How to Filet a Salmon

I have had a passion for the ocean since I first experienced it in person.  This love of the sea is not just for the body of water, but for it's inhabitants as well.

I guess my love is two-fold.  First, there are amazing animals of unbelievable beauty and complexity to be found in our planets seas.  If you have had the chance to scuba dive in a tropical body of water you will know what I am talking about.  If you have not had the chance, go do it if you can!  If not take my word for it.  Beautiful!

The reason I bring up the tropical waters is because the colors of the sea life in warm waters is vivid.  The colder waters have life no less amazing, but less exciting to see.

The second part of my love for the sea is the diversity of available fish that we can use to create outstanding meals as diverse as the species in the ocean.

Before I go further into that I feel now is the time to get on my soapbox.

If we as a species decide to be good stewards of our planets oceans, they will reward us with food, energy, knowledge and entertainment in amounts that are hard to imagine.  If we overfish our seas, pollute them and exploit them in irresponsible ways, the damaged seas will be a piece of our undoing.

Let's focus on the food aspect as that is the part of the equation about which I have the most knowledge.

Overfishing by man is threatening many of the fisheries around the world.  Overfishing can be reversed if it is arrested early enough.  What can you do about it?  Know where your seafood comes from and choose wisely.  For more info on how to make good seafood choices go to www.montereybayaquarium.org and download the pocket seafood chart or click on the links on the page to learn more.

O.K.  Soapbax session is over, where was I?

 Today I'll show you how filet a whole salmon.  We picked our salmon up from a local farmers market where native Americans sell the fish that they catch on the nearby Columbia river.  This is about as fresh as fish gets for the consumer as the salmon we purchased was pulled from the river the night before!

In order to properly filet a round bodied fish (salmon, trout, and the like), you'll need a very sharp boning knife.  I use a very flexible knife that was manufactured by F. Dick & Co.  This is a personal choice, use the knife with which you are most comfortable.

I like to get my salmon with the head on because I use the head as leverage or a handle of sorts while I cut and because a really wonderful Philippino soup can be made from Salmon heads.  That is for another blog because this fish was purchased with the head already removed.

Start to filet by cutting the fish from the head end down toward the tail.  

This first cut should be through the skin and the meat on the top or back of the fish if you will.  Try to follow the spine just to one side of the upper "dorsal" bones.

Once the first cut has been made, go back up to the top and while holding the rib cage open, 

cut through them down to a few inches from the tail where they stop.  

At this point I take the knife and make an incision that goes from the back of the salmon through the bottom where the ribs have ended and continue to filet following the spine as closely as possible until I have reached the tail.

Now you have one filleted side.

Place the side on the cutting board skin side down and remove the ribs.

To do this, try to cut just under the ribs while removing as little meat as possible.  Remember that you will get better at this as you have more practice.

Once the ribs have been removed, cut out the dorsal (top) and lower fins and their support muscles and bones.

Finally, it is time to remove the "pin" bones.  These are bones that run from the head to about 3/4 of the way to the tail in the thickest part of the filet.  

These are sometimes hard to find, so use your fingers to find them by lightly sweeping your fingertips down the length of the filet from head to tail. As a chef that taught me in culinary school said "The fingers never lie, if there are pin bones in the filet, they will find them."

Once you have located the pin bones, us a pair of needle-nose pliers to pull them out.  

This can be a bit tricky when the fish is super fresh like the one I cut today as the meat does not want to let go of the bones and these are brittle little guys.

Grip the bones gently but firmly (if that makes any sense.  Once you do this a few times you will get what I am trying to say) and pull them at a 45 degree angle upward in the direction of the head.  so many of mine broke today due to the adherence to the meat that I just gave up and warned my family that there would be bones.

There is one last step that I do but almost no one that I know does and that is to remove whatever remnant of the spine that may be left on the filet.  It will be a white line running a portion of the length of the filet.  To remove it, tuck the tip of your knife under one side and while lifting the white line simply cut it away.  Remember to minimize the amount of meat that is removed from the salmon.

I left the skin on the filet today since we were going to grill the side in one piece.  

I will cut another salmon in the near future to show you how to remove the skin easily while preserving your beautiful filet.

The last step I perform is to scrape the remaining meat from the bones that I have just removed.  

Use a spoon to scrape down the length of the spine from head to tail.  Even if you are really good at cutting fish, there will be some usable meat still on the spine.  Once I have collected the meat from the bones, I freeze them in small bundles to use for salmon cakes and patties.  Waste not, want not!

