But, reminiscing about skinnier times, I must say that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were very delicious.  And, as Heather says, “Catholic much?”.  Yes, we try to incorporate as much fish into our Christmas meal as possible and one starter we had on Christmas Day was this fabulously easy and mildly decadent Salmon Rillettes.  Many know this traditional French “spread” to be made primarily with pork but also with duck, rabbit, chicken or other types of meat, and is often made with tuna or salmon.  Meat rillettes are made by cooking the meat slowly in fat so that it is so tender it almost melts or shreds and is then blended with the cooking fat so that is is able to be spread, once cooled, on pieces of bread.  One day we’ll do a meat rillette for the blog but, until then, give this tasty (and easier to make) salmon version a whirl.  Don’t be afraid of the butter content and ease your worries about eating raw egg by buying cage free and organic.  It needs fat and is supposed to be eaten in small quantities, so enjoy it – but maybe you should wait until after your post-holiday purge?

SALMON RILLETTES (adapted from Bistro by G. Hiriqoyen) - serves six to eight

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 pound (or 12 oz.) piece of salmon, skin removed
• 7 oz. of smoked salmon
• 1/2 cup (4 oz.) of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 eggs (the freshest possible), beaten
• 1/2 fennel bulb, chopped very fine using a blender or food processor
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons fresh chives
• optional: 2 tablespoons chopped fennel fronds
• 1 tablespoon chopped capers
• salt and pepper

What to do:

1. Season your salmon filet with salt and pepper, place in a steaming basket, cover and steam over gently boiling water. You could also poach the salmon in  a few inches of water, covering the salmon.  Cook salmon until it is firm to the touch, about 9 minutes.
2. Remove salmon and put in a bowl and shred the salmon with a fork.  It may be easier to just use your fingers, but shred so that pieces are not shredded finely but will give the rillette some texture.  Cover and refridgerate to cool.
3. Place the room temperature butter in a bowl and, using a rubber spatula, “work” it till it’s smooth and creamy. Add the lemon juice, chives, capers, fennel and fennel fronds and mix together well.  Now add the beaten egg, only adding half at first, then mixing.  If you feel it’s still kind of “dry”, add 1/4 more of it.  Personally, I thought it was too wet with 2 whole beaten eggs, so see what works best for you.
4. Cut the smoked salmon into small pieces, about 1 inch “strips” so that they are similar in size to the shredded pieces.  Add the cooled fresh salmon and the smoked salmon pieces to the butter mixture and mix together thoroughly until it is completely incorporated together.  Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper and more lemon juice if necessary.
5. Put in one big ramekin or individual ramekins (about 2 tablespoons per ramekin) and allow to chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.  Bring to room temperature before serving and serve with toasted slices of baguette.

We decided against posting a recipe for each roll we’re featuring in this pictorial. This is simply to give you inspiration for making your own rolls.  One of our favorites which we have yet to find at any other Japanese restaurant is a vegetarian roll simply called Peanut Avocado.  It is sweet, salty, crunchy and rich and we recreated it with cashews instead. 

Finally, we would like to share the recipe for the Sweet Brown Sauce that accompanies many rolls like Salmon Skin, Shrimp Tempura and others.  It is a keeper in our recipe book, so if you ever are making sushi, go a bit further by topping some of your rolls with this delicious sticky sauce. 

Oh, and one last hint on sushi-making:  those deliciously, crunch Salmon Skin rolls so many of you love?  Remove the skin from the bottom of a filet of salmon, thinly slice into 2 inch pieces and deep fry in some oil for a few minutes. Yes, it’s that simple! But be sure to use and eat it immediately – it doesn’t stay crispy for long!

Sushi-Stuffing Ingredients

Putting on the sushi rice and preparing a spicy scallop roll with crunch

Spicy Scallop Roll with Crunch and Scallions (spring onion)

Shrimp Tempura Roll with Cucumber and Avocado

Salmon Skin Roll with Cucumber and Sweet Brown Sauce

Cashew and Avocado Roll

Tamago (sweet omelette) Roll with Masago (Smelt Roe) and Tobiko (flying fish roe)

Same roll as above, just a whole plate of it!

