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YUM! Why have I never made Hollandaise sauce before? It is so easy! While this newfound knowledge is certainly not good for my waistline, it is most definitely a culinary milestone for me.

As I have mentioned earlier, I watched a lot of cooking shows in Ireland, and one of them, Economy Gastronomy, inspired me to make an easy Hollandaise sauce at home. The recipe, which utilizes the food processor to make the sauce, is at the end of the post and can also be found here.

egg yolk

Hollandaise ingredients

It could not have been easier, egg yolks, mustard, and lemon whizzed up in the food processor mixed with hot melted butter.

Hollandaise sauce

The Hollandaise was creamy, rich, and lemony. I immediately ate about 10 pieces of raw asparagus dipped in it.

While the Hollandaise was the star of the show, I of course needed a meal to put it on. I roasted six potatoes at 420 until they were golden and cooked through.

potatoes for roasting

I gently steamed some asparagus.

asparagus

And used the recipe from Economy Gastronomy to poach up some salmon steaks.

salmon steaks

A simple bath of white wine and water with bay leaves provided the perfect place to poach two beautiful salmon steaks.

salmon steaks poaching

Everything came together perfectly. It was quite the gourmet meal for a girl who stayed out until almost 2 am Sunday!

salmon, asparagus, and potatoes with Hollandaise

Do you have a culinary milestone to share? Or is there something that seems too daunting for you to make at home?

Ingredients

For the poaching liquor:

  • 250ml white wine
  • 2 onions (about 400g), peeled and diced finely
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 500ml water (or fish stock if you have any)
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

For the hollandaise:

  • 150g salted butter
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 4 salmon fillets
  • 700g Jersey Royals or new potatoes
  • A few sprigs of mint
  • 12 spears English asparagus, woody ends snapped off

Method

  1. Put all the ingredients for the poaching liquor in a wide saucepan or roasting tray. Keep the liquor over a low heat for 20 mins to infuse, but make sure it stays below the boil – don’t let it start simmering and reduce away.
  2. Scrub your Jerseys and put them in a pan of cold water with some salt and the mint sprigs. Bring to a simmer for 20-25 mins.
  3. Once the spuds are on, lay the salmon fillets in the poaching liquor, skin side down, keeping the heat very low. Season and cover, and after 10 mins lay the asparagus spears in the liquid too, put the lid back on and cook for a final 5 mins.
  4. While the salmon is poaching, melt the butter for the hollandaise, and whizz the yolks, mustard and lemon juice in the food processor for a couple of mins until light and fluffy. Once the butter has melted, bring it to a rapid boil, then immediately drip-feed it into the whirring food processor. As soon as it’s all incorporated, tip the sauce into a bowl and season with salt to taste and some freshly ground black pepper. (There’s a visual argument for white pepper here, but the flavour is different.)
  5. All that remains is to gently lift the salmon on to a suitably pretty serving dish – good idea to use a couple of fish slices to lift it, and move decisively. Keep and freeze the poaching liquor for future use. Don’t strain it, but pick out the bay leaves. Tumble the spuds on to the plate and finish with some jaunty lemon and the finest English spears of the season.

Economy Gastronomy is on BBC2 on Wednesdays from the 5th August at8pm. The book to accompany the series ‘Economy Gastronomy’ by AllegraMcEvedy and Paul Merrett is available now published by Penguin Books,£20.

By Allegra McEvedy and Paul Merrett

Tags: asparagus, cooking, dinner, Hollandaise, Hollandaise sauce, poached salmon, potatoes, roasted potatoes, salmon, white wine

One of my all time favorite recipes brings together whiskey, brown sugar, and salmon, to make a flavorful, healthy, and hearty meal. I have posted this recipe before when I made it in Ireland, but I thought it was worth posting about again as this is truly a great, quick meal.

I set out to buy scallops at Dorchester Market, my little local shop that happens to sell amazing fish and meat. Their fish selection is small, not always available, and changes in types of fish, but it is always SO fresh. Their scallops are some of the best I have ever had, reasonably priced, and brought in the minute they are caught. If you live in the Dorchester or South Boston areas, I would definitely recommend checking out Dorchester Market.

So, they did not have scallops, but they did have beautiful salmon, and for just $5, I bought this giant filet that ended up being the perfect serving for two.

salmon

I started by placing the salmon skin-side down in a pan with a light coating of olive oil, cranking the heat to medium, and putting a lid on it.

