Lemon Oil Poached Salmon

For this dish I shaved some Meyer lemon peels and black peppercorns into some olive oil and let it set for a day.  The next day I lightly salted my salmon filet, let it set for about 20 minutes, put my probe thermometer into it, then submerged it in the lemon oil and covered it with foil.  I put the small pan with the fish and oil into a double boiler and put it on low heat on the
oven, with the temp alert set at 130F.  Then I cleaned, chopped, and boiled some parsnips, made a quick tomato, caper, mustard relish, sauteed my kale with shallot and cranberries (fresh, not dried), and sweated some blueberries in bourbon-maple syrup.

When the parsnips were tender I creamed them with some cream and the leftover fennel beurre blanc and pureed until very smooth.  I took the blueberries and spooned them over our desserts, which was an eggnog flan.  I caramelized the peeled Myer lemon slices for garnish, and squirted a little juice onto the kale.

This is the look I'm going for on this dish

The temp alert went off at 130F, but the fish carried over to 140F and that was far hotter than I had planned.  Although still moist and flavorful, the salmon was cooked through 100%.  I'm thinking that in order to get the kind of look and texture I want, I need to seep it longer, but not let it go over 100F, and hopefully not carry past 115F-120F.  There was nothing wrong with it, except that it lost it's rich orange orange color, was too flakey to make a good presentation, and had those little white fat spots all over it.  But it was still good. 

The sweetness of the parsnips was offset by the bitterness and sharp tang of the kale and cranberries, and everything was spiced up by the tomato/caper/mustard relish.  The eggnog flan and blueberry/maple topping was just the right dessert, too.  Finished with some Graham's 10 Year Tawney, and it was quite delicious.

New Year's Day Dinner

Began 2013 with a simple yet tasty dinner featuring Steamed Lobster Tail atop Caramelized and Curried Cream-Roasted Fennel, with Sauteed Spinach and Mushrooms, Toasted Corn, and Fennel-Cream Beurre Blanc Sauce.  We had a fair sparkling Moscato to go with it.