Tamago – Rolled Sweet Omelette
Ingredients:

• 4 medium eggs
• small pinch of salt
• 1tbsp water
• 2tbsp granulated sugar
• 2tbsp good soy sauce
• 3tbsp dry sake
• 3-4tbsp vegetable oil

Recipe:

• Beat eggs together in a bowl and add the salt.
• Add water to mixture and continue to beat until fluffy.
• In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, soy sauce and sake, then mix in with egg mixture.
• Typically, tamago is made in a square frying pan. We don’t own one so we used a boring old round one, but if you have one waiting around for just the proper occasion, go ahead, knock yourselves out.
• Heat your pan to medium heat and add a splash of oil and rotate pan to coat evenly.
• Pour in a third of the egg mixture and allow to become firm.
• Before bottom of pan is completely dry, roll omelette towards you so that at one side of the pan you have what looks like a thick rolled crepe
• Re-oil pan and add second third of egg mixture making sure to lift rolled omelette from first round so that egg coats whole bottom of pan.
• Again, allow to cook all the way through before rolling it up and placing it on top of the first one.
• Oil pan a third time and add remaining egg. Repeat cooking and rolling steps and then remove all three rolled omelettes to a plate.
• Allow to cool enough so you can handle them and spread plastic wrap on your chopping board.
• Then unroll omelettes and place them on top of one another so you have three lying on top of one another.
• Roll them up tightly and wrap tightly in plastic.
• Allow to cool in refrigerator until use. Then slice against the grain to reveal a beautiful layered pancake-type look and add to your sushi rolls. Enjoy!

Sweet Brown Sauce for Sushi
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of mirin
• 1/8 cup of sugar

****This recipe can easily be doubled to make a larger batch!

Recipe:

• Mix everything together in a pan and reduce until thick and sticky on medium-low.  Watch it though, it can really reduce quickly.  This needs to be served soon after it has been reduced because it can be so thick in it’s cooled version it is impossible to drizzle on things!

Check out these other posts you may enjoy:

• SANDWICH DE MERGUEZ (BAGUETTE FILLED WITH MERGUEZ SAUSAGE, FRENCH FRIES AND FRIED LEEKS)
• GRILLED STEAK WITH TARRAGON GARLIC BUTTER BLOOD ORANGE MARGARITAS
• WHOLE FISH BAKED IN SALT
• FRIED LAMB RIB CHOPS WITH ROSEMARY-GARLIC REDUCED BALSAMIC
• CREAMY LEMON PASTA
• SAUSAGE AND PEPPER SANDWICHES

Lately, we’ve been making a lot of southern European dishes and we felt we needed a break, but we were also looking for a dish that wouldn’t take all night to make and require us to buy a load of ingredients we’d use for one dish and then sit and rot in our refrigerator. So, we decided to go old-school Japanese-American style and make a dish so reminiscent of the 1980s that you’d almost expect to look up from your plate and find Mr. Miyagi and Daniel-san across the table.

But instead of accompanying this dish with some studied fence-painting or the practicing of our wax-on, wax-off technique, we went for a really simple scallion salad called Pa Muchim we’ve been loving at Korean restaurants lately.

Both of these dishes are unbelievably easy and are perfect for a weeknight evening in, especially if you’re lucky enough to have the Karate Kid trilogy on hand for some post-dinner entertainment…

We’re entering this into this week’s “Weekend Herb Blogging” event hosted by Coffee and Vanilla.

Broiled Miso-Glazed Salmon with Udon Noodles

Ingredients

• 1 lb salmon fillet
• 4tbsp miso paste
• 1 x 8oz package ready to eat udon or soba noodles
• 2tbsp mirin
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
• 1tbsp ginger, crushed chopped
• 1tbsp (reduced sodium) soy sauce
• 1/2 carrot julienned
• 1/2 red bell pepper julienned
• 3oz green beans
• 1tbsp peanut oil

Recipe

• Turn on your broiler to high and place a sheet of aluminum foil over a baking sheet and oil lightly.
• Cut salmon fillet into two roughly equal portions and coat lightly on all sides with miso past, probably about half of it.Heat your wok or skillet to very high heat and add peanut oil. Then, quickly toss in the carrot and green beans. Allow to cook, moving constantly for about a minute until beans start to wrinkle a bit.
• Hit pan with ginger and garlic. When you can smell these nicely, add the mirin and soy sauce, followed after a couple of seconds by the udon noodles. Stir these together so noodles are well coated with sauce and vegetables and then remove to a plate.
• Slap salmon under broiler (skin side down first). After between 1-2 minutes or until miso starts to caramelize, turn fish over and broil for another 1-2 minutes skin side up.
• When skin is crispy and glazed-looking, remove fish and serve over the noodles and top with scallion salad (pa muchim).

Scallion Salad (Pa Muchim)

Ingredients

• 3-4 medium scallions (spring onions/chinese shallots)
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (chili flakes)
• 1 pinch coarse/kosher salt
• 1tsp toasted sesame seeds

Recipe

• Slice scallions lengthwise into fine strips (1-2mm or 1/16inch wide) and submerge in cold water until curled – 30mins-1hr.
• Drain well and place in a bowl then dress with remaining ingredients. Serve either as a garnish, side dish or panchan (mixed korean starters) to your favorite Asian dish.

Check out some other posts you may enjoy:

• SWEET ANISE-FLAVORED SALMON IN A POUCH (SALMON EN PAPILLOTE)
• PROVENCAL RABBIT WITH OLIVES AND CAPERS
• PASTA (PERCIATELLI/BUCATINI OR SPAGHETTI) AL’AMATRICIANA (ROMAN CLASSIC PASTA DISH)
• VEAL SAUSAGES WITH HERBED POLENTA AND ROASTED BEETS
• OKRA FRITTERS WITH LOUISIANA REMOULADE
• BREAD-CRUSTED FISH WITH LEMON-BUTTER SAUCE
• WHOLE FRIED SNAPPER WITH GARLIC AND PARSLEY SAUCE

As the final day before Lent, Shrove Tuesday is also traditionally a day of feasting before the Lentern abstinence or fasting that evokes Jesus’ 40 days and nights in the desert. The pancake bit comes from the fact that in order to find it easier to abstain, one should use up all ones flour, milk, sugar and eggs on Shrove Tuesday, and while a lot of things can be made from those basic ingredients, the Brits – long ago – decided pancakes were the thing to make. And, since the combination of these ingredients makes for a high calorie experience, Shrove Tuesday (it’s such a puritanical idea – shriving, isn’t it?) is known as Mardi Gras in French, or literally, fat Tuesday. Those Catholics have all the fun, don’t they?

British pancakes have more in common with the a French-style crepe than they do with the thicker, but smaller pancakes common in America, although the recipe is largely the same. On pancake day it’s quite common to have a mixture of both savory and sweet pancakes, though the sweet versions are the more popular. (We had both savory and sweet – see savory filling recipe below.) Typical fillings are very simple and are often limited to powdered sugar and jam or nutella, or just a squeeze of fresh fruit juice. My family’s favorite filling is granulated (plain, white) sugar and lemon juice. The less stuff you have in the middle, the more pancakes you can have, see…?

Of course, you don’t have to wait another year before making some pancakes, though. They make great desserts, first courses, or even main meals depending on the filling and the size of your pan, and they are dead easy to make. So, go ahead, treat yourselves tonight, unless you’ve given up pancakes for Lent, that is.

Here’s how they’re made.

SWEET AND SAVORY BRITISH PANCAKES

Pancake (or Crepe) Batter Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 egg and 1 egg-yolk
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tbsp melted unsalted butter (optional)
• 1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)

SAVORY (SMOKED SALMON, ASPARAGUS AND CREAMY TARRAGON MUSHROOMS) BRITISH PANCAKE FILLING

Creamy Tarragon Mushrooms Savory Filling Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 shallot, finely diced
• 1/2 leek, finely sliced
• 3 button mushrooms, slice thinly
• 2 tbsp tarragon, chopped finely
• 4 tbsp light cream
• 1/2tbsp butter
• salt & black pepper

Other Savory Ingredients:

• 6 oz. smoked salmon
• 6 asparagus spears, cut into 2” pieces and either sauteed or steamed till cooked but still crunchy

SWEET (BLOOD ORANGE, LEMON AND SUGAR) BRITISH PANCAKE FILLING

Sweet Ingredients:

• 1 blood orange (or a regular orange will do)
• 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon white sugar

What to do:

To make batter, combine flour, salt, melted butter and eggs together in a bowl. When well combined add milk slowly, whisking all the time. Continue whisking until mixture is smooth and frothy. Batter is ready. Cover and set aside.

Now it’s time to make the savor filling. Melt butter in small saute pan over medium heat. Add shallots, garlic, leeks and mushrooms and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute mixture for 3-4 mins or until mushrooms take on some color and the leeks wilt nicely. Add cream and tarragon and reduce heat to low. Cook for another couple of minutes. Adjust seasoning. Allow to keep warm on low until pancakes are ready to be filled. In another pan saute or grill your asparagus, or just put them in a bowl with a little bit of water, cover with plastic and microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. Slice your smoked salmon.

Time to make the pancakes…

Heat a 12inch non-stick skillet over medium high until the pan is too hot to touch. Toss in a knob of butter and allow to melt almost completely before adding a ladle-full of batter to the pan. Tilt pan in a circular motion so that batter covers bottom of pan. Allow pancake to “solidify” (cook) until almost all of the moisture has gone before tossing it, about 30 seconds – 45 seconds depending on how hot your pan is.

“The Toss”

The toss is the tricky bit and there have been many times when my kitchen ceiling has been festooned with bits of partially-cooked batter on Shrove Tuesday, so be careful with it. In fact, the lower the toss, the easier it is to do it right and have the pancake land without folding over on itself. Alternatively, you could use a non-stick, plastic spatula and give it a quick flip. It’s much easier and safer, though less fun.

Put pancakes on a plate and separate with parchment paper, and keep in a warm oven until you’re ready to eat.

Assemble your savory pancakes…

Spoon in a bit of the creamy tarragon mushroom mixture into the center of your pancake. Add some smoked salmon and asparagus, roll, up and dig in!

Ready for dessert?

After you’ve completed eating your savory crepes, go back to your heated pan and make a few more. When done, sprinkle your crepe with 1/2 a teaspoon (or more if you’d like!) of sugar all over. Squeeze some orange down the center and then some lemon. Roll up or fold into a triangle and enjoy.

 CHECK OUT SOME OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY:

• PAPPA AL POMODORO (Tuscan Tomato and Bread Soup)
• San Gennaro Festival, Little Italy, NYC – Ain’t What it Used to Be (Girl’s Version)
• European Roast…? (Why Coffee Taste Better There)
• Rachel Ray – Maybe Hate is a Strong Word?
• JAMAICAN JERK CHICKEN
• TORTILLA SOUP
• Free Lunch for Inner-City Kids – If It’s Free Does It Have To Be Crap?

During our meat-free meal week, we happened to catch an episode of Good Eats where the theme was ‘pouch cookery’. This inspired us to create our own version of a ‘pouch meal’, similar to one made on the show. By sprinkling some anise-flavored liquor such as Ricard, Duval or Pernod, the result is a sweet ‘sauce’ that mixes perfectly with the salmon meat. I really hope you try this quick, easy, cheap and nutritious meal. Plus, it’s the easiest cleanup ever!

SWEET ANISE-FLAVORED SALMON AND VEGETABLES IN A POUCH (salmon en papillote – serves 1)

Ingredients

• 1 piece of salmon (cut to serve one person)
• various sliced vegetables (we used carrots sliced in ‘sticks’, cherry tomatoes sliced in half and thinly sliced onion – fennel and asparagus would be nice as well)
• 1 tablespoon anise-flavored liquor (Ricard, Duval or Pernod -maybe even Sambuca could work?)
• Slices of Lemon
• Parchment Paper or Tin Foil
• Rock Salt
• Pepper
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

What to do:

1. Lay your salmon skin side down on the parchment paper. Scatter your veggies around it.
2. Sprinkle some rock salt and freshly ground pepper all over your fish and veggies.
3. Squeeze a bit of lemon on top and drizzle about 1 – 2 tablespoons of your anise-flavored liquor over the salmon and veggies.
4. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top of everything.
5. Top your salmon with 2 or 3 thinly slices pieces of lemon
6. Make your pouch by taking the two ends together and fold over a few times until there’s about 1 inch of room on top of the salmon. Pinch the other ends in and then fold towards the center seam to create a closed, tight “pouch”. (SEE PICTURE BELOW).
7. Put in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove, open pouch and voila – dinner’s ready! Eat along side some boiled potatoes (boiled long enough that they still have a bit of ‘give’ in them) topped with some rocksalt olive oil and chives.

PLUS PLUS
PLUS
EQUALS

CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR OTHER SUPER QUICK RECIPES:

• GROUND LAMB KABOBS (Lamb Kubideh)
• PASTA WITH LEEKS, ASPARAGUS, MUSHROOMS AND GRUYERE, TOPPED WITH A FRIED EGG
• ORECCHIETTE WITH SAUSAGE AND KALE
• TORTILLA SOUP
• PASTA WITH TUNA (Pasta Con Tonno)
• CHORIZO, CHICKPEA AND POTATO SOUP
• CREAMY LEMON PASTA