While the salmon started heating up, I mixed Jameson Irish Whiskey, brown sugar, and Kerrygold butter until the crumbly texture of wet sand.

brown sugar, whiskey, butter

I love Kerrygold.  Sometimes I eat it on crackers. They are whole grain crackers, which makes this a healthy snack Winking smile 

Kerrygold Butter

Once the brown sugar, butter, and whiskey form a nice paste, I added in a shake of red pepper flakes. I love the contrast of spicy and sweet, but you can of course leave these out.

brown sugar and whiskey

Once the salmon was starting to look like it was cooked about halfway through, I used a spoon to rub the brown sugar and whiskey mix on to the flesh side. I cooked it for a bit longer, then flipped the salmon over so that the coating would caramelize. This is a good time to open a window’; the caramelizing sugar COULD cause the smoke alarm to go off.

salmon skin

Once the salmon was nice and flaky, I served it atop a smashing butternut squash puree. Simply boil butternut squash until soft, stir in a bit of Kerrygold, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper, then either mash with a potato masher or puree with an immersion blender until smooth.

salmon and butternut squash

Simply a restaurant-quality meal at home, this took me about 25 minutes from start to finish, filled our house with great smells, and made for the perfect at home date meal.

We paired it with a bottle of Bonny Doon Riesling to Live, one of the wines we picked up on our visit to Bonny Doon last month. This sparkling Riesling is bright, crisp, and toasty, with flavors of biscuits and lemon curd. The bubbles are plentiful, making it great for a celebration, and as with all Bonny Doon wines, it is perfect with food.

Bonny Doon Riesling to Live

And if you shop for wine based on the label or bottle, it offers a pretty unique label and beer-cap style top.

Bonny Doon Riesling to Live

Out of everything I have blogged about, I think I would recommend this meal the most. It is a recipe that I sort of dreamt up myself (though I am sure I am not the first or last to think of it!), and it  pleases every time. If I was to have my own version of the “Engagement Chicken”, this would be it.

In non-food news, I am excited to share that I registered for the Napa Valley Marathon yesterday! I am hoping to also run Boston but am waiting on confirmation. Let my running season begin! (But I promise not to post too many running posts!)

 

Do you have a go-to recipe that always impresses guests?

Tags: Bonny Doon, brown sugar, butternut squash, Food, recipe, riesling, salmon, whiskey, wine

Ever since the Oldways For the Health of it event this past spring, I have been trying to get more salmon into my diet, not just because it has so many health and beauty benefits, but also because it is pretty tasty and versatile. I am always dreaming up new recipes that involve both wine and seasonal ingredients, and last night’s dinner was the result of those creative thoughts.

My seasonal fruit obsession at the moment is without a doubt ripe, red cherries. Watermelon is a close second, but cherries win out, and they were one of the 3 stars of last nights dinner.

cherries

I started the dish by generously coating wild Alaskan sockeye salmon filets with coarse black pepper and crushed red pepper.

sockeye salmon

I grabbed a bottle of Zichichi Zinfandel, wine that was tasted from the barrel in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma last fall, and that was bottled and arrived at my doorstep in April.

Zichichi Zinfandel

I pitted the cherries with a small knife, a process that was a little tedious and that stained my fingers red, but was totally worth it. I am used to going to work with beet stained hands or the like; I’m not a fancy girl 😉

Then I very slowly simmered the cherries in about 2 cups of Zinfandel. I cooked the mixture on low for a long time, maybe 30 minutes? It reduced down to a lovely sweet mixture with the cherries providing a nice warm juicy pop.

cherries and Zinfandel

I pan cooked the salmon. The original plan was to oven roast it, but since it was 96 degrees out, I opted NOT to heat the oven up for a long period of time. Once the salmon was done to my liking, I topped it with the hot cherry and Zinfandel sauce.

salmon with cherry Zinfandel sauce

salmon with cherries and Zinfandel

It was completely amazing. This Zinfandel is juicy with a good hit of dark fruit, but it also has a bit of spice that paired well with the pepper that I used. The salmon was perfectly cooked, and the Zinfandel drizzled over it got all into the little nooks of the salmon, flavoring it throughout. While eating, my husband said “My God this is good.” I think that is the perfect seal of approval 🙂

I am going to the Taste of Cambridge with a bunch of other bloggers tonight, and I am super excited. I will also have a giveaway to announce a little later this week so be sure to check back.

Be Fit Be Full asked this the other day, but I will go ahead and ask it again since I think it’s worth talking about:

What is your favorite summer fruit?

Tags: cherries, Food, recipe, salmon, wine, Zinfandel

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