Note:  It is important that you remove the pin bones before you skin the salmon.  At times a very fresh filet can get a little messed up by the removal of the pin bones and the reluctance of the flesh to give them up.

Strawberry Coulis - Summer on a Plate

We bought a big container of strawberries the other day.  About 4 pounds I think.  They were the really big California ones which can be hit or miss on flavor but look fabulous, these ones were pretty flavorful but had the shelf life of an Oregon strawberry.

in case you have not experienced the Oregon strawberries, they have the most incredible flavor, but tomorrow they will be spoiled.

I worked for a local restaurant chain where we used the Oregon berries in milkshakes, smoothies and with lemonade, absolutely delicious.  We sold a ton of those special berry drinks, but because of the short shelf life, we had to prep them all the same day they were delivered.

Imagine walking up to one of your employees and telling him/her that they need to prep all the strawberries that had been delivered and then telling them that there are 24 cases!  Did I mention that many of these beautiful berries are the size of a marble?  

Usually I was not greeted with a happy face.

The sad part about the short shelf life of the Oregon strawberry (there are actually many varieties but they all are commercially problematic) is that fewer and fewer farms are producing them due to their fragile nature.  Each little berry is absolutely packed with wonderful flavor.  We may lose them at some point, at least in the restaurant industry.

Well these big California babies are looking a little tired and a lot faster than I expected.  Some of them were also not quite ripe.  This happens early in the season.  The less than ripe berries will still be a bit whit on the inside.

What to do then...Coulis of course.

The recipe that follows can be used with any berry:  Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackberry etc.  The huge upside here is that you will have a beautiful sauce for your dessert of choice.  Coulis also freezes, so make some even if you don't yet have plans for it yet.

So here is the recipe I used today:

2.5 lb strawberries

3 T granulated sugar

That's it.

Cut the strawberries into chunks.  More of a rough chop really.

Put them into a sauce pan and add the sugar.  

Turn on the burner to low and let them roll a bit.

I use a wooden spoon to crush them a bit to speed the process a bit.  It is not necessary to add any water to the pan as the berries have all the moisture that you will need.

After about five minutes they should look something like this:

Let them simmer another 15 minutes or so until they look like this:

As you can see, they have released most of their moisture.  Next puree them with an immersion blender or if you don't have one use a a regular blender.  I use the immersion blender because it does not break up the seeds and therefore gives me a smoother, more velvety texture.

The final step (usually) is to strain them with the finest strainer that you have.  Mine is called a Chinoise.  Which means Chinese in French.  The kitchen slang for it is a China cap.

Use a ladle to force the liquid through the strainer and leave the seeds behind.  This will take a few minutes.  When you are finished, it should look something like this:

When this coulis was finished, the texture was thicker than I would like.  So once it had cooled completely, I added a tiny bit of lemon juice to give the final product a bit of a "tangy" quality and a few ounces of water to achieve the texture that I am looking for.

This sauce is to be served cold, so it needs to be have a liquid-like quality so that it can be poured or dispensed using a squeeze bottle for patterns or lines of the coulis.

Cheesecake - Creamy, Rich and Decadent (of course!)

The United States seems to have an obsession with cheesecake.  Call it a guilty pleasure if you will.  I say it is a guilty pleasure because I never hear people talking about it, but cheesecake is the most popular dessert in the country.  I read that somewhere.  If it is not number one, it is up there!

Cheesecake comes in many forms and flavors but for me, I like the New York kind the most.  

The recipe I'll write a little later is a fantastic NY cheesecake that can easily be modified for an infinite number of flavors.  I'll include instructions for that as well.

First a funny story.  Funny to me and my family...and pretty much anyone I have told this story to as well if my recollection is accurate.

A few years ago we were invited to the birthday of my nephew who lives here in Portland Oregon.  The party was pretty fun and the kids were having a blast.

We'd had some really good grilled food, opened presents and then it was time for the cake.  I don't know if my nephew had requested cheesecake or whether my sister-in-law just felt like making one, but the birthday was to be celebrated with cheesecake.

When the cake came out, it was cool looking.  Polka dot cheesecake!  I am sure she told me how to make it, but I don't remember anymore.

While the kids were finishing up one of the games, my brother-in-law was speaking to another parent, one of his friends I think, and I overheard him say "this is just about the healthiest cheesecakes you can make!"

My first thought was "why would you want to do that?"

In my mind cheesecake is not something that you want to be good for you!  Isn't that the whole point?  I think it should be rich and decadent.  A dessert that you can't stay away from because it is sublime, creamy and definitely NOT good for you.  It should be a dessert that makes you promise yourself that tomorrow you'll be good and eat your salad, veggies etc. tomorrow, but today, "I'm having some of THAT!"

The cake at the party had used goat cheese, goat milk and a minimum of sugar.  The flavor was good, but it wasn't what I want in a cheesecake.  The texture was wrong for my taste, probably because it didn't have enough fat.  The sugar level was fine, but it wasn't the creamy version that I make.

That being said, most of the cheesecakes that I have eaten that are served in restaurants or are mass produced are too sweet, dry and almost crumbly!?! This is something that I don't understand.  I don't know how to make one dry OR less crumbly.  Maybe it's the ingredients I use.

You will need a 9-10 inch spring form pan, a food proceesor (mine is a cuisinart), a wire whip, a mixer (mine is a Kitchenaid), a sheet pan or other container that the pan will fit in, aluminum foil and a rubber spatula for this preparation.

Here is the recipe:

2 pounds of cream cheese (Philadelphia brand is the best, so use it I say)

2 whole eggs

3 egg whites

2.5 oz granulated sugar (my wife says she would like it to be sweeter, use your discretion, you will probably want more)

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1C of heavy cream

Set the cream cheese out on the counter to warm to room temp.

For the crust:

18 squares of graham crackers (9 if yours are the big rectangle ones)

1/4 C granulated sugar

3 oz (6 T) salted butter

A pinch of kosher salt

It is important to make the crust first as it has to cool before the filling is poured in.

Let's make the crust.

Set your oven to 350F.

Break the graham crackers up into small pieces and put them into the food processor 

and pulse them until they are nearly a powder. 

If you do not have a food processor, break the crackers up a little more, put them into a ziplock bag and beat them into submission with a rolling pin, bottle, or some such device.

Place the crumbs into a medium sized bowl, add the sugar and mix them together.

Melt the butter on the stove or microwave I suppose.  

Add the butter to the bowl and incorporate them into the cracker/sugar mix until it has a wet look.

Pour into your spring form pan and press it down to cover the bottom.  

This crust is delicious so if you want to have the crust rise up the sides, double the recipe and press half into the bottom and form the rest onto the sides.

Bake for 10 minutes.  The crust should not change color, but should brown slightly at the edges.  

Pull from the oven and let it cool while you make the filling.

Reduce the oven temp to 300F.

Add the cream cheese in the bowl of the mixer, 

add the sugar and mix it with the paddle attachment.  The sugar helps the cheese reach a smooth texture.  Scrape down the sides once or twice to make sure that all of the cream cheeses has reached a smooth creamy texture.

At this point I add the eggs.  

Mix them until the entire mass is smooth, at first it will look really lumpy, but with more mixing it will come around.

Remember to scrape the sides a few times so that all of the mixture is the same texture.

Add the cream and vanilla.  

Mix until all of the filling is the same (again scraping the sides).

Place some aluminum foil to cover the bottom of the spring form pan.  

I usually use two pieces in a "T" pattern so that if my spring form leaks, my crust will not get water logged.

Pour the filling into the pan and give it a gentle shake to make it even out into the pan.

Place the spring form into the sheet pan and add about 1/2 inch of hot water and bake.

This one took about an hour.  The test to see if it is done is to bump the pan in the oven and it should just quake but not produce any "waves".

When the cheesecake is done, pull it from the oven and let it cool to room temp before placing it in the refrigerator to cool completely.

To remove the cake from the pan, use a thin knife to cut around the sides before removing the ring from the spring form pan.  Slice and garnish with macerated strawberries or whatever you fancy.

Yumm!

NOTE: To add different flavors to the cheesecake follow these guidelines: 

For a chocolate cheesecake substitute 1 C chocolate syrup for 1/2 of the cream.

For fruit flavors it is best to use a low moisture purée.  Some fruits lend themselves well to this such as mangos.  

Fruits with a higher moisture content pose a bit more of a problem.  My advise when using a higher moisture fruit is to purée the fruit, let it drain in a fine mesh strainer so that the liquid is separated from the solids.  Take that liquid and reduce it on the stove and add it back to the the reserved solids and substitute as you would with chocolate.

The cooking times will vary due to your oven, the liquid content of the filling etc.