it in paper towels and stored it at room temperature until I was ready for plating:


Next thing to prep was this lovely, lovely salmon:


Even though I think salmon is a lazy cop-out item to order in a restaurant, I don't mind making it at home... especially when it's a piece of fish that is this fresh and perfect. The salmon "chops" The French Laundry Cookbook refers to in the title of this dish are actually little pieces of the salmon near the head. Thankfully, the book recommends using a salmon fillet, which I did. I cut the salmon into 6 pieces that were roughly 2x2x1":


I salt and peppered them, and put them in a sauté pan skin side down for about 2 minutes. I flipped them to cook on the flesh side for about a minute, then gently "kissed" the other sides of the salmon to the bottom of the pan to ensure the outside was cooked all around:


The last thing I needed to do was make the sauce. I brought a tiny amount of water to a boil, whisked in a few tablespoons of butter, then whisked in a little bit of truffle oil. I removed it from the heat and whisked in some heavy cream until it was slightly frothy:


It's kind of hard to see the frothy goodness in that photo, but trust me, it was there... and man, did it smell great, too.

Just before plating, I got my black truffle ready for slicing. Remember the truffle? Of course you do:


First on the plate went the sauce:


Then, a little bed of celery:


Don't you love how I just threw it in there and didn't artfully arrange it in any way? Stupid celery doesn't deserve to be artfully arranged, no sir, no how.

Next, a slice of truffle:


Then, a brioche crouton (toasted brioche with a little olive oil and salt):


And last, but not least the salmon:


The skin was nice and crispy, and truth be told, this dish was really delicious. Rave reviews from everyone at the table -- even about the celery. The kids fought over the brioche and wanted more, and nearly everyone liked the salmon. Was this dish easy? You bet. One of the easiest in the book, I think. Would I make it again? Perhaps. I wouldn't buy truffles JUST to make this dish, but if I needed a new way to make salmon at home and had the sauce ingredients at hand (as well as a few parsnips to mash), I'd do this again. It was clean and light, but still substantive. Would I do this dish with celery again? Probably not. Celery root, perhaps. C'mon.... join the celery hate. You know you want to.

Up Next: A Very Special French Laundry at Home; stay tuned.

Resources:
Salmon from BlackSalt
Celery and chervil from Whole Foods
365 canola oil
Saveurs white truffle oil
Organic Valley cream
Black truffle from D'Artagnan
Brioche from the Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-op

Music to Cook By: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals; This is Somewhere. My cousin and her husband (Hi, Heather and Rob!) hipped me to Grace Potter well over a year ago. I hadn't listened to her stuff in awhile, so when it came up in shuffle mode on my iPod, I switched over to listen to her exclusively while I made this dish. I love this music -- it's perfect for a midweek January evening, curled up on the sofa under a blanket with a full belly, the lights low, a full glass of wine sitting in front of me, the dishwasher running in the distant background, and the dog laying here next to me snoring away.

Read my previous post: Tasting of Potatoes with Black Truffle