Salted Salmon with Tarragon Butter

This recipe comes from a fascinating book by award-winning food writer Sybil Kapoor called Sight Smell Touch Taste Sound which reveals the role our senses can play in the way we cook and eat.

This simple delicious recipe from a chapter on taste shows how salt can highlight taste and texture of fish like salmon.

Sybil writes: "Fish and meat in European cooking are traditionally salted to help preserve them – for example, smoked salmon or duck confit. In countries such as China and Japan, salting is also used to change the texture of food and, equally importantly, to remove fishy or meaty odours, partly by extracting blood and bitter juices.

Dry salting, such as here, is used for oily fish such as mackerel, herring and salmon. The longer any ingredient is salted, the more liquid is extracted and the saltier the ingredient will taste. The art is to allow just enough salt to develop the umami tastes, but not so much that all the tastes are submerged beneath the salt. The tarragon butter adds a tempting rich texture and depth of flavour."

Serves 6

6 x 175 g/6 oz salmon fillets with skin

3 tsp fine sea salt

2–3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

For the tarragon butter

1 tbsp finely chopped tarragon leaves

1 lemon, finely grated, plus 1 tsp juice

55 g/2 oz/scant 4 tbsp

unsalted butter, softened

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place a plate or tray large enough to hold the fish on the work surface. Evenly sprinkle the surface of the plate/tray with half the salt. Lay the fillets skin-side down on the plate/tray, then sprinkle the remaining salt over the fish. Chill for 40 minutes.

Make the tarragon butter by beating together the chopped tarragon, lemon zest and juice and butter in a small bowl. Very lightly season to taste, as the fish is already salty. Spoon the butter onto some greaseproof (wax) paper to roughly form a sausage shape – roll up the paper and gently roll it under your fingers until it forms a smooth cylinder.

Chill until needed.

Preheat 2 non-stick frying pans (skillets) over a medium-high heat. Once hot, add 1–1½ tbsp olive oil to each pan, then add 3 salmon fillets, flesh-side down, to each pan. Fry briskly for 3 minutes, or until seared and golden, then turn and cook for 3–4 minutes, or until the skin is crisp and the salmon is just cooked through. Plate the salmon, topping each fillet with a round slice of tarragon butter. Serve immediately.

What to drink:

I particularly like chardonnay with tarragon (see What wine should you pair with herbs) so I'd probably go for a Chablis or other subtly oaked chardonnay but a crisp sauvignon blanc from the Loire such as a Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé would also work well.

For other salmon pairings see 10 great wine pairings with salmon

Recipe from Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound: A New way to cook by Sybil Kapoor, published by Pavilion Books. Image © Keiko Oikawa

White onion and bay leaf soup with Ogleshield and hazelnuts

I ordered this amazing soup at one of my favourite local Bristol restaurants Wallfish (now Wallfish & Wellbourne) and begged the recipe from the chef, Seldon Curry. It's tastes like the sweetest of oniony fondues and is soooo delicious.

Serves 6-8 (it's rich so you only need a small bowl)

125g butter

1250g white onions, peeled and finely sliced

5g salt

2 bay leaves

25g plain flour

600ml full cream milk plus extra if you need it

175g grated Ogleshield or Raclette cheese

For the garnish

3-4 tbsp rapeseed oil

75g roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts

2-3 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a large pan and tip in the onions. Stir thoroughly to coat with butter then add the salt and bay leaves. Put a lid on the pan and cook over a low heat for about 45 minutes until deliciously soft and sweet.

Sprinkle over the flour, stir and cook for 5 minutes then gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth and continue to cook over a low heat for about 15 minutes. Remove the bayleaves, add the Ogleshield then take off the heat and pass in batches through a blender until smooth. (You can sieve it for extra smoothness if you want). Return to the pan, check the seasoning, adding a touch more milk if you need to thin it down.

To serve ladle the soup into warm bowls, drizzle over the rapeseed oil and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts and parsley.

What to drink: You could either drink a crisp white wine like a chablis or an albarino or a dry cider.

Veal chops with oysters

If you're not one for hearts and flowers but still feel like cooking up a special meal for Valentine's night this recipe from Will Beckett, Huw Gott and Richard Turner's Hawksmoor at Home* would fit the bill perfectly.

After all it does contain oysters which as you know are an aphrodisiac . . .

Huw writes: After a weekend in Vienna (during a depressingly England-less Euro 2008), we returned home with a newfound respect for schnitzel. Back at Hawksmoor, where the world revolves around a real charcoal grill, we decided to grill the veal and use the schnitzel’s breadcrumbs to coat oysters instead. It appealed to our inner food geek – the Victorians loved to pair oysters with beef, why not with veal? And it seemed like a good excuse to pile on the deep fried oysters – we love their crunch and soft milky, saline interior (part sea, part sex, part chicken nugget).

Veal needn’t be a cruel meat. Although crating has been banned in the EU a number of other unsavoury practices are still common. Your best bet is to buy British rose veal from a reputable supplier like Percy and Ben Weatherall’s Blackface Meat Company who produce great quality ethical veal from their Ayrshire dairy herd in south-west Scotland.

serves 2

2 British rose veal chops (3–4cm thick)
Maldon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
12 oysters
75g seasoned self-raising flour
2 lightly beaten eggs
100g fresh breadcrumbs
vegetable oil for deep-frying
2 lemon wedges to serve

For the mayonnaise:
50g line-caught tinned tuna
100g mayonnaise (Hellmann’s is fine)
10g capers, rinsed
50ml double cream

To make the mayonnaise, whizz the tuna, mayonnaise and capers in a blender and sieve into a small bowl. Stir in the double cream and set aside.

Open the oysters, remove the meat and pat them dry.

Dip them in the seasoned flour, then the beaten egg and finally the breadcrumbs. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas 3. Heat a ridged grill until almost smoking. Season the veal chops well and sear both sides until well coloured, then place in the oven for 5 minutes to finish cooking. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside to rest.

Heat an electric fryer or a deep pan of oil to 180°C/350°F. Dip the oysters in the breadcrumbs a final time and deep-fry for a couple of minutes until golden brown.

Serve the chops with a pile of fried oysters on top and a large spoonful of the mayonnaise.

NOTE: You can also use a barbecue to cook the chops.

What to drink: You could drink a lightish red like a red burgundy with this but I'd be inclined to go for a Chablis because of its association with oysters - maybe a vieilles vignes or a premier cru - or even grand cru - given the fact that the veal is grilled.

*which is owned by my son Will, in the interests of full disclosure! But the profits go to Action Against Hunger.

Simon Hopkinson's Oysters Rockefeller

I've always been intrigued by Oysters Rockefeller, described by the great Simon Hopkinson as "the best hot oyster dish I know". Here's his recipe.

"Why oysters Rockefeller is quite so good lies in the perfectly chosen ingredients which marry so well with the unique taste of an oyster" Hopkinson writes. "The transformation from the natural, raw oyster (delicious in itself, of course) to the warmed oyster (never too hot) is critical. Buttery creamed spinach, tarragon, parsley, the essential pastis (Pernod, here) and softened shallot and celery. The aniseed flavours have always been key; pastis added to creamed spinach, for instance, absolutely makes that particular dish sing out loud."

SERVES 2

12 rock oysters, shucked

FOR THE ROCKEFELLER PURÉE:

250g young spinach leaves

10g parsley leaves

100g unsalted butter, softened

1 large stick of celery, peeled and chopped

1 small shallot, chopped

20ml Pernod

the leaves from 3–4 sprigs of tarragon

several shakes of Tabasco sauce

¼ tsp salt

a handful of fresh breadcrumbs

Fill a pan with water and bring to the boil. Plunge in the spinach and parsley, bring back to the boil then drain in a colander. Immediately refresh in iced water until cold. Squeeze as dry as possible between two hands until no more liquid seeps out. Set aside.

Melt 25g of the butter in a small frying pan, gently fry the celery and shallot until softened then add the Pernod, allowing it to bubble a little. Cool briefly, then scrape into the bowl of a small food processor. Add the cooked spinach and parsley, tarragon, Tabasco, salt and the remaining 75g of butter. Purée until very smooth and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

Tip off any excess juice from the opened oysters and, using a small palette knife, completely cover each oyster with a generous coating of the spinach purée. Strew a baking dish (or deep metal pan) with coarse salt, to allow the oysters to sit neatly. Distribute a fine showering of breadcrumbs over the oysters and bake in the oven on the top shelf. Cook for 8–10 minutes or until the breadcrumbs have become slightly toasted. Serve without delay.

What to drink: Not the easiest dish to match with wine. I asked Simon for his view and his suggested a white Rhone ("Fonsalette would be very special, if one can afford it." My own choice, I think, would be a brut nature style of champagne - i.e. one with no or a very low dosage or a premier cru Chablis though I'm sure a Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé or other minerally style of Sauvignon Blanc would be fine."

This recipe comes from Simon Hopkinson Cooks which is published by Ebury Press at £25. Photograph © Jason Lowe.