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Two weekends ago I lost a two feet long dead fish and recovered it to enjoy three different ways. Makes no sense at all? Let me elaborate. My local Whole Foods Market had a sale on cut-to-order wild caught Keta salmon on Saturday. What a glorious afternoon with fish after fish being weighed, skinned, de-scaled, boned, cut, and packaged to the customer’s specification! I was understandably excited because I avoid farmed salmons in my diet but the wild version is a splurge. The only caveat was that I had to purchase one whole fish which is a lot of salmon for one girl. If you know me, you can probably guess that I could not resist a deal. I promptly sidled up to the booth and chose my fish with bright orange flesh.
In the midst of the crowded booth, my fish (let’s call it Pat) traveled from ice bed to plastic bin to the scale. A price tag was printed and I happily moved over next to the chopping board to direct the fate of Pat. I had big plans for my new friend. Did I mention it was crowded? When I finally squeezed my way to the front, a gentleman was chatting merrily with the fishmonger and giving directions on how he wanted my fish to be cut. Excuse me sir? Are you sure this is your fish? When my question was met with an emphatic nod, I got confused and thought perhaps my fish got lost in the shuffle. I caught the attention of the helpful staff who weighed Pat. With the most quizzical look on my face, I stammered I think I lost my fish…the ridiculousness of my statement only made more apparent as I uttered it out loud.
Thankfully, the staff was on top of things and she quickly explained to the gentleman that it was my fish he mistakenly thought was his. The fish had only been skinned, filleted, and in the process of pin-boning so no damage was done. I let out a sigh of relief and patiently waited for my turn to get Pat portioned. Then I notice he was doing it again! He was giving out directions on yet another customer’s fish! Now I understood. This gentleman had no clue that he had to pick out his fish as the first step. He just thought fish magically moved from ice bed to chopping board like assembly line. I was glad that Pat survived the ordeal and came home with me as two big fillets.
I cured one of the glistening fillets to gravlax flavoured with tarragon and dill as per a recently published recipe in New York Times. Much of those gravlax were enjoyed as topping for smørrebrøds. The other fillet was split between salmon rillettes and this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie. I’ll tell you more about the dish comes Friday but here is a preview:
It’s salmon en papillote! Not trying to tease but if you want to see what’s inside the parchment packet, you’ll have to come back on Friday. I assure you it’s a beauty.
The salmon rillettes is also a recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. It is by far my favourite dish of the three preparations. I made pork rillettes last December to great success and I had been eying this fish version for quite some time. Cubed salmon was first poached in an aromatic broth of white wine, peppercorn, coriander seeds, and green onion. The poached salmon was mashed with sliced smoked salmon, shallots, and butter into a rough spread and seasoned with plenty of lemon juice and Aleppo pepper. I enjoyed this spread on crisp bread, on multigrain toast, in a bento, even just on a spoon! The play between poached and smoked salmon was delicious not just in flavour, but especially in texture. The recipe yielded two 250mL jars which is perfect for sharing. If only I had a picnic to attend!
For the time being, I’m all salmon’ed out. One whole fish really is a little too much for one person but I think my fulfilled my quota on omega 3. If I may say so myself, this is a happy ending for my lost-and-found fish.
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