This is my take on a recipe developed by one of my favourite chefs, Marcus Wareing. His recipe calls for the salmon to be pan fried, which of course you can do as well. However, I had to feed 13 guests and pan-frying salmon to perfection and serving it warm with only one person cooking is a bit of a challenge.
I decided to sousvide the salmon with a brown butter sauce. To add texture to the dish, I garnished it with crisps of salsify but you can easily substitute it with parsnip or even thin slices of deep-fried scallops. It is important to think of textures when you make a dish, you do not want everything to be mushy! Either way, the combination is a match made in heaven!
You’ll need
- For the lemon butter
- 125g butter, softened
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon
- Half a bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
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- For the main dish
- 60g butter (for the risotto)
- 150g frozen peas
- ½ bunch of mint
- 1 large shallot, finely chopped
- 200g risotto rice
- 80ml white wine
- 1 liter of good chicken stock
- 100g Parmesan cheese, grated
- 4 x 150-200g salmon fillets with or without the skin on, depending on your technique.
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
- 100g butter (for the sousvide)
- lemon butter to serve
- pea shoots (for garnish)
Method
- For the lemon butter, place the butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and parsley in a food processor and combine. Wrap in greaseproof paper or cling-film, shape into a cylinder and chill or freeze until needed.
- For the brown butter sauce, melt 100g butter in a saucepan until nice and golden; the butter should have caramelized into a nutty brown butter. Pour into a bowl but try to leave the solids behind (that would be the white parts in the melted butter)
- Heat your sousvide to 46°C.
- Place your fillets of salmon in the zip lock or sousvide bags and pour in the melted brown butter.
- Seal and cook for 30 minutes to an hour depending on the thickness of the fillets. (30 minutes for 2,5cm thick or less and 45 minutes to 1 hour for fillets between 2,5-5cm thick)
- Melt 20g of the butter and add the frozen peas.
- Cook for 2 minutes until defrosted, then remove half the peas and add a ladle of stock to the remaining peas.
- Put on the lid and bring to the boil. Add the mint, place in a blender and purée. Season with salt and pepper.
- Melt the remaining butter in a pan. Add the shallot and cook for 1 minute but don’t let it brown. Add the rice and stir to coat with the butter. Add the white wine and cook until it has almost fully evaporated.
- Now start adding ladles of the stock, one at a time, allowing the stock to be fully absorbed before adding the next. Stir continuously until the rice is cooked (about 20 minutes).
- Finish by adding the whole peas you removed earlier, the Parmesan and pea purée, and season again.
- Carefully remove the salmon from the bag as it will be very delicate and place on paper towel to drain off the excess butter and season with seasalt.
- Serve on top of the risotto, with a slice of lemon butter on top. Garnish with pea shoots.
Should you decide to panfry your salmon, season your fillets on both sides with salt. Heat 2 Tbs oil in a frying pan. Once it is hot, add the salmon fillets skin-side down and cook for 4 minutes, then flip over and cook for another one minute.