Iron Chef Night -- RADISH SPROUTS

It has been more than five years since I submitted myself to an Iron Chef challenge.  The challenge is just what the name suggests (assuming you watched either the original Iron Chef show or the American version).  I would give myself one ingredient -- the not so secret ingredient (after all, I have to decide what to use) -- and then come up with three to four dishes that feature the ingredient in some way.  

To date, I have posted five such challenges.  The secret ingredients for these events were corn, mussels, beef bone marrow, mushrooms and Vidalia onions.  With each challenge, the goal was to make dishes based on my thoughts and ideas, with little to no help from recipes.  Some challenges were successful.  Other challenges were less so.  Still, it was a chance for me to enjoy my hobby in a way that I enjoyed watching the Iron Chef show (the original version, as well as the American version, at least for a while).  

Iron chef challenges take a lot of work, both with respect to formulating ideas and the actual execution.  If you watched either show, you would know that the chefs have 1 hour to make their dishes. In reality, if I recall correctly, the chefs are given a few ingredients ahead of time to start the mental process of coming up with dishes.  

For my most recent challenge, I had a little advanced notice of the ingredient.  I received a Back to the Roots Water Garden, which is an aquarium on top of which you can grow herbs and small plants.  The kit came with seeds for radish sprouts and wheatgrass, which I used to plant my first "crop."  The planting went very well and I ended up with a lot of radish sprouts and wheatgrass.  The question was what to do with all of that.  

Hence, the first Iron Chef challenge in more than five years.  Given the fact that I had never cooked with radish sprouts before, I had to rely a little more on recipes than in the past. 

FIRST COURSE

The first dish is a watermelon salad with cilantro, radish sprouts and feta cheese.  This dish is based on a recipe from Saveur.  That recipe called for the use of Cotija, a Spanish cheese.  I could not find any of that cheese at my local store, so I went with an ingredient that I thought would come somewhat close in at least texture ... feta cheese.  Overall, this was probably the best dish of the night. 

WATERMELON SALAD WITH CILANTRO, 

RADISH SPROUTS AND FETA CHEESE

Recipe adapted from Saveur

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 small seedless watermelon (3-4 pounds), rind removed,

     cut into 1 inch cubes

1/4 cup olive oil

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon red chile powder

Zest and juice of 1 lime

Kosher salt, to taste

6 ounces of Feta cheese cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves

2 1/2 ounces radish sprouts

Directions:

Place watermelon pieces in a large bowl.  Whisk olive oil, sugar, chile powder, lime zest, and juice, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Pour over watermelon.  Add remaining ingredients, tossing to coat.  Adjust salt and pepper as needed.

SECOND COURSE

The second course (and the third one) tested my challenge to adjust recipes on the fly.  The second dish was supposed to be Mexican Avocado Spread Sandwiches.  To make a sandwich, you need bread.  I thought I had bread at home so I did not buy any at the store.  Turns out, no bread at home.  However, Clare bought a flatbread from Costco, which meant that we had a lot of flatbread.  So, I went with a flatbread concept, rather than a sandwich.

MEXICAN AVOCADO SPREAD FLATBREAD 

WITH SPROUTS

 Recipe adapted from Foodfaithfitness

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1/4 cup avocado, mashed, about 1/2 small avocado

2 tablespoons of salsa

1 teaspoon of fresh lime juice, plus additional for serving

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1/4 teaspoon chile powder

Salt, to taste

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

2 flatbread pieces, toasted

1 large tomato, sliced

1/2 cucumber, sliced

1 cups sprouts
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

Directions:

1.  Prepare the avocados.  In a medium bowl, mash together the avocado, salsa, lime juice, garlic, cumin, chile powder and a pinch of salt and pepper.

2.  Prepare the sandwiches.  Divide the avocado mixture evenly between two slices of bread, spreading evenly.  Divide the tomato slices between 2 slices of bread, followed by the cucumbers and sprouts.  Squeeze fresh lime juice over the sprouts and top each slice of bread with chopped cilantro.  Add more salt and pepper, to taste.  Cover with remaining slices of bread, cut, and serve.

THIRD COURSE

For my last course, I wanted to do something a little "fancy."  Unfortunately, it was a little flat.  The dish was supposed to be Sesame Marinated Salmon with a Radish Sprout Relish.   I wanted to incorporate the wheatgrass into the relish, so I decided to juice the wheatgrass with some radish sprouts and ginger.  It was at this point that the relish went out the door quickly. I still can't tell you what exactly I was thinking but I quickly had to turn the relish into a broth.  And that really did not work because the broth got lost in the rice, leaving only the bits of wheatgrass and radish sprouts along the edges. 

SESAME MARINATED SALMON

WITH RADISH SPROUT BROTH

A Chef Bolek Original

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1/8 cup mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine)

1 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar

1 tablespoon minced green onions

3/4 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 six-ounce fillets of Sockeye Salmon

1/2 cup of radish sprouts

1/2 cup wheatgrass

1/4 cup sweet onion, minced 

1/4 tomato, minced

Directions:

1.  Prepare the marinade.  Whisk the mirin, rice vinegar, green onions, ginger and sesame seed oil together.  Add salmon, turn to coat.  Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.

2.  Prepare the broth.  Put wheatgrass, a small amount of sprouts and ginger in a blender.  Add 1/4 cup of water.  Liquify the ingredients and transfer to a small pot.  Add a little more water to make the amount of broth that you need and turn the oven on to medium to heat.  

3.  Cook the salmon.  Preheat broiler.  Line baking sheet with foil, spray with non-stick spray.  Line up fillets, skin side up.  Broil 5 to 6 inches from heat source until skin is crisp, about 2 minutes.  Use metal spatula, turn salmon over.  Broil until salmon is just cooked through and golden brown on top, about 4 minutes.

4.  Plate the dish.  Place some rice in the middle of the dish.  Place the salmon over the rice and pour the broth gently around the edges of the rice.

*        *         *

With the cooking at an end, it reminded me that I am a little rusty when it comes to the Iron Chef Challenge.  Some of the difficulty could be due to the ingredient.  It is hard to think of dishes that use radish sprouts.  However, I also need to work on my flexibility when it comes to cooking on the fly.  I used to be fairly good at it, but just like anything else, it becomes a little rigid when not properly exercised. So, I hope that I will be able to do another Iron Chef Night soon.  And with an ingredient that is more in my wheelhouse ... like porterhouse steaks.

ENJOY!

Copper River Sockeye Salmon with an Orange-Saffron Sauce

There are only a handful of food blogs that I regularly follow, and, one of them is Hunter, Angler, Gardener and Cook or "HAGC."  The mind behind HAGC is Hank Shaw, who spends his time doing what the name of his blog suggests.  Hank has posted several recipes that have been on my to do list for quite some time.  One of those recipes is Trout with Orange-Saffron Sauce. 

I was particularly interested in the orange-saffron sauce, which I thought was a very good sauce to pair with trout.  Hank used the orange (and white wine) to provide some acidity to balance with the fat in the trout.  The orange also added a little sweetness, which adds complexity to the sauce.  That complexity is further developed by the use of saffron that, according to Hank, adds an "ever-so-slightly bitter flavor" to the sauce.  After reading his blog, I was determined to make this dish for my beautiful wife, Clare, and myself. 

I had to make a couple of substitutions and adjustments.  First, I did not have access to any trout fillets that were thick enough to do this recipe any justice.  I decided to substitute some Copper River Sockeye Salmon fillets. The salmon worked very well because it shares some of the same characteristics as the trout, particularly that little bit of fattiness and relatively mild taste.  Second, I had to substitute the greens.  Hank used amaranth, but I did not have any of that leafy vegetable available to me.  I substituted some fresh spinach.  Although I am not a big fan of spinach, I really liked it in this dish. 

COPPER RIVER SALMON WITH AN ORANGE-SAFFRON SAUCE

Adapted from recipe by Hunter Angler Gardener Cook

Serves 4

Ingredients for the Orange-Saffron Sauce:

1/2 cup of white wine

1/2 cup orange juice

A healthy pinch of saffron, crumbled

A healthy pinch of sugar

1 shallot, minced
Salt
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Ingredients (for the fish and greens):
1 1/2 pounds of tender spring greens, such as spinach
5 tablespoons of unsalted butter or vegetable oil, divided
A splash of water (no more than 3 tablespoons)
Grated zest of an orange
1 1/2 pounds of Copper River Salmon (or any wild salmon)

Directions:

1.  Make the Orange-Saffron Sauce.  Make the sauce by bringing the white wine, orange juice, saffron, sugar and shallot to a boil in a small pot.  Simmer strongly for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and puree the sauce in a blender.  Return the sauce to the pot and turn the heat to low.  Add salt to taste and keep warm, but do not boil it or simmer it any further.

2.  Make the Greens.  Cook the greens in 2 tablespoons of butter or oil over high heat in a large saute pan, stirring constantly until they wilt. Add a splash of water, the orange zest and some salt and cover the pot. Lower the heat to medium-low and steam the greens for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat.

3.  Sear the salmon.  Heat the remaining butter in a pan large enough to hold the fish.  (If you don’t have such a pan, put a baking sheet in the oven and set the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit so you can keep the fish warm as you do this in batches.)  Heat the butter over high heat until it stops frothing. Pat the fish dry with paper towels and set it skin-side down in the hot butter. Turn the heat down to medium-high for a typical fillet  or to medium if you are working with a thicker piece of fish.

4.  Continue cooking the salmon.  Let the fish cook undisturbed for 2 minutes, then use a large spoon to baste the meat side of the fish with the hot butter. Baste the salmon for 90 seconds, then give it a rest. A thin fillet will only need one quick basting, but thicker pieces of fish will need a second or even third round of basting.  It took about four to five rounds of basting for the fillets that I had.  When the basting is done, salt the meat side. The skin side should lift off the pan easily after about 4 to 5 minutes of steady cooking. The moment you take the fish off the heat, salt the skin side.

