Simple Salmon Ceviche

When we get a side of fish, like salmon for gravlax and dinner, I trim off the thin and unruly bits and make quick ceviche -- fish "cooked" in lime juice. We had lots of little bits that weren't the right shape for our potato-chip crusted salmon, so we whipped this up. It takes just a few minutes to assemble and is ready to eat in 30 minutes.

Here, we added some pimientos de padron for a bit of heat, dust with charcoal salt for dramatic service, and accompany with some lovely Pisco from the home of both ceviche and Pisco -- Peru.

Cut the fish into small chunks or thin strips. You want something you can eat in a bite, perhaps even fit on a tortilla chip. Dice or slice up some chili peppers if you're so inclined, possibly even a little onion. Place this into a bowl, or better, a zip-top bag sitting in a bowl (in case of leaks).

Squeeze enough limes to cover all the fish with the juice. Holding the fish in the bag allows you to maximize coverage with minimum wasted juice.

Seal it up, and put it in the fridge to "cook". I think 30 minute is probably the minimum it needs to turn the floppy raw fish into a more substantial meaty flesh.  If you let it sit too long it can get a bit over-cooked and grainy, and take on too much of the lime juice flavor: you want the taste of fish, not limeade. (A citrus soak isn't "cooking" in the normal sense, but it does denature the proteins, which is also an effect heat has on meats.)

Strain the juice off the fish -- and save it!  This manly elixer is called "leche de tigre" (tiger's milk) and when drunk, "makes you strong like bull".  I like it with a shot of tequila, even for breakfast; it's a bracing way to start the day.

You can serve the fish by itself, like we did. In Peru, they serve it with fried corn kernels called Cancha, and the saltiness plays off the bite of the citrus. We've served it with tortilla chips that have the same salty, corny goodness.

We do this with just about any saltwater fish we happen to be working with at home.

Potato Chip-crusted salmon from Cooks Illustrated

Cook's Illustrated published this quirky recipe in 2007 (paywall) and it's become part of our repertoire: super easy, tasty, unusual, and very adaptable. Cook salmon until almost done, paint with mustard, coat with crushed potato chips, then broil briefly to finish. You can throw this together in about 10 minutes with stuff you have in your kitchen. I like to think of it as fish-n-chips. :-)

Tonight, I got a giant side of salmon: Irene's making gravlax for next week, so we'll serve up a couple portions for tonight's dinner.  Instead of mustard, we've used things like Indian lime pickle (excellent, intense), and tonight we're going to use a tart and sweet tamarind paste. We served it with steamed broccoli rabe (rapini).

Crush the potato chips with some breadcrumbs to lighten up the chips. You could add flavorings too if you like: lime zest or dill seem reasonable.

 They shouldn't be as fine as powder, a little chunky -- you want some texture.

Portion the salmon and season. Don't over-season: the mustard, tamarind, or other jammy paste you add later will provide more seasoning. I put it on foil on the baking sheet to make cleanup a snap.

Toss it under the broiler for a few minutes until it's almost done. You only need to broil one side: the side of salmon's not too thick, and we're keeping the surface about 3 inches below the heat. Below, you can see just a hint of browning. The interior of the flesh should still be quite translucent. You'll finish with a bit more heat.

Choose a tasty and fish-friendly paste the texture of jam that will let you adhere your potato chip coating. Here, we're using tamarind concentrate we had lurking in the fridge. It's got a nice acid and a bit of sweetness. Mustard, intense Indian "pickle" (like a chutney, with attitude), horseradish sauce, and lots of other things will work. You probably don't want anything with too much texture, but a bet a zingy grapefruit marmalade would be good.

Paint it on in a thin but not stingy layer. It doesn't have to be too neat, but get the side surfaces so the coating will stick there too.

Dust liberally with your potato chip coating mixture. I scoop it up around the edges so every surface is covered.

Pop it back under the broiler until the potato chips just start browning, just a minute or two. Because of the fat in the potato chips, this happens very quickly. If you burn them, you should be able to scrape the charred bits off recoat, and broil again. Just try not to overcook the fish. Below, the potato chips are just turning brown.

Inside, the center of the fish is still translucent. The flesh flakes away easily, perfectly done.

Cannelloni of Chicken Mousse (2007)

Based on Roberto Donna's class at Galileo 2003-02-09. In class this was "cannelloni of chicken and duck liver mousse with fava beans in a sauce of chanterelle mushrooms".  I made this several times to get the flavor (light and dark meat and liver) and texture right (ice, cream, egg). I've stuffed it into pasta colored with chlorophyll, steamed to cook, and topped with a little spicy red sauce. Ten ounces of pasta made 14 thin (Atlas #7) 5x6 inch cannelloni sheets. I've also filled Chard leaves, as below.  And I've made a similar filling with salmon: 12 ounce Salmon, 3 Egg White, 3 ounce Cream.

Serves 4

8    ounce  Chicken white meat, chilled

8    ounce  Chicken dark meat, chilled

4    ounce  Chicken Liver, chilled

4     Egg Whites (6 ounces by weight)

2    tsp    Salt

1    tsp    Black Pepper, ground fine

3/8  cup    Cream (3 fluid ounce)

Process Chicken meat; you might want to add an ice cube or two to keep it cool and loosen it a bit but that will soften the texture so you might have to cut back on the cream later.

While processing, add Egg Whites, Salt, Pepper and process.

And Liver and continue processing until very smooth.

Add Cream or process, but do not overwork or you'll create butter. 

The final texture should be almost like a pudding, it will firm up on cooking.

For Pasta:

2 Cup Durum Flour, 2 Tbs Chlorophyll, 2-3 whole Eggs, 1 Tbs Milk.

Roll out into sheets you can see your hand through (thinnest setting on my on

my Atlas, #7).  Mine are 5-6" wide and I cut the sheets into 5x6" rectangles.

Drop each sheet into salted boiling water about 30 seconds; it will swell in

all dimensions.  Remove with a spider and drop in ice water to stop the

cooking; remove and drain both sides on dish towel.

Pipe the chicken filling near long edge of each sheet and roll the sheet along the shorter dimension.

Place parchment on the bottom of the steamer to prevent sticking, steam until the chicken and pasta/chard is cooked, 10 minutes.

For Chard wrappers:

We had giant leaves in the garden and had to blanch them so they wouldn't crack when rolling; shocking in ice water was not needed.

Dollop about 2 Tbs filling near one end, spread over 2/3 of the length of the leaves and roll jelly-roll style; this gives a better texture -- a crunchy lightness -- than rolling like the cannelloni pasta above.

Don't wrap too tight as the filling will expand during cooking.

Place a raw chard leaf on the bottom of the steamer to prevent sticking,  steam until the chicken and pasta/chard is cooked, 10 minutes.

This is almost finger food but the veins in were a bit too chewy to bite through cleanly.

What other leaves work? cabbage seems good, maybe collards; spinach would be too much work, basil out of the question.