Salmon in Dill Butter & Wilted Arugula - Oyster Mushroom - Goat Cheese Salad

For the salmon you'll need:

1 to 1.5 pound salmon fillet (wild Sockeye is in season now)
3 tablespoons of butter
3-4 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh dill

Preheat your oven to 250 F.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add in the chopped dill.  Cook for 2-3 minutes over medium heat while swirling the pan occasionally.

Arrange your fillets in a glass pan.  I put the skin side down, baste each fillet with the butter, turn so skin is facing up and finish off the butter on the skin side.  Put into the oven with skin side up.

Bake for 25 minutes or so, depending on the thickness of the fillet.  I usually use a single fillet that is 1.5 inches at its thickest and fills the pan.

After removing from the oven, let the pan rest for 5 minutes before moving the fish to plate.

For the arugula-goat cheese salad:

1 pound of arugula
1/2 pound of oyster mushrooms
1/4 pound of soft chevre
1/4 cup chopped watercress
1 cup of bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons of chopped thyme
Leaf lard or other high temperature oil for frying the cheese
Olive Oil
1 clove garlic

First put your cylinder(or whatever shape you have) of goat cheese into the freezer for 10-15 minutes to get it firm.

Place three small bowls on the counter.  Flour goes in one, beaten egg in the next and the last should have a mix of bread crumbs and thyme.  For bread crumbs I usually have a bag of crusts in the freezer that I keep from stale dry leftover breads.  I'll take some of these out, chop them up a bit and then run them through the blender until they are very fine crumbs.  Alternatively, you can use Panko crumbs from the store.

Next, use a small fry pan to melt enough lard to make a centimeter of depth.  I keep this on medium to low while I get the cheese ready to fry.

Pull out your chevre from the freezer.  Using a sharp, unserrated knife, cut the cylinder into into 4-5 evenly divided wheels.  Take each wheel and coat both sides in flour, then egg and finally in the crumbs.  Set each wheel aside on a plate until all are coated nicely in crumb.

Bump the heat up on the lard to medium high.  It should be shimmering, but never smoky.  If it starts to smoke, remove it immediately from the heat.  Place a few of the wheels carefully into the oil, being careful not to overcrowd your pan.  Overcrowding causes diminshed crispness and makes turning the wheels difficult.  Cook on each side 60-120 seconds or until golden brown.  Place them on a wooden cutting board to allow them to stay crisp until serving time.

In a large (14") saute pan, gently heat some olive oil with the crushed garlic.  As soon as the oil is warm, add the oyster musrooms.  These are best if they are in clumps of no more than 2-3 mushrooms.  Cook until the mushrooms soften and brown a little, then set aside in a bowl.  While the pan is hot, stuff in the arugula, put a lid on it and allow it to wilt for 1-2 minutes.  Remove from pan directly to serving plate, top with mushrooms, then chevre, and garnish with a touch of watercress.

Now that you have your salad done, plate the salmon servings next to it and pour any residual herb butter over each piece of salmon.

Quinoa, Watercress and Tomato

Yep, with a 100 degree day, it was time to keep it light.

1 cup of Quinoa cooked in 2 cups of chicken broth.  I use the rice cooker since it's simple and comes out perfect.

3-4 Heirloom type tomatoes of medium to large size, chopped.

2 cups of chopped watercress.

Mix it all in the bowl and salt lightly.  Deceptively filling for such a simple dish, with the key ingredient being a rich chicken stock that has some fat remaining.  If that's not available and you are going to use the boxed stuff, then be sure to add a tablespoon or two of butter to the quinoa as it cooks.

Chicken Stock

Making homemade stock is what separates good from great cooking in my opinion.  Once you've had a taste of the real thing, you'll never go back to that boxed stuff.  Truly, it's not that hard to do and you can make enough to last for a couple of weeks of cooking.

Beef and lamb stock are very good and have their uses, but I find myself making chicken stock more often because I use it frequently to cook quinoa, beans, lentils and rice.

As usual, try to find chicken that comes from a pasture environment as the taste will be more dimensional than a caged, grain fed bird.

So, yesterday I made a recipe using chicken breasts.  I carved those breasts from a whole chicken and saved the rest of the chicken specifically to make this batch of stock.  I also had purchased a pound of chicken backs from the butcher in order to have around 3 pounds of chicken bones and meat for the stock.

Here's what you'll need:

3 lbs of uncooked chicken meat and bones (one small chicken would work.)
10 cups of water

2 carrots (chopped)
1 red onion (chopped)
2 celery stalks (chopped)
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of peppercorns (crush them before adding)
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme

1.  Chop the chicken into fist sized chunks to expose more surface area to the water.  Place into stock pot and cover with the water.  On the stovetop, bring it to a simmer.

2.  As the stock gets to a simmer, use a spoon to skim off the fat and gelatin that has risen to the surface.  Discard.

3.  Place the covered stock pot into a 190 degree oven and let it sit in there for 4 hours.  Stock never comes to an actual boil, just simmers at 180-190 for a long time.  The oven is more controllable than the stovetop in that sense.

4. After 4 hours, add the remaining ingredients and return to the oven for another hour.

5.  Pull out the stock and use the lid to pour off most of the liquid into another large pan or bowl.

6.  The final step involves straining away the debris and getting a relatively clear golden broth.  I use a fine mesh strainer (a chinois) lined with a bit of cheesecloth.  I place that over a quart jar and pour the stock directly into it.  Repeat until done.  This recipe makes around 2+ quarts of stock depending on how careful you are with the straining steps.

I let my lidded jars of stock cool on the counter to room temperature and then place one in the fridge for immediate use and the rest into the freezer for use in the coming weeks.

Have fun!

Chicken Breasts, Broccoli, and Sweet Potato Fries

2 chicken breasts (one per person)

2 strips bacon (one strip per breast) - I use uncured, pastured pork.

2 tbls of butter

4 sprigs of thyme

1 sprig of rosemary

4 leaves of sage

In the afternoon, place chicken breasts in bowl, cover with water and add 3 tablespoons of salt.  Let soak in the fridge until just before cooking.

Preheat oven to 400.  

In a saute pan, melt butter and add chopped herbs.  Lightly cook herbs for 1 minute and remove pan from heat.

Remove breasts from brine, rinse, pat dry and place into saute pan, carved side down.  Use a brush to spread the herbed butter over the surface of the chicken.  Place a slice of bacon over each breast (you may need to cut each slice in half and place the two halves over the breast to get better coverage.)  

Put saute pan in oven and cook until desired doneness.  I cook until the bacon is starting to look slightly underdone and the breasts are at 160 F.  Remove pan to stove top and let sit for 10 minutes prior to carving.  They can sit up to 30 minutes in the pan on the stove top.

Sweet potato fries can be purchased pre-made and frozen or easy made ahead of time.  Just cut sweet potato into strips, parboil for a minute and then coat with the oil/lard/butter of your choice.  I use mine straight from the freezer and they cook up fine.  Place them onto a cookie sheet as a single layer and bake at the same time as the chicken.  It should take about 20 minutes to get the desired crispness.  I like mine with mayo, so I prepare homemade mayo with olive oil.  Yummy.

Broccoli.  While the other two items are in the oven, take any heritage or young broccoli and quickly saute in pork leaf lard or other fat of your choosing.  After cooking, add a little lemon juice and a sprinkle of parmesan.  Chop up the bacon from the chicken and add it to the broccoli.  If it's young enough this should only take about 3 minutes, so save it until the end.