Sat Bains is a Chef. He's a bloomin' good chef. In fact, he's one of my favourite Chefs.
You can look him up ....
Anyway, he makes a salmon dish which has my salivatory juices literally flowing ...
Take a look at: http://www.britishlarder.co.uk/restaurant-sat-bains-organic-salmon-miso-caramel-nettle-juice and tell me that is not one seriously gorgeous looking dish.
Let's deconstruct it ... salmon, micro-herbs, nettle jus and miso.
Let's keep it paleo ...
... and chuck out the miso - that's fermented rice, barley and soy! Tolerable to intolerable to downright awful! We don't need it, we don't want it ... it's gone!
I mused about what I could use instead because the slide of brown against the pool of green does look pretty good. Mushroom puree? Caviar?
I got to thinking ...
I had some pretty good salmon in my fridge, but it does want cooking. My dish is not going to look like this, but it is going to look pretty good.
I'm going to cook my salmon and put it with things that are great with salmon.
That brown slide is off my plate. Instead, a green slide - avocado and lime juice.
Wait! Back up a step ... there's pickled vegetables on the plate.
Way back, waaaay back when you just get in from work, snip off the smallest parts of a cauliflower, slice some thing slices of mushroom, radish, palm hearts and cucumber. Pre-boil the vegetables to soften and then pitch the lot into a bowl with sherry vinegar.
Sherry vinegar is very soft and very palatable. If you don't have sherry vinegar, cider vinegar will do. Afterall, we'll pop the salad onto a kitchen towel later to drain off.
Back to the main dish ...
Guacamole? Take an avocado, scoop out the flesh into a bowl, squeeze of lime and pulp down with a hand blender. Done.
Why? Well, nettle jus is fun, and all that, but this is a home cooked meal - I need to feel satisfied.
Good, fatty avocado will do that. Nettle won't - fun, as it is, I might well try it out another time in the summer, but we're in mid-winter here and I need feeding.
When you're ready to serve up, splat a good spoon of guacamole onto a plate and draw it along the middle. The sliiiiiiide ...
Drain and dry off the pickled salad on a kitchen towel and then arrange around the plate leaving space for the fish.
Melt some butter in a frying pan and place the salmon steaks in, presentation side down.
Fry on the presentation side for a couple of minutes and then flip over. The presentation side should now be coloured and cooked. Cook on the reverse for a few more minutes, basting as you go.
Once cooked, yet still just soft inside, place onto the end of the guacamole slide.
Dot the salad with caviar and throw a garnish on the fish - dill, parsley, whatever ... it's garnish.
Serve ... eat, enjoy.
