The Return of the Salmon

For some reason, I've been off salmon. Just some flavour or scent was causing the nose-wrinkling effect in me...

However, it was on sale, and it was time to give it a go.

My darling husband and I are big Gordon Ramsay fans- more into the "F" word than Hell's Kitchen- and we like his cooking. So, I checked out his book, "Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy" from the public library, and it had a DVD with a recipe for Crispy Salmon. We watched the recipe being made, and went to work!

Here is a view of the product:

And here is our recipe-

1. First, the salmon sits on some Muddled Potatoes- Ramsay used crab meat in his recipe, but we are unable to afford that luxury, so we did without:

Small potatoes (I used Dutch creamers)- as much as you want
Olive Oil
Scallions
Salt/Pepper
Tarragon- fresh or dry, as much as you want (Ramsay used cilantro- without crab, I liked the tarragon better)
Sauce- Olive Oil, Water, Lemon Juice, Salt- mix it up in a squeeze bottle- play with the amounts until you like the flavor

Boil potatoes until tender with a fork, drain. You can peel them, but I was not going to peel Dutch creamers. Then, in another pot (not saucepan), heat up some olive oil (enough to almost cover the bottom), and add the potatoes. Let them get warm, then add some chopped scallions- I used two. Cook for another minute, then turn off the heat. Add some salt and pepper to taste, as well as the tarragon (chop the fresh tarragon up- just shake on some dry tarragon, but use less). Then, using either a fork (ours was not up to the task) or a hand-help potato masher, muddle up the potatoes, just crushing them until they explode a bit- don't mash, just crush. Then, squeeze the oil-lemon sauce over, check flavor, and adjust seasonings.

2. We put roasted leeks and cherry tomatoes around the potatoes and salmon. Ramsay just uses tomatoes, but whenever I can use a leek, I do:

2 leeks- cut into thin slices and rinsed of grime
Cherry tomatoes (a handful) cut in half
Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper

Mix the tomatoes and drained leeks with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put on a tray in the oven at 400 degrees or so. Roast until slightly charred, more or less, depending on your tastes (I like the more charred version).

3. Crispy Salmon- we followed Ramsay entirely on this. BrutusBuckeye did the cooking- I did the sides and washed the pans.

Piece of salmon fillet- enough for the under you are feeding, skin on, scaled
Salt
Olive Oil
Pepper

Heat up the oil in a pan (deep saucepan- you will splatter a bit on this). Before you put in the salmon, put some deep cuts into the skin side of the fish, about 1/2 inch apart. Rub salt and olive oil into the slits. Put the fish into pan, skin down. Add pepper and salt on the top of the fish. Leave it alone until you see that the salmon has cooked halfway or more up the side. Flip it once and let it finish cooking.

Plunk some potatoes on the plate, surround with tomatoes and leeks, and put the salmon, skin down, on top of the potato. Squeeze some more of the olive oil and lemon sauce all over and mangia pure baby!