TV Dinner

Last week Ellen called and asked if I'd cook dinner at her house for the Oscars, and I agreed. As the week progressed, it came out that she already had some salmon fillet, so I spent a good amount of time with my wheels spinning on what to do about main ingredient: SALMON! (In my mind I'm hearing the chairman of Iron Chef announcing the word with a crazy flourish.) I asked around, casted about with some cookbooks, and even happened upon a really cheap first English edition of Larousse Gastronomique. The best suggestion I received though was from a new aquaintance named Christian from German Happy Hour at the Radisson Hotel Bar on Friday Nights. He suggested the following:

Chop an onion and sauté it in butter until sweated; add some chopped garlic and stir briefly until a bit cooked but not browned. Add some halved cherry tomatos and cook about five minutes. To that add some white wine and simmer about half an hour until well cooked and slightly reduced. Run it all through a sieve, mash it well and extract as much liquid as possible. Simmer a little further, add some cream to lighten then add a generous amount of chopped chervil, chives and tarragon. Laddle lovingly over a salmon filet sautéed in butter, leaving the middle rare. I asked him what it was called, he said, "It's something French." Ohh La La.

Sounded delicious, but I really wanted to consult my new aquisition, the Larousse Gastronomique. I looked under Salmon, and the first entry was a "salmon à l'américaine"...perfect I thought. It wanted you to top the salmon filet with a slice of lobster, then a little pile of pulled lobster meat, then ladle with a sauce americaine--see SAUCE. Well, they explain that sauce americaine is a sauce used with salmon or lobster à l'américaine...but no actual recipe. So I combined Christian's suggestion with the idea of salmon topped with lobster. It was REALLY yummy and decidedly rich in the way only the french can think up.

Here's the list of substitutions from the above recipe: I used dried tarragon, which was added in the final simmer (just before adding the cream); then right after the cream and right before serving, I stirred in a generous amount of chopped flat leaf parsley and thinly sliced greens of scallions. Also, I used romas, not cherry tomatos. Lastly the final garnish was a delicous and beautiful addition of a tomato confit. I sliced cherry tomatos and pearl onions in half and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then layed them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and baked at about 350 until they looked all shrivelled and browned.

A second attempt at polenta failed; this recipe was a disaster at first. It wanted equal amounts of water and cornmeal. When I added the corn meal slowly (as noted) to the boiling salted water, it made playdough. I thinned and thinned and thinned until it was the right consistency but I had unassailable lumps through out. That was the only part that was disappointing. I forged ahead (not admitting defeat A. Barb) and added a couple spoons of butter and some grated extra sharp cheese.

That was the under layer, then the salmon, then the lobster, then the sauce, followed by the tomato onion confit garnish, and finally a delicious side of grilled asparagas. You've gotta try this at home. It was the yummiest thing I ever appropriated from multiple sources.

There was a salad too of mixed field greens topped with the classic pear half sauted until browned in butter, put a nice lump of blue cheese on top, sprinkle with caramel coated pecans and a sherry vinegar/mustard viniagrette.