I’m a sauce fan. Love the sauces. On our Florida trip we ate a fabulous meal at Fish Out of Water [1], where I ordered a delicious white fish – served – to my surprise, in a dark, flavorful broth. Not submerged, but plated in a base of broth. Our family generally hates wet fish. Truth be told, I’ve made some terrible fish en papillote [2] with a mushy texture and a bland, awful color. I think the key is sauteing or broiling the fish, then creating the sauce from the juices. That way you get flaky fish, with a delectable finishing sauce.
One of the many perks of living so close to family, aside from the numerous hours of uber-granni care, is that we get to reap the spoils of their bounty. When my MIL has a fabulous bottle of Cabernet, she always shares with me. This newest bounty, her freezer full of 50 lbs of fresh caught Coho Salmon is enough to send us over the moon! This wild caught Alaskan Salmon is amongst our best choices for sustainable fishing. And to have it caught and brought home by a friend, priceless. So during our happy dance in honor of this harvest, I’ve been expanding thoughts on my current salmon cooking repertoire. I love salmon croquettes [3], broiled salmon, salmon cakes or patties, and even salmon on the Lean Mean Grilling Machine coated in nothing but Brianna’s French Vinaigrette [4]. But I needed a sauce option.
The result was gratifying, though if you’re a cream fan, you’ll probably find this lacking and want to add 1/2 a cup of cream and cook a little longer for optimal flavor melding. I’m a citrus girl myself, and here’s the thing in experimental cooking and recipes. It takes a lot of tasting, a lot of adjusting, and then you arrive at the ah hah moment, the moment of pure realization and clarity and just plain satisfaction in your results. So in the basis of a good sauce for a light main course, I find citrus, capers, and fresh parsley to be hard to beat. White wine is tricky, sometimes it adds a ton – like in Bob’s Chicken [5], but in brothy sauces can turn acidic on you very quickly with a hard recovery. My general rule is to stay away from wines unless I’m adding fat – be that from cream, butter, or a higher fat content main course. I’m not saying it can’t be done well without the fat, just that I have a hard time producing it.
Here’s the part where you should look away, Mom. Just keep ordering fish at restaurants and stay far away from the seafood world in home cooking. Should you fear fish parts – these things might disgust you. But then you couldn’t arrive at your own homemade lobster bisque [6]. I choose to set aside my ick factor and go for flavor. Besides, my FIL loves salmon skin. Better than the salmon itself. How’s that for weird? So en route to this sauce, I based it with a chicken broth, but used a typical deglazing/reduction technique in my skillet used to cook the salmon. If I’d used more oil, and was a bit more patient, I would have wound up with much less salmon skin attached to my skillet. So I chunked the large pieces and let the rest flavor the broth. After the addition of the lemon, I was left with a still pretty fishy broth. Lots of people like fish, few like foods described as “fishy” tasting. In a burst of inspiration, the lime juice saved the day! Broth became balanced, yin met with yang… and the result was quite attractive by my personal standards. I do think sauteing the fish with the capers added a depth to the salmon which would have been lacking if I’d simply added the capers to the broth.
Coho Salmon with Citrus Caper Broth
1.5 Coho Salmon – recently caught from Sitka, AK if you have the means or are lucky enough to profit from those who do
olive oil
Krazy Jane’s Mixed Up Salt [7]
fresh ground pepper
3 tbsp capers
1 large shallot, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 and 1/2 c. chicken broth
juice from 2 small lemons
juice from 1 lime
2 and 1/2 tbsps butter
3 tbsp fresh parsley
In a skillet just slightly over medium heat, warm enough olive oil to barely glaze the surface. I mean barely. Drizzle gently dethawed or fresh fish with a small amount of olive oil. Season surface of both sides with Krazy Jane’s and pepper. Sauté salmon in oil for 6 minutes on skin side, then flip. Actual time depends on thickness of your fillets. Watch for the color change to reach opaque 25-30% of the way through the fish, then flip and look for total opacity on the second side. Remove fish to plate.
Scrape up any large bits of skin left, but allow the small pieces to remain. If your skillet looks dry, sprinkle with no more than a teaspoon of additional olive oil. Saute shallots 1 minute, add garlic, saute another minute. Pour in chicken broth, then bring to a boil, gently scraping the bottom and cooking for 3 minutes past boil. Add lemon juice, then lime juice, then butter one tablespoon at a time, continuously stirring. Add parsley just before serving, cooking no more than 30 seconds. Plate fish, spoon broth over fish allowing fish to rest on a bed of broth. Enjoy!