Salmon and Other Fish
Whole wild salmon is a rarity in my world. Of course, we get Norwegian and Scottish salmon in many supermarkets across South Africa, some of it wild, but more often it tends to be farmed and it’s almost always in fillets. It’s also incredibly expensive, although there are significant health benefits to eating really good salmon, which are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids and a great source of protein and many vitamins and minerals.
Alaska is home to the world’s largest wild salmon industry, although Ireland, Scotland, Norway and other such countries have wild salmon. Farmed salmon is a massive growth industry, and there remains some debate about whether wild or farmed salmon is better. Quite frankly, it seems common sense that wild has to be better – it is not subjected to the parasites as well as pesticides and other chemicals that are often fed to farmed salmon, it runs free and thus has more muscle and less fat, more nutrients and goodness.
It’s worth remembering that Atlantic salmon from Norway and Scotland is on the WWF’s SASSI (Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) orange list which means you should think twice before buying it. Rainbow trout, which I think is equally delicious, is on the green list and definitely a good alternative.
Seeing a really big whole wild salmon during a recent demonstration at Ballymaloe Cookery School was quite something. It had been frozen as there are strict rules about when wild salmon can be fished in Ireland, which is one of the few refuges for wild salmon and sea trout. The bigger wild salmon average about 4kg, but the one being cooked this week in demo was about 6kg which is really large.
There are several ways to cook salmon, including grilling, baking, poaching and smoking. This week, we focused on poaching and smoking salmon and other fish and it’s quite clear that I need to invest in some equipment if I want to do this properly back in SA. For poaching a whole fish, you need a fish kettle which is a long, narrow saucepan with a perforated rack on which the fish rests as it cooks, with handles on each end to lift the whole fish out the water intact. If you don’t have one of these, you can poach the fish in water in a casserole, but I can see the potential for disaster in this.
The secret to poaching a fish is to remember that the less water you use the better as you keep more flavour. And it seems that one should never, ever poach a cutlet or fillet of fish because you lose a whole lot of flavour. I will say that the whole poached salmon we did was incredibly tasty, accompanied by some hollandaise sauce and peas with butter. Divine!
Smoking fish is a real art, although I did it with a fair amount of success. I hot smoked some cod with wood chips – using a stainless steel smoker on top of the hob. It took a total of 9 minutes and emerged from the smoker quite golden from the wood chips, and tasted lovely and smoky. I have not tried cold smoking but have seen it done in the smoking shed at Ballymaloe Cookery School, and tasted the wonderful, wild, organic smoked salmon. I am definitely a convert in terms of wild vs farmed salmon!
And then there was the soufflé. Now, I am a little nervous of soufflés – well, aren’t we all? I’ve tried making them all before – sweet, savoury, twice baked, you name it. Some have been ok, some disasters but none would I call fabulous. This week I made a fabulous soufflé, and it was pretty straightforward. It rose beautifully in the oven rather than looking like a flat scone which has happened before, it tasted great and I made it whilst doing a million other things. So it can be done, with a good recipe and a good teacher. Yay!
The most complex thing I did this week was the Ballymaloe Apple Tart. Complex because it involved two different types of pastry – a shortcrust pastry on the bottom, and a flaky pastry on the top. Flaky pastry takes two days to make so it involves quite a lot of effort and let me tell you, the amount of butter in this pastry is staggering. Anyway, I was rather adventurous and made a plum and apple tart, which seemed to hold its own and work out well. I very much doubt I will make this tart again, but if you have the strength, then go for it. It looks good and tastes great.
What I really enjoyed making, and loved eating even more, was the cinnamon ice-cream, which was a variation of the original vanilla ice-cream. The basis of it is a custard, so you warm and infuse some full-cream milk with vanilla or cinnamon for about 15 minutes and let it cool while beating up egg yolks and sugar so that the mixture is fluffy and firmish - you should be able to make a figure of eight with the batter. Cream is part of this delightful desert, mix it all together and pop it into an ice-cream maker. My word, now that is an excellent ice-cream. Seriously, seriously good, particularly with the warm apple tart.
My Top 5 Recipes of the week:
1. Poached salmon
2. Soufflé
3. Cauliflower steak with ginger
4. Ballymaloe apple tart
5. Cinnamon ice cream
Cheers all, until next time!