A large salmon with several complications

Vince Garreffa tells us that you should cook every dish twice; once for yourself and then for your guests. Such careful hospitality is lost on me. I'm a 'sharing the journey' host.

Plan
One large salmon. Instead of merely poaching it, I'd make a court bouillon, freeze the court boullion, place the frozen boullion in a vacuum sealer bag with the whole salmon, vacuum seal the bag and then cook it sous vide. Remove gently cooked salmon from bag, remove skin and cover with cucumbers to resemble scales.

The logic was impeccable. The salmon would be gently poached in water but trapped in a sealed bag with a smaller volume of flavoursome stock. The genius part was freezing the court bouillon so it didn't end up being sucked into the pump of the vacuum sealer. It also meant it could be done well ahead of time without the fish marinating.



Reality
In retrospect, when the salmon was sealed in a bag with what looked like a pink urinal cake, it should have been a sign of trouble to come but it all came with sound reasons. The carrots, red onions and the white wine turned the court boullion into a pinkish shade. It was just unfortunate that I chose a flat bottomed pudding bowl to freeze it in.

Moving on. Three kilogram salmon are long. Long than any pot or dish you'll own and longer than any commercially available disposable roasting tray. I used the disposable roasting tray and it looked like a tall man who'd mistakenly booked in for a night at a hobbit bed and breakfast. The weight of the salmon slowly pushed down the sides and simmering water would leak out onto the burners until they filled with water and made a sad gurgling sound.

At this point I realised I had to either change tack or accept the fact that guests would have to suffer food poisoning. It was a tough call but I eventualy wrapped the half poached salmon in foil and tried to fit it in the oven to finish it off. It fitted at an angle, once I snapped the tail off and was eventually cooked at a gentle temperature.

Redemption
The good bit was that I sliced a whole burpless cucumber on a mandoline without losing any bits of fingers. Skin taken off the salmon and the grey bits gently scraped off and the cucumber 'scales' added - they hid the 'join' on the tail.
It was also damned tasty.


Notes: the court bouillon I used comes from here and adjusted - half a bottle of Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, a cup of water, a handful of parsley, a twigs of thyme, half a dozen peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, a chopped red onion, one sliced carrot, one sliced stick of celery with leaves, juice of half a lemon and a tsp of salt.
Simmered for half an hour and then strained.

A story that goes nowhere

Back when, I found an apple so I wents to my my mom and said "hey mom, I's got an apple."
And so she says, "apples are for hogs and you ain't no hog."
"That's true," I says. "But I ain't no hog and if I eats it, then it ain't so that apples are for hogs."

Two Sentence Cultural History Reduction - A New Year's Eve Party

I think this meal would take approximately one hour and a half to two hours to serve and eat, allowing for conversation.
While the hostess tidies the dining-room and kitchen the guests will have time to collect their coats and prepare to leave for the dance at approximately 9.30 pm

Mrs Roseann Johnston The Australian Hostess Cookbook (1969)

Melton Mowbray Pie

The good thing about Melton Mowbray is not only that it sounds like a place in Leicestershire, it actually is a place in Leicestershire. It's also modifies the noun 'pie' to make a pie from said town that uses fresh rather than cured pork. The addition of eggs makes it a 'gala' pork pie and if the first thing you thought of was Dali's wife, you'll probably enjoy this.

Melton Mowbray pie has EU Protection of Desginated Orgin protection so this, technically, isn't that.

The model recipe I used is the V-Tol Veal Ham and Egg Pie Recipe, which was made by Gordon Bedson, who also designed aircraft and the Mackson. Anyone like to drive a car built by Nigella Lawson? Didn't think so.

The recipe isn't hard but it does require doing several different things correctly. They are - making a hot water paste, boiling some meat, boiling eggs and making a jelly. The V-tol recipe explains the technical details well.

As I was using fresh pork (a bit of fillet) rather than ham, to bump up the flavour I marinated it for a few hours in white wine and a mix of bay leaf, thyme, parsley, rosemary, juniper berries and peppercorns.

The pork went into a saucepan with the marinade and herbs along with a small rack of veal and a pig's trotter. It was then filled with water to cover and simmered for 30 minutes - skimming as necessary. I kept the veal bones and the pig's trotter in there to make a heartier stock and boost the natural gelatine and simmer for another 30 minutes before filtering in a seive with some paper towel in it and reducing to just two cups.

By this stage you should have a pile of cubed pork and veal. Allow it to cool.

Take the reduced stock and add a leaf of gelatine that you've dissolved in a little heted sherry and white wine (actually it might have been calvados and white wine but I can't remember).

Make the hot paste. It's actually very similar to a choux pastry but with lard instead of butter and no eggs in it. The boiling water/lard combo smells but kneading the warm fluid dough to smoothness is surprisingly relaxing. Roll out and line a greased springform pan with it - reserving some dough for the top of the pie.

Boil the eggs - 10 minutes in boiling salted water and cool them under cold running water to stop the cooking.

So... a covering layer of meat, then encirlce the eggs around the middle and fill with meat. Place pastry on top, seal the edges with a back of a spoon. Decorate suitably with the excess pastry and brush with an egg wash. It's important to make a couple of breathing holes. Put a foil trumpet in them to allow steam to escape while cooking. These holes become useful later.

Place it all in a 200C oven for 80 minutes - just keep an eye on it to make sure the pastry doesn't burn.

Now you just need to pour the stock into the pie via the breathing holes. It'll take a couple of goes as it settles. Leave the pie in the fridge to cool and then serve as part of a low maintenance all meat cold buffet as illustrated below.