Salmon Francoise

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3 (ZReboot) recipe. The famous chef Wolfgang Puck would call this Salmon Francoise. I just call it a BIG YUM. It’s so easy and yet so elegant. You can do this as a romantic dinner for two or for a small dinner party. The only trick to this is to be ready to sit and eat as soon as it’s done. Otherwise it will get cold fast. I promise you gourmet food as well as comfort foods on Plan Z. This one definitely fits the gourmet category.

Servings: Serves 2 or can be easily doubled.

Ingredients:

  • 12 oz of salmon. Ask your fish monger to take off all of the skin and remove the bones. Try to get line-caught, wild salmon. Salmon that has been raised in a pen is actually not good for you.
  • sea salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 Tbl of dry white vermouth
  • ½ cup of fish stock. You can buy fish stock in a high end grocery store. It will likely be in the freezer section with the sea food. If you cannot get fish stock you can make this with vegetable broth
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • ½ cup of heavy cream
  • 2 Tbl of butter or ghee
  • 1 Tbl of minced, fresh herbs. I used tarragon and thyme
  • 2 small tomatoes, diced

Instructions:

Preheat oven to broil.

The first thing to do is to slice the salmon on a diagonal so you get ¼” – 1/3” thin slices. Use a sharp knife and just gently move it along. If you don’t get this exactly right, don’t worry. You can see from the picture that the sauce covers any mistakes. You’ll have several slices. You just want to make sure they are not too thick or they won’t get cooked.

Lightly spray a cookie sheet with sides (I used a small one) or oven proof 9″ x 13″ pan. Spread the salmon pieces across the pan. Lightly grate on sea salt and pepper and set aside.

In a heavy sauce pan, add the vermouth, fish stock and shallots. Reduce on a medium boil until it becomes syrupy. Reducing it by half will just about do it. Only takes a few minutes. Then add the cream and reduce again until the cream begins to thicken. This is pretty fast too.

Add the herbs and the tomatoes and bring just to a boil.

Turn off heat, add the butter and stir. Then pour the sauce over the salmon. Put in the oven near the broiler element and cook under the broiler just until the sauce begins to lightly brown. This will only take a couple of minutes. The salmon should be done but it will also continue to cook in as you transfer it to your plates.

The only other trick with this is to use a large spatula and carefully transfer the pieces to the plates. You can just layer them on the plate (see picture).  Even if it’s not picture perfect, this is so yummy no one will care how it looks.

I served this with simple grilled Japanese eggplant. You can choose any veggie.

Enjoy!

Cheers,