For the Love of Salmon - Salmon Riesling

Hello friends! I am thrilled to be sharing the first guest blog post from my sister Elizabeth. We both share a love and passion for food and cooking. She makes such elegant food and this salmon recipe is one of them. Poaching the salmon in Riesling wine adds a lovely sweetness to the sauce and I think would be very welcome for a Spring dinner. Please welcome Elizabeth to the blog! 

Well, here I am diving into my first blog post. Nichol has been at my heels for over a year; trying to get me to contribute to her blog.  Seeing as she and I don't let a week go by where we are not discussing our latest culinary triumphs and failures-I suppose my humble addition of a post was just in the natural progression of our sister/friendship.

So where does one start when presented with the task of writing their first food post? Well-it must start back at my roots, or I should say OUR roots as Nichol and I are sisters-and have a myriad of food memories from our childhood. Let me start with one of the firsts that we have known from early toddlerhood- the wild Alaskan salmon.

Growing up in the small town of Haines, Alaska- wild salmon has been the staple in our smokehouses, our freezers and on our dinner plates.  We smoke it, pickle it, broil it, BBQ it, and have sent many a tourist into a feeding frenzy at our prized salmon bake.

Adulthood has afforded me the luxury of being quite particular with the manner in which my salmon is prepared.  I eye restaurant menus warily whenever I see salmon listed on the menu; because-lets be frank-few cooks know how to honor the mighty salmon and give it the care it is due.

Nichol was visiting me in my home in Seattle a few years ago and I shared with her a recipe I had recently discovered from The Fiddlehead Cookbook; a culinary treasure from Juneau that she has featured here before for their North Douglas Chocolate Cake. It is from that same treasure trove that I present to you a salmon recipe that is worthy of sharing with friends at your dinner table.

Salmon Riesling

Preparation and Cooking Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Accompaniment: Hot Jasmine Rice and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

2 lbs fresh wild salmon fillets-cut into 4 portions
(I prefer Sockeye-the flesh is firm and flavor unbeatable. The recipe calls to skin the salmon-I left it on as it made no difference in my cooking experience. The skin is considered the best part by some! Do make an effort to remove bones prior to cooking.)
I've included a video here of Gordon Ramsay's technique to help you out if needed.

3 tablespoons all purpose flour, season lightly with salt and pepper
3-4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/2 cup Riesling wine ( a nice glass to sip on while you cook is highly recommended)
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 cup heavy cream

1) Rinse and pat dry the 4 fillets. Lightly dust salmon fillets with flour.

2) Heat butter is a stainless steel pan over medium high heat. (Note: nonstick does not do a great job of browning the fish.) When butter foam subsides, place salmon skin side down in pan. Brown fillets lightly on both sides; approximately 2-3 minutes each side.

3) Add wine and tarragon to pan. Cover pan with lid and reduce heat to a slow simmer. Poach fish very gently for about 8 to 10 minutes until it flakes easily. Remove salmon fillets to serving platter and cover with tinfoil to keep warm while you finish the sauce.

4) Add heavy cream to the pan of remaining wine sauce-raising the heat to high. Cook rapidly until sauce has thickened and reduced to about 3/4-1 cup of liquid. Be sure to stir frequently to keep sauce from scorching on the bottom. Pour sauce over fish and serve at once with rice and a squeeze of lemon.

Enjoy the salmon the way it was intended!

peach crunch pie

This pie is so over the top good, it will make you believe in homemade pie again: that the effort and sacrifice is worth it. Sweet peaches studded into a sour cream nutmeg scented custard, and topped with buttery cinnamon streusel? heaven.

And really, for a custard pie, this one is as easy as they come. The custard bakes together in the oven, so that making it is really assembling it. (This is unlike other custard pies that require to cook the custard in a double boiler and then let it cool in the refrigerator.)

I brought this pie to a 4th of July pool party at a friends house. It was such a lovely, relaxed afternoon- Harriet even went swimming for the first time! At the end, we all sat on the patio, eating pie in the shade and it was really the perfectness that you hope for in summer: good people, conversation and relaxation. I was very blessed that our friends opened up their home to us for the day.

So, if you find yourself with a few ripe peaches hanging around, I think this pie would make a splendid send-off to summer to enjoy with friends.

This recipe is from The Fiddlehead Cookbook.

Filling:

1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 egg
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (if you can swing it, fresh ground is best)
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 cups peeled and thinly sliced fresh peaches or nectarines

Streusel Topping:

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (I use pecans for the walnut-averse)
2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup unbleached white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter, cut into several pieces

1 unbaked single 9-inch pie crust:

My favorite pie crust recipe is Deb Perelman's All Butter pie crust recipe and her tips are very helpful. Find the recipe on here brilliant blog, The Smitten Kitchen, here.

1) Preheat oven to 450 F and place rack in center of oven.

2) For the filling: Stir together sour cream, egg, 1 cup sugar, vanilla extract, 1/4 cup flour, nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir in the peaches and pour into unbaked 9-inch pie shell. Seriously, how easy is that? No double burner, no stirring constantly and then chilling the custard. I love how simple this pie is.

3) Bake pie for 10 minutes at 450 F. Then, reduce the heat to 350 and bake for 10 more minutes. I think this initial baking time is just to help the custard cook up a bit before adding the crumb topping.

4) While pie is baking, prepare streusel topping:

Give the walnuts (or pecans) a rough chop. In a large bowl, stir together the nuts, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Cut the cold butter in with either a pastry cutter or a butter knife. The goal here is to chop the butter into pea sized pieces that are coated with the nut-sugar-flour mixture. At some point I usually transition from using the pastry cutter to using my (very clean) fingers to pinch it all together. (This is one of the reasons why you always want to start out with very cold butter. If at any point it starts to soften up on you, pause and put the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes.)

5) Take the pie out of the oven (leave the oven still on at 350 F) and sprinkle the topping evenly over. Then, put the pie back in the oven and bake for 45 to 50 more minutes. The goal is to bake until the majority of the pie seems a little puffed up (the center will not be), the juices are bubbling and the streusel topping is lightly browned. (Usually when I am sprinkling on the streusel topping, I take the opportunity to cover the crust with a piece of tinfoil to keep it from overcooking.)

6. Remove from oven, cool on a rack, and serve at room temperature; or refrigerate and serve cold. Store tightly wrapped in refrigerator. (Please note: it is normal for the filling to appear curdled. It does not impact the flavor at all. Also, should you be fortunate to have any leftovers, a slice makes a killer breakfast straight from the fridge the next day.)

for the love of quiche

I am very fond of quiche. My mother first made this dish for our family for dinner on a wintry evening. When we asked what was for dinner and she said the word quiche, I remember thinking it was such a peculiar word and I had no way of understanding what it was she had just said.

She made the quiche with fresh dungeness crab and swiss cheese. I can still see the pitch dark winter night sky outside the dining room window and all of us silhouetted under the warm glow of the dining room table light. My mom assured us kids we would like it. We were silent as we tried our first bites. It was a revelation for me on two levels: first that such rich decadence could exist in the world as a buttery pie crust filled with an eggy creamy custard. And second, that my mother knew this thing. It was the first time that I saw her as a real person- that she had lived this other life before us (her all consuming children). I remember wondering about what would make her pause enough in a day to put such a lovely dish before us, trusting that we would love it too, but realizing that she had made something because she had needed it- that it wasn't all about us. There was a longing and a melancholy wrapped up in that little quiche.

I somehow tied this together with the snippets of stories my mom would sometimes tell about her summer spent backpacking around Europe. I think because of these earlier impressions, I have always associated quiche as being a sophisticated dish. In Paris, I ordered quiche for lunch twice- once it was the stunning wedge of vegetable quiche you see pictured here. A second time it was classic quiche lorraine- filled with fantastic french ham.

Prior to Paris, I had actually been on somewhat of a quiche kick. It usually happens every spring and is kicked off by my tradition of making quiche for Easter breakfast. Below is my favorite quiche recipe and it makes 1 10-inch quiche. The recipe is from the Fiddlehead cookbook but I add an extra egg. (I adore this Alaskan tome- a couple more of my favorite recipes from the book can be found here and here.)

Regarding quiche filling, there is an endless variety of options. In this recipe you need about 2 to 3 cups of filling. Below I provide the recipe for salmon-mushroom quiche, but the quiches pictured are a variety. I think our favorite combination this spring was cubed ham with barely wilted-down kale. I generally just follow the format below of sautéing up a few things. If I am prepping this recipe the night before, I make the filling and refrigerate it separately from the unbaked pie shell. In the morning, the filling goes in the shell and the custard is quickly whisked together and poured over.

Salmon-Mushroom Quiche

1 10-inch unbaked pie crust shell:
2 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 pound plus 2 2/3 tablespoons butter, chilled
1/4 cup very cold water

Filling:
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 cups cooked salmon, flaked
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives or green onions

Custard:
2 cups half-and-half
5 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of cayenne
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1) Preheat the oven to 325 and set a rack in the center.

2) To make pie crust: In a mixing bowl, cut flour and butter together using a pastry cutter, 2 knives, your fingers, or a food processor fitted with a steel blade until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle mixture with water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing gently with a fork, just until dough begins to come together. (Take care not to stir or knead dough, which will toughen it.)

3) Gently gather dough into a ball. If dough is warm or very soft, wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to prevent butter from melting into flour when you roll out dough.

4) Roll out on a well-floured surface to a circle 3 to 4 inches larger in diameter than your pie pan and about 1/8 inch thick. Slip a long spatula or knife under dough to loosen it and carefully fold dough loosely in half and place in pie pan. Unfold, center it in pan, and trim edges so they overhang pan by 1/2 inch. Folding under itself, pinch overhanging dough to make an attractive edge that stands up on lip of pie pan. Refrigerate until ready to fill.

5) To prepare filling: Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a small pan over medium-high heat. When foam subsides, add mushrooms and onion slices. Stir and cook until wilted. Stir in flour and combine well. Remove from heat.

6) Distribute salmon evenly in unbaked pie shell. Dot with lumps of cream cheese and add cooked mushrooms and onions. Sprinkle with chives.

7) To prepare custard: In a large bowl (with a spout if you have one), whisk together half-and-half and eggs. Add salt and cayenne and pour over filling. Sprinkle pie with parmesan cheese.

8) Bake for 40 minutes, until quiche is golden brown on top and slightly puffed in center. Remove from  oven, cool for 15 minutes, then slice and serve warm.

Note: if you have only a 9-inch pie pan, make custard with 3 eggs and 1 1/2 cups half-and-half.

reality cookies

This cookie does not look like much. On first glance we can be forgiven for thinking it a basic sugar cookie that someone stuck some m&m's into. Oh how wrong we are. I have loved this cookie for about 15 years. It is a nutty, buttery, crumbly not-too-sweet dough punctuated by little chocolate presents. The secret to this dough is ground almonds.

The recipe is from The Fiddlehead Cookbook. I have referred to this cookbook before. There is a cafe back home that sometimes makes these cookies into giant palm-sized lovelies and stacks them into glass canisters near the cash register. It is genius because, in my opinion, they are not be resisted.

When I got married, the mother of one of my childhood friends cooked up a batch for my bridal shower. She jokingly said she chose them because married life was going to be a whole new "reality" (she was completely right.) The reality in the title of this cookie really comes from "...that granulated sugar and white flour make really good cookies."

reality cookies

3/4 pound butter
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 cup finely ground almonds (see note below**)
2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup M&Ms

1) Preheat oven to 275 (yes, really that low) and arrange racks so they are evenly spaced in center of oven.

2) In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat butter until fluffy. Add white and brown sugars and continue to beat until light and fluffy.

3) Add almonds and flour. Stir gently until almost completely combined.

4) Add M&Ms and stir just until dough comes together. If you are using a mixing machine, dough will begin to come away from the sides of bowl.

5) Shape dough into ping pong size balls an place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Lightly flour the bottom of a small glass, cookie press, or palm of your hand and flatten each cookie to about 1/2 inch thick. Place an M&M in center of each cookie and bake until very lightly golden brown and beginning to puff slightly in center (about 20 minutes.)

6) Remove from oven and transfer to racks to cool. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Makes approx. 32 cookies.

**About ground almonds- I certainly do not claim this to be the "official" way to grind almonds, but here's how I do it: I take handfuls of plain, unroasted almonds and blitz them in the food processor. This makes a horrible raucous (like I am attempting to grind marbles) that is somehow quite satisfying. I process the almonds until they are very finely chopped. Then, I measure one cup of ground almonds, not 1 cup of almonds ground.