FRESH PESTO & SUMMER SALMON

Homemade pesto~citrus cured and hot-smoked salmon~James Syhabout, the chef at the Oakland, Calif., Commis restaurant, semifinalist for the coveted James Beard award

Fresh Pesto

When it comes to summer food, my mind usually races to seasonal faves like burgers, tomatoes, and corn. But there’s another super summery ingredient that it would be a shame to forget about—pesto! Hailing from Genoa, Italy, pesto sauce traditionally consists of crushed garlic, pine nuts, salt, basil, and a hard cheese like parmigiano-reggiano or pecorino, all mixed together with oil.

But it can be made 1,000 ways. The garlic: take it or leave it. Pine nuts: There are even preferred pine nuts! Other nuts/seeds can be used: Walnuts, pistachios, pecans, marcona almonds, or even sunflower seeds. As for the basil, other greens work, too: Oregano. Cheeses: Pick one or more from several. Oils: Well there’s a universe to pick from. While pesto can also be bought at a grocery or specialty store in a jar, I never have.

It’s so stinking easy to make at home!

On Yummly, I found 17,280 pesto recipes when I searched there. If you have a hankerin’ to plow through them, have at it. I also Googled pesto recipes and searched the first 15 pages of who knows how many. The Today Show, recently aired a recipe for pesto by New York City restaurateur, Anthony Scotto, owner of renowned Fresco by Scotto, which has announced his first project in Nashville— Luogo, expected to open later this year.

Serious Eats is a food and drink website that tells us that the best pesto is alla Genovese. It can be made with a food processor, but a mortar and pestle is better; it also has recommendations about the type of basil to use, small leaves vs. large ones; what cheese to use, pecorino fiore sardo is a slightly milder sheep's-milk cheese than pecorino romano, creating a more balanced, less harsh pesto sauce; what type of pine nuts to use, and from the thousands of extra virgin olive oils on the market the type of olive oil to use and mild olive oil results in a more balanced, less aggressively spicy sauce.

I’m nowhere as fussy as Serious Eats. I grab whatever amount of whatever basil I can, a handful or two or three of any old pine nuts, ditto for any hard cheese I’ve got, and any olive oil I have on hand. No matter what combo of amount of each ingredient I’ve selected, my memory tells me I’ve loved every batch. And spinach penne is my fave. I’m fussy about that. It’s a tubular pasta with ridges which holds pesto well. It can be served cold or hot. Some people prefer al dente linguine.

Citrus Cured Salmon

Search the internet and you’ll find oodles of recipes for citrus-cured salmon. Each has one ingredient or technique that the others don’t. I searched and searched and then retreated to the cookbook that introduced me to the dish a decade ago, Michael Ruhlman’s “Ruhlman’s Twenty.” I love this dish! (While this recipe is a composite of many, it leans very heavily on Ruhlman’s.)

Ruhlman is no fan of cooked salmon, he tells readers in this 2011 cookbook, which amounts to a cook’s manifesto of techniques and recipes And it’s a James Beard Award 2010 winner. Says he: “I adore cured salmon for its deep flavor and dense texture. It’s easier to make than bacon, and salmon is easier to find than fresh pork belly!” He likes it sliced thin so it’s translucent or dice it or chop it. I’m here to tell you it’s devine on a bagel, too!

Zest: lime, lemon, grapefruit, and orange

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup kosher salt

• 1/2 cup sugar (or brown sugar or honey)

• 1 tsp grated lime zest

• 1 tsp grated lemon zest

• 1 tbsp grated grapefruit zest

• 1 tbsp grated orange zest

• fresh dill is often used in this recipe, but you can also also have fun with black fennel, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and whole grain mustard

• 2- to 3-pound skin-on salmon filet, pin bones removed and very thin pieces of flesh trimmed

  

  A filet being prepared for curing in a salt and sugar mix

STEPS

• mix salt and sugar (For a kick, try adding 2 tbls of freshly grated horseradish.)

• put skin-side down on 1/3 of salt-sugar mixture on parchment paper over aluminum foil on sheet pan

• sprinkle all zest evenly across salmon

• distribute remaining salt-sugar mixture on top of salmon

• drip 1/4 cup brandy or lemon vodka over salmon; gin, with its juniper, citrus, and botanical notes, would also work well in place of aquavit or vodka (optional)

• wrap in parchment and double wrap in foil

• cover salmon with second tray and add weights such as canned foods or foil-wrapped bricks and place in refrigerator for 24 hours

• rinse salmon to remove cure

• wrap in plastic film again and place in freezer for 12 hours (this step can be skipped)

• remove from freezer, unwrap from plastic film and slice thinly by holding a sharp knife almost parallel to counter, slicing on the diagonal of the fillet, almost shaving off slices

As a wink and a nod to the just announced James Beard Awards, here’s a citrus salmon recipe from the James Beard Foundation, which uses cognac for flavoring.

What's the difference between gravlax and smoked salmon, you may wonder? What distinguishes them is the method used to prepare each. While gravlax is complete once it's left to cure in a salt and sugar mixture, smoked salmon is first cured briefly and then slowly cooked on a gas or charcoal grill or in a smoker. Gravlax is traditionally served with a drizzle of mustard sauce and some fresh dill and often served with thinly sliced rye bread or crisp rye crackers. Serve citrus salmon with rye bread or pumpernickel. It's also good anywhere you would use lox—with or without cream cheese on bagels—my absolute fave!— or bialys, as well as with sour cream and latkes or blinis or bagels.

Hot-Smoked Salmon

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made this salmon dish, but my copy of “How to Grill,” by Steven Raichlen, came out in 2001, and is literally falling apart. And it’s my only cookbook that’s in such a condition. Not all pages—just p. 309 to 313, which is a recipe for rum hot-smoked smoked salmon. (Please note that this recipe can also be used for other fatty, rich, oily fish, such as bluefish, bonito and Spanish mackerel.)

While it may take four hours to cure, its indirect grilling only takes minutes. I’m a dry cure, vs. wet cure guy, usually one part salt and two parts sugar combo. Honey, molasses, or maple syrup, or a mixture of these, can be used in place of sugar. Remove the salmon’s skin, bury the salmon, top and bottom, in the fish cure, and put it in the refrigerator for four hours. Rinse the cure off, plot dry with paper towels, and let it dry 15 minutes. Woods that are good for this dish are alder, apple, and cherry, since hickory and mesquite are too strong. Soak four cups of wood chips in cold water for an hour. Cook by indirect heat for 15 minutes, give or take a couple of minutes.

James Beard Award for Best Chef

On June 13, the James Beard Foundation announced that Brandon Jew, of Mister Jiu's restaurant in San Francisco won the award for Best Chef in California. The chef at Commis (review) in Oakland, James Syhabout, was semifinalist for the same award. Vintage Morels reviewed Commis (photos) in January 2 issue.

Want to make someone’s day better? Share this post.