5.  Finish the dish.  To serve, swirl in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into the sauce, one tablespoon at a time. Pour some sauce on everyone’s plate. Top with the greens and then with a piece of fish. Serve immediately.

Overall, this is a great dish.  Clare and I really enjoyed the match of the salmon and the orange-saffron sauce.  Hank suggests other possible options when it comes to fish, such as sea-bass, bluefish, and walleye.  I think I may also try this recipe with rockfish, which is very plentiful around where we live. 

ENJOY!

Chile Rubbed Salmon with Tomatillo, Jalapeno Pepper and Lime Juice

As I continued preparing a wonderful Valentine's dinner for my beautiful Angel, Clare, I had to think of a main course.  Clare loves salmon and, due to her pregnancy, she has not been able to eat as much of it as she would like.  All of the pregnancy guidelines say that it is important to eat certain fish.  Salmon is one of those fish, provided that it is wild salmon rather than farmed salmon.  There are many issues with respect to farmed salmon, which are better left for another post.  Fortunately, I have a lot of access to wild sockeye salmon.  So, I purchased two six ounce fillets and began to work on the recipe.

I had planned on following the same approach to planning this course that I used when I made my Roasted Root Vegetable Soup.  I planned on choosing ingredients that would complement each other, as determined by The Flavor Bible.  However, as I perused the section on Salmon, I came across a dish prepared by Zarela Martinez for her restaurant.  The dish was "Salmon Rubbed with Ground Red Chile and Lime and Pan Seared.  Served with a Tangy, Spicy, Tomatillo, Jalapeno and Lime Juice Sauce.  The dish caught my attention, and, I decided to make it.  The only problem is that I did not have a recipe.

So this recipe is my first effort to create Martinez's dish.  I made estimates of the amount of each ingredients for the salmon and the sauce.  For the salmon, I used ground Hatch chiles for the rub, but ground ancho chile and even cayenne pepper could be used.  For the sauce, I used a couple tomatillos with some onion, shallot and garlic to help add flavors and body to the sauce.  I did not add any more spices or herbs (other than salt and pepper) to keep the sauce rather simple. Finally, I decided to pair this dish with some saffron rice, which is just ordinary rice with a pinch of saffron added during the boiling stage.  

Overall, I think this dish worked out very well.  The sauce may need a little more work, especially with respect to consistency.  (The consistency of sauces continues to be an area that I need to develop.)  The flavor was there and it worked very well with the not only the salmon, but also the rice. 

CHILE RUBBED SALMON WITH TOMATILLO,

JALAPENO PEPPER AND LIME JUICE SAUCE

A Chef Bolek Original

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 six-ounce sockeye salmon fillets

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil or canola oil

3 tomatillos, de-husked, and diced

1 jalapeno pepper, diced

1 yellow onion, diced

1 shallot, diced

2 cloves of garlic, diced

1 teaspoon of dried oregano

2 cups of rice, made according to instructions

2 limes, juiced

1 pinch of saffron

Salt, to taste

Ground black pepper, to taste

Cilantro, chopped

Directions:

1.  Prepare the rice.  Prepare the rice according to the the instructions.  Before you begin to boil the water, add a pinch of saffron to the water.  Then continue as directed by the instructions.  

2. Prepare the sauce.  Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet.  Add the onions and saute until soft, about four to five minutes.  Add the shallot, garlic and oregano, saute for two minutes more.  Add the jalapeno pepper and saute for about three more minutes.   Season with a couple grinds of salt and pepper.  Add the tomatillos and continue to saute for about five to eight minutes, until the tomatillos begin to soften.   Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the ingredients to a blender.  Blend the ingredients until they are a liquid.  Tranfer the ingredients to a pot, season again with salt and pepper.  Cover and set aside. 

3.  Saute the salmon.  Heat the remaining oil in a pan.  Saute the salmon, skin side up, for about four minutes.  Flip the salmon and saute for about four minutes more or until done.  

ENJOY!

Pan Roasted Salmon Steaks with Tomato Vinaigrette

Several weeks ago, I was looking for a new and different recipe for making salmon.  I had bought a couple of sockeye salmon steaks and wanted to make something special for my beautiful Angel.  I searched the Internet and came across a recipe by Ted Allen for Pan Roasted Salmon with a Tomato Vinaigrette on the Food & Wine website.  I decided that I would adapt this recipe and use it with the salmon steaks.

I modified this recipe in a couple of respects.  First, the recipe called for the use of center-cut salmon fillets.  I went with salmon steaks.  Second,  I used a variety of yellow and red tomatoes, to add some more color to the dish.  Finally, I decided to garnish the dish with some thin slices of Pecorino Romano.  I thought that the cheese would add another layer of flavor to the dish, although, after-the-fact, I think the cheese could be left off the dish.

Overall, this dish was okay.  Obviously, I still need to work on