July 2010 - Chefs Resources

Seafood Mary

Posted On: July 16, 2010 by ChefsResources

Friday, July 16, 2010

This dish is a sampler appetizer of some of the Pacific Northwest’s favorite seafood. Dungeness Crab, House Smoked Sockeye Salmon, fumet poached Scallop and Shrimp… King Neptune himself would savor this dish! The bottom of the cup has finely diced cucumber & tomato. And it is paired with a Seafood Mary Sauce, which is an updated cocktail sauce using fresh grated horseradish and fresh squeezed lime juice. I feel that this ‘lighter’ sauce compliments the seafood better than a traditional cocktail sauce which is thick and tends to cover and mask the flavors of the seafood.

Seafood Mary Recipe

serves 1

Ingredients:

3 Each Dungeness Crab Fancy Legmeat

1 Each U-10 Shrimp Alaskan Spot Prawn, poached, chilled

1 Each U-10 Scallop, poached, chilled, cut in half to form 2 disks

4 Tbl Cucumber, brunoise

4 Tbl Tomato Concasse

1 Oz Smoked Salmon on NW Skewer

1 Each Lemon Wheel, thin slice

1 Each Lime Wheel, thin slice

1 Each Lemon Wedge, curled

1 Each Fennel Sprig

1 Oz Seafood Mary Sauce

Procedure:

Gently poach the Shrimp to Medium in 1 Qt fumet seasoned w/ 1 Tbl Old Bay. Chill Shrimp in walk-in (do not chill in ice water as this will deplete flavor). If the shrimp is cooked properly it should be slightly translucent in the center after it cools. Do the same with the Scallop separately.

For assembly, use a Martini Glass or similar glass. Arrange the cucumber on one half of the bottom of the glass and arrange the tomato on the other half. Arrange the seafood in a presentable manner, trying to get each item to be visible out of the top of the glass. Place a slice of lemon and lime wheel between the two slices of the scallop. Add the lemon wedge and fennel frond garnish. Finish with the Seafood Mary Sauce, poured gently down the center of the seafood but not splashing it all over. Add another 2 oz of the Sauce to a side dish for dipping.

Seafood Mary Sauce Ingredients:

1	Qt	V-8 Juice
3	Tbsp	Tabasco
1 1/2	Cups	Fresh Lime Juice
1	Cup	Ketchup
3	Tbsp	Fresh Horseradish, micro-planed
1/8	Tsp	Sea Salt

Seafood Mary Sauce Procedure:

Combine all and mix well. It may need a touch more lime juice or salt.

The Seafood Mary Sauce also goes well with fresh Oyster Shooters. I recommend using Grey Goose Vodka in the shooters and a splash of the Seafood Mary Sauce. There are over 65 varieties of raw oysters to choose from in the Pacific Northwest. That’s a lot of Shooters!

Pacific Northwest Salmon on a Stick

Gifts of the Earth

Salmon on a Stick is a fantastic preparation method for slow-roasting salmon on Iron Wood sticks over wood coals. The preparation is at least several centuries old and is part of a rich tribal heritage for the Pacific Northwest’s Coast Salish First Peoples who regard salmon and nature with reverence. In our restaurant, a tribal member hand-carves these traditional sticks for us to use. He finds the Ocean Spray plant, says a prayer of thanksgiving before harvesting what he needs, then carves the sticks. Tribal cultures show thanksgiving not only for the meal itself, but also for the earth which provided the sticks.

We did a charity event for a children’s camp called Camp Korey in Carnation, WA a few years ago. Camp Korey is specially designed for children with life-altering medical conditions, and allows them to safely enjoy the activities of traditional camp. Very cool people there. I had the opportunity to prepare salmon on a stick for about 300 people outside on a beautiful summer day! A gentleman named Tal spent the entire day tutoring me (thanks Tal!!) on how to pull this off in an outdoor setting since I had only prepared it in the kitchen. The camp built us a 10′ by 20′ fire pit and filled it with river sand. Tribal members donated the use of their sticks for the event (no small generosity… these sticks are highly cherished and passed down from one generation to the next).

This was an exciting, exhilarating experience not only because it benefited such an awesome camp for kids (the event raised $850,000 for Camp Korey and the kids!), but also because I had the opportunity to prepare salmon in the traditional manner used for generations by tribal peoples. In the kitchen we need to get the salmon on the stick done in about 20 minutes in order to meet the demand of customers wanting a restaurant meal. But here, we truly prepared it the traditional way which meant that the fish (fresh wild king salmon) took about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to slowly roast! We rotated the sticks, moving them closer or farther from the fire as needed, flipping them upside down to promote even cooking, and turning them so that both the skin side and the flesh side were kissed by the fire. The natural white fat of the belly meat (which most of us white folk cut off and toss) became like a savory candy when slowly roasted this long! Awesome!!!

OK, so on to the actual recipe! We serve Heritage Sockeye Salmon on a Stick with fresh corn fritters and grilled asparagus. There is some dispute about the preferred seasoning to use on the salmon. Purists say use only clean ocean water to season the fish before roasting. Some say use only salt & pepper, and others prefer Johnny’s Seasoning Salt. I use my own recipe which is sort of (distantly) related to Johnny’s.

As for the Iron Wood sticks themselves… very hard to come by. You can inherit them (tribal members pass them down from one generation to the next), be gifted them, or make them yourself. I know of no place where they can be purchased. I’m still hoping for my own set for home some day!

You can prepare this around a fire pit, preferably with a layer of sand for the sticks. Or better, on the beach with freshly landed salmon!

Northwest Berry Salad with Chevre

Northwest Berry Salad with Chevre Recipe

Northwest Berry Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

It’s berry season in Washington State and we have a wonderful array of fresh berries available to play with. This delicious summer berry salad is accented with Goat Cheese and finished with candied Holmquist Hazelnuts. The Holmquist Hazelnuts are a delightful, special hazelnut grown locally in Lynden, Washington. They have a full, nutty flavor in an almond shape.

When designing the presentation for this plate I wanted to do a rectangular shaped design rather than the traditional “mound ‘o greens” design. This would allow me to do a strip of the raspberry vinaigrette on the front edge of the plate and offer contrast to the presentation.

Salmon on a Stick
10 6 8 6 6 8	Tbl Tbl Tbl Tbl Tbl Tbl	Kosher Salt Sugar Paprika Granulated Garlic Fresh Ground Black Pepper Granulated Orange Peel	Combine all, mix well.
8	Each	Salmon fillet, Skin/on PBO 8 oz square-cut	Generously season the salmon, flesh side only.
Procedure: Start an Alder wood fire 2 hours before you plan to cook so as to get a nice coal bed. The best size wood is about 3″ to 4″ square by however long. Restock the fire as needed, looking to build a good coal bed, not a bonfire. You want nice coals with small flames by the time you start cooking. Place the salmon fillet on a sturdy table with the skin side down and with the thickest part towards you. Place the point of the stick just above the skin and carefully but firmly push it through the fillet, trying to make the point follow as close to the skin as possible (as if you are trying to slide the stick under the flesh and against the skin). Leave about 7″ at each end of the stick so you can insert it into the ground and flip it as needed. When the coals are ready, place the stick vertically into the sand or dirt. If you place your hand with palm up at the spot where your salmon is you can roughly judge the cook time. If you can only keep your hand there for 5 seconds then you are looking at about 20 – 30 minutes for MR sockeye, 25 – 40 minutes for king (they are thicker). If you can hold your hand there for 10 seconds or longer then you have about 1 1/2 – 2 hours cook time (this is the preferred traditional method and the extra wait is worth it!). If you cannot hold your hand there for 5 seconds then move the fish farther away. Start with the skin side towards the fire first (some say the flesh side first, but I was trained skin side first. It makes sense as this will cause the skin to shrink around the stick so the salmon won’t slide). About 1/4 of the way through the cooking process pull the stick out of the ground and plant the stick with the flesh side towards the fire. And finally, just before serving, put the skin side towards the fire one last time for 5-10 minutes. This will draw the fat back towards the inside of the flesh. Also, depending upon how evenly the top pieces of salmon are cooking you may need to flip the stick during the cooking process once for the skin side and once for the flesh side.

Seafood Mary

Seafood Mary Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

Seafood Mary Sauce Ingredients:

Seafood Mary Sauce Procedure:

Pacific Northwest Salmon on a Stick

Gifts of the Earth

Salmon on a Stick

Procedure:

Northwest Berry Salad with Chevre

Northwest Berry Salad with Chevre Recipe

Northwest Berry Salad with Chevre

Candied Holmquist Hazelnuts

Procedure:

Raspberry Vinaigrette

Procedure: