Thursday, August 11, 2011

FFwD: Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar, aka A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

When I read the recipe for Around My French Table's Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar (pg 182), I broke out into a cold sweat. You cure salmon in salt and sugar for 12-18 hours, rinse off the brine, then pack it into jars with layers of herbs, carrots, and onions and cover it all with oil. Potatoes go in a separate jar. Nothing about the book's photo, with its uncooked salmon and raw vegetables submerged in oil, made me want to eat it. I like sushi, but something about these big chunks of uncooked fish (is it still "raw" if it's cured? I don't know) skeeved me out. If someone served it to me, I would try it, but I really didn't feel like making it myself. However, I told myself that I was going to do it. I would fall backwards and hope that the recipe would catch me.

Then I went to the supermarket. The available salmon looked totally washed out, color-wise, and was cut into sad, thin fillets. Skin-on. I asked the fish guy if he could skin it. He said no. I brought the fish home and prepared to cure it. It smelled fishy.

I wanted to be a good sport. I wanted to suck it up and prepare the recipe as written, but there was no way I was eating this sorry fish without cooking it. I flipped the page and noticed a bonne idee in the sidebar for Roasted Cured Salmon. Perfect! I could still participate, without poisoning myself and my loved ones. I cured the salmon overnight. I don't know anything about curing, so I was not prepared to find the dish full of water the next day. It makes sense in retrospect, but a heads up would have been nice.
Be afraid.
Once you rinse the brine off the fish, Dorie just says to cook them for 5-7 minutes. No oil, no nothing. Just rinse off the brine, pat them dry, and put them in the oven. One of her ideas for serving is to top it with a pesto, so I made one while the fish cooked.

I opened the oven door, and the fish stink flashed me back to when I was a kid and my Mom would drive past the South Street Seaport on the FDR Drive to get to Sloan Kettering Hospital. Not good. Matt told me to stop being a baby and just try it. He popped a piece in his mouth...and gagged. I hate to admit how much I enjoyed watching him spin around, looking for help, before spitting it out into his hand. I asked him if it was as delicious as he thought it would be. His response: "That's PURE SALT!! Next time, just trust Dorie!" He said it would be better uncooked, because cooking it concentrated the salt. That's fine, but Dorie provided the roasting option. How was I supposed to know it would be wretched?
Be VERY afraid.
I DID taste it, just to say I had. It WAS pure salt, with a fishy, fishy side note. Disgusting. Absolutely, unequivocally disgusting. Thank God for the pesto. We boiled up some linguine, mixed in the pesto, and dinner was finally served.

Conclusion: Hated it. I'm so curious to see what the other French Fridays with Dorie participants thought of the jarred version. Maybe--maybe--if it gets a good response, I'll try it again. Maybe. Probably not, but maybe.

21 comments:

  1. What a waste of effort!!! Man you would need some super fresh salmon to go that raw brined route...though I must say her recipe sounds like a way to ruin a good piece of fresh fish.

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  2. BTW Swedish gravlax is delicious. I am just curious Ei how much salt did you put in this?

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  3. Yes. Oh, and that's 3 tb salt, 2 tb sugar. Didn't realize there are different amounts for the jarred and roasted versions when I glanced at it to answer your question.

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  4. hhhmmm... I wonder why it was so awful? I am going to guess its the ratio of salt and sugar in her recipe. I know gravlax recipes vary widely- but the ones that have more sugar than salt I think are a lot better. Also if the fillets were really thin and not very fresh that probably would make a bad recipe that much worse. Bummer!

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  5. I don't know what to tell you... The cured version wasn't bad, it just wasn't for me (and I usually love me some sushi and gravlax).

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  6. I made this and LOVED it! I wouldn't have tried it with anything but really fresh salmon, though. Give the jar version a try -- with good fish -- you might just be surprised.

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  7. Maybe this is a silly question, but after you got the fish home, did you rinse it off and clean it and pat it dry before you put it in the brine overnight?
    I made it, loved it and ate it out of the jar and in a pasta. It was good, I think you should try it again, maybe with just one fillet, and make sure the fish is thick and as fresh as possible.

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  8. Yeah, I rinsed it first. Beats me. People seemed to really like the jarred version, so I'm feeling more inclined to try it. Now, if I could just find some decent fish.

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  9. LOL, your first paragraph summed up everything I felt about making this week's recipe! Even funnier, my husband had the same reaction as yours when he took a bite of the jarred salmon (pure salt!), but the kids loved it and they're my recipe-popularity gauge, normally. Hubs probably got the 'raw' end of the deal ;-). Try the jarred version, Ei, but with less fish and see how it goes.

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  10. Sorry to hear that this week's recipe didn't work out for you, but I never would have tried the jarred recipe with less than perfectly fresh fish either. Sometimes you just have to let the ingredients dictate. I can say that my jarred fish was not at all salty, though perhaps I just got overzealous with the rinsing. Who knows, better luck next week.

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  11. Ack! I almost did the Bonne Idee myself, but didn't get around it. At least you could rescue the fish with the pesto and pasta. My friend who stepped in for me liked the jarred version. I wish I could have had a taste - but that's about it.

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  12. Oh, I'm so sorry this was such a catastrophe! Hope next week is better!

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  13. Yes...I agree that the salmon has to be really fresh to try out this recipe. I love it !!! and nothing happened to us LOL! so I guess I did it right...the salmon was properly cured :)

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  14. I'm proud of you for facing your fear with this one. I chickened out! But, I'll be making it once my sister comes into town. Funny post!

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  15. I was tempted to do the oven version, but I am so glad I did the ones in the jar. I am so sorry you didn't like it and I would have been upset because salmon is so expensive! I hope you do try the jarred version at some point though because I think you might like it. Good for you for overcoming your fear and trying it!

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  16. Eileen - Compliments to me - not so fast. I refrigerated my two jars and the olive oil congealed and it looks terrible. I don't know how I am going to serve it on Sunday. Stay tuned. Right now my thought is to just toss the jars and wait for a better day and recipe.

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  17. So sorry this was a disaster for you. I agree with the others that very fresh fish is key. Cured fish isn't raw, technically. Did you rinse the fish after brining? That should have gotten rid of the salty flavor as the purpose of the cure is to draw moisture out of the fish, rather than to make it salty.

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  18. I thought I rinsed it very well. Guess not. The roasted version's recipe does stipulate an extra tablespoon of salt over the jarred version, so I wonder if that amped up the saltiness of mine vs. the people who jarred it?

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  19. That's too bad that it didn't work out for you. I did the bonne idée version of this recipe, too, but didn't find the fish too salty - salty, yes, but not off-putting. I loved the potatoes best, though.

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