French Laundry at Home

I'm not even gonna try to be coy or playful, or make you guess what I thought of this dish or make you wait until the end to find out, because I can't hold it in that long.

This dish freakin' rocks.

I almost don't even want to write about it because I'm not sure there are words that can accurately convey how good this was. Let me start with these caveats, too: I really, really don't like salmon (I know, I'm strange), and I mostly detest citrus. The only citrus I like is limes, because you need fresh-squeezed lime juice in a Sidecar. I can't eat grapefruit because it tastes like hot tar smells. Lemons make me gag, and oranges make me sneeze and the pulp feels squeaky on my teeth.

I was dreading this dish for a long time, but figured I'd get it overwith and not worry about eating it because I'd let my friends enjoy every last bite. I'm glad I got over myself (hey, there's a first time for everything) and took a bite because this dish is a keeper.

I'm going to shut up now, so you can see how the dish came to be.

The first thing I did was make the citrus marinade for the salmon.

I zested one orange, half a lemon, half a lime, and a third of a grapefruit:

I mixed it in bowl with some salt, white pepper, and sugar:

Done. Wasn't that easy?

Next, I removed the salmon (skin already removed) from its wrapping and made sure all the pin bones were removed and it was ready to be marinated:

I spread part of the marinade on a sheet of aluminum foil, placed the salmon on top, sprinkled the rest of the marinade on top of the salmon, wrapped it up, and put it between two baking sheets and put it in the fridge for about three hours:

While the fish was marinating, I made the orange confit. This involved sectioning four navel oranges, removing all the membranes and pith so that it was just the orange sections, then confit-ing them in a mixture of simple syrup and white wine vinegar:

Next up? The pea shoot coulis. Wanna see my pea shoots? Do ya?

And, here's an extreme close-up ("Extreme close-up!! Whhooooaaa, wwwhhhhooooooaaaaaaaa"):

They're almost too pretty too cook, aren't they? Too bad. I blanched them, cooled them off in an ice bath, strained them, puréed them, pressed the purée through a tamis, then added some butter and salt to the coulis... keeping it warm on the stovetop while I cooked the fish:

Just before I started the pea shoot coulis, I took the salmon out of the refrigerator, rinsed off the citrus marinade patted the fish dry, cut it into six servings, and let those six servings sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
I know it looks like the pieces in the back still have their skins on -- they don't. It's just a weird shadow.

I warmed the orange sections in their syrup. Next, I brought a pot of olive oil up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, added the salmon pieces to it, and poached them in the oil -- in all, it took probably 15 minutes (5 minutes for the oil to heat and 10 minutes of poaching). The fish was flaky, but still orange-ish/pink. I took the salmon out of the oil and let them drain for a minute on a paper towel-covered plate.

Then, I plated the dish. Salmon in the center with chives and osetra caviar on top (I went for the good stuff this time), surrounded by orange sections, and some pea shoot coulis on the side:

You may recall reading about one of my regular tasters, Grant, of the famed Grant Tipton Day. He looooooooves salmon. He's actually quite the connoisseur, even though he's only eleven years old. He likes his salmon smoked, grilled, broiled, poached, in gravlax form... the kid loves salmon. So, I knew he'd be my toughest critic. He was a little squicked out by the fact that it was poached in olive oil, and thought it would come out all oogie and drippy. But, he took one bite, chewed it thoughtfully, then proceeded to stab at the rest of the fish, mixing all the flavors and devouring that dish like I've never seen before. When I asked him what he thought of how the salmon went together with the taste of peas and oranges, his response was, "Blllhhhhssrrsssh," to which I replied, "Um, what?"

He chewed some more, swallowed, and repeated his answer: "Bliss."

And you know what?

He's right.

The pea shoot coulis, even though it looked like the Jolly Green Giant had a case of the squirts, was really and truly outstanding. That's the element that tied everything together, for me. The oranges were gorgeous, the salmon was perfect, the caviar was divine, the chives were just crunchy enough.... I haven't been able to stop talking about this dish since I made it. It's really hard to describe how good it is -- because it's that good. If you have The French Laundry Cookbook, step away from the computer, go buy the ingredients and make this dish immediately. That's an order. Because when you make it, you will end up with a table full of these:

This dish gets added to the permanent repertoire. It's the only way I'll eat salmon from now on, I'm pretty sure. This, or some form of it, will be a "go to" dish for me for dinner parties or just whenever the mood strikes. In fact, next Sunday can't get here fast enough for me to get more pea shoots and make this again. Who wants to come for dinner?

Up Next: Île Flottante

Resources:
Salmon and caviar from BlackSalt
Pea shoots from Calvert's Gift Farm
All other produce from the Safeway on MacArthur Blvd. in DC

Music to Cook By: Madonna; Hard Candy. I'm kind of obsessed with "4 Minutes" and the fact that Madonna is 50 and still churning out decent music. Who cares if she has a fake British accent? She's MADONNA fer cryin' out loud. She can do whatever she wants.

Read my previous post: "Peas and Carrots" -- Maine Lobster Pancakes with Pea Shoot Salad and Ginger-Carrot Emulsion