Recetas de Cortes

OK, with the understanding in place that I cook using instinct, intuition and sloth here is the reconstruction of one of the dishes I have prepared since coming to Cortes. There will be more.

Apple Salmon Stew
Ingredients: Fresh Salmon (16 oz. or more);Salmon carcass, if possible (1); white onion (1/2); Red potatoes (3 large or 6 small); 3 LARGE tart apples (Transparents, Granny Smith etc.); light cream or whole milk (1 cup); Cortes Island free-range egg (1); Ground Sea Salt and freshly-ground pepper, sprig rosemary, sourdough (or equivalent) bread

Tools: Sauce pan, saute or cast iron fry pan, blender or Kitchen Bullet, filleting knife, wooden spoon

- Heat (there's no such thing as pre-heat)the oven to 350F
- Crush Rosemary (the herb) with a mortar and pestle; set aside
- Chop onion coarsely
- Cube skin-on potatoes
- Cube the skin-on apples
- Put 1/2 of both apples and potatoes (microwave them for a minute to soften) aside to add at the end
- Saute in 3 OZ (or more) of EVO onions, apples, potatoes, Rosemary until onions are soft
- If working with fresh fish, fillet the poor thing removing the skin (ouch!)
- In 6 cups of water in a large sauce pan boil the carcass and the skin for 10 minutes for broth (no carcass, you say? Flake some of your salmon and put in water with the skin), reduce to simmer (important)
- Roast salmon for 15 minutes on a well-saturated cedar plank or in a shallow pan or so at 350F.
- Remove carcass and skin from pan
- Add contents of saute and simmer for 15 minutes and allow to cool
- Blend the contents of the pan until smooth
- Taste the broth and adjust if you wish, but you'd be crazy to do that
- While broth is still cool, add dairy and the beaten egg.
- Return to simmer, pan uncovered(don't boil it or the milk will separate and clump*)
- Crack as much pepper as you wish into the simmering smooth broth and stir the mess regularly
- Add the par-roasted salmon in chunks as well as the remaining spuds and onions and allow to simmer another 20 minutes.
- Salt and pepper to taste, if you wish
- Serve over a hearty slice of sour dough bread. Any crisp white wine goes well, especially Gewurztraminer

It took longer to compose this than it did to do it.

* If you inadvertently boil the broth after the milk/cream is in and it clumps, re-blend it