Salmon Risotto A la Cooks Illustrated

This recipe is a hybrid and a variation of two of my favorite recipes from cooks illustrated. It’s a tribute in a way to one the greatest aids I’ve ever had to my cooking. A magazine who’s incredibly thorough process of finding the perfect recipe for each dish manages to be, more often than not, a lesson in cooking technique as well as a set of directions for a perfect meal

Enough of this gushing.

This weeks recipe is quite long and involved so I’d like to get to the recipe as soon as possible.

A few notes first though:

First: The two recipes I took this from are Spring Vegetable Risotto and Poached Salmon with Herb Caper Vinaigrette. I definitely changed them a bit but the cooks illustrated originals are pretty bad ass. You usually need a password to get these recipes on their website but I think they’re both free right now.

Second: I had tons to do the day I cooked this one so naturally I made it as complicated as possible to aid me in my procrastination. There’s no need to put to caramelized onions in per se’ or use so many different veggies but you know… that’s the way I roll. Plus this makes tons of really good food that you can eat for a week.

Third: This is really based mostly on what I had in the fridge that day. The risotto part of the recipe is actually a pretty good way to get rid of all the stuff in your crisper. Most of the stuff in step three of the Risotto section can be replaced by any moderately firm and hardy vegetable.

Four: When your cutting the vegetables remember to put aside all the best scraps (the woody ends of the asparagus, the green parts of the leeks, the carrot tops, the basil stems, the onion skins and such) as you’ll need them later.

So before further ado…

Ingredients

For the Salmon
2 Salmon Filets weighing about 1 ½ pounds.
2 Lemons cut into ½ inch think rounds
½ Basil Leaves, Chopped
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1 cup Dry White Wine
Salt & Pepper

For the Risotto
2 cups Water
4 cups Vegetable Broth (or Chicken if there’s no vegetarians eating)
1 Tbs Olive Oil
1 Yellow Onion halved and sliced thin
1 Tsp. Brown Sugar
4 Tbs Butter
½ Pound Asparagus chopped
1 small bulb Fennel trimmed and chopped
1 Carrot chopped
1 Leek (white part only) halved length wise and chopped thing
4 Cloves Garlic minced
1 ½ cup Arborio Rice
1 cup Basil Leaves, chopped
½ cup grated Parmesan Cheese


Poaching the Salmon

1. Arrange the lemon slices evenly in single layer across the bottom of a medium size pan. Sprinkle with garlic and basil. Pour on the wine until it just covers the top of the lemon slices. Salt and pepper the salmon filets and place them on the lemon slices skin side down.

2. Bring wine to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook until salmon is just done, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove Salmon to a plate and set aside.

3. Strain the poaching liquid into a bowl through a mesh strainer pressing on the lemons to extract as much flavor as possible. This should produce about a cup of liquid, if it doesn’t add a little more wine to it until it does. Set aside for later.

Making the Risotto

1. Place all the scraps you’ve set aside from the vegetables in a dutch oven with all the water and broth. Bring to a very low simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes. Strain liquid through mesh strainer into a large bowl, pressing on the veggies to release flavor. Cover liquid and set it aside.

2. Wipe dutch over clean. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, sugar a pinch of slat and pepper. Cook stirring often until onions are dark and almost caramelized. Remove to a plate and set aside.

3. Wipe dutch oven clean with a wet paper towel. Add 1 tbs. butter heat over medium heat until foaming subsides. Add asparagus, carrots, fennel and a pinch of a salt. Cook stirring regularly until asparagus is bright green and slightly tender and fennel is just beginning to brown. Remove to a plate and set aside.

4. Wipe the dutch oven clean one last time. Melt remaining butter over medium heat until foaming subsides. Add leeks and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 more seconds. Add rice and gook until edges of the rice are translucent.

5. Add wine/lemon mixture from salmon poaching. Cook stirring frequently until all the liquid is absorbed.

6. Add 3 cups of the broth/water mixture you’ve set aside from step one. Lower to a simmer and cook stirring fairly regularly until all the water is gone about 12 minutes.

7. Now comes the time of repeatedly adding water and stirring. Add ½ cup liquid at a time and stir constantly until it’s absorbed. Repeat this as needed until the rice has the right consistency. Creamy but still slightly al dente. Usually this will mean using all the liquid.

8. Finally add the onions, veggies you’ve set aside along with the cheese and chopped basil stir to combine. Remove from heat. Crumble in the salmon and continue stirring. Stir in juice from half a lemon.

Serves many and keeps well.

Day 10 Coney Island & PT

If yesterday was all about the places on my list that involved food, today was about the one thing that didn't. Unless you count fried clams and corn dogs as food. Today was the day we went to Coney Island.

Food wise it was a little unremarkable even if otherwise it was awesome. I ate a corn dog and fries at "Beer Island" immediately after arriving then we walked the full length of the board walk and got some food at a Russian place called Tatiana that had live fish in aquariums under there dance floor.

I ordered a quite good shrimp cocktail although looking at every one else's plates I wished I'd ordered something more complex. There whole fish looked great, hell even their salads looked amazing.

For dinner we went to a place called PT right next to our apartment. It's a very classy looking Italian place with a beautiful outside garden in the back. I was enticed by the promise of bronzino on their menu, a fish I love that we don't get much of on the west coast.

We where headed to a street festival later that night so we figured we'd order just a few lighter sides and leave some room for street food later. We shared a salad of assorted boiled beets, shaved carrots and a fantastic italian gorgonzola and an almost too cheesy (as if that's possible ) asparagus "gratin".

Kirstin got an eggplant crostini that looked awesome. I got a dish of chopped baby artichokes and home made sausage. Artichokes are by far my favorite food and something I order whenever it's on the menu. These where not the best I've had but they where well cooked, sliced and sauteed. Not exciting but so much better than some of the overcooked boring chokes I've eaten.

In the end we ate nothing at the street festival.

All Your Wheat Are Belong To Us

I had visions of going to Coney Island today and only having ice cream and deep fried oreos to eat so I decided to stock up on my typical snack while here: cereal with milk and blueberries. Once at Coney Island we stopped in at Tatiana, a Russian place along the boardwalk on the Brighton Beach end. I ordered the mini-pastry plate since I wasn't in the mood for a whole fried fish. The little canoli-like bites were good, but I liked the fruit that came around it best - blueberries, raspberries, and a strawberry.

Dinner was at PT near where we're staying. I highly recommend it. It was magical to go into the back garden (which really does have a garden) and sip red wine next to a lavender plant with fireflies starting to flicker as the sunlight disappeared. We ordered only starters, since that way you get to try more things, and the portions were delightfully big. I ate crostini with eggplant, asparagus with parmesan, and a beet salad that also came with raisins, pine nuts, thin strips of carrot, and gorgonzola. And since Damian is gluten-intolerant, I also got to eat the entire bread basket.

The wheat is all mine!


Beet salad with gorgonzola and raisins:


Asparagus with cheese:


Crostini:


The scenery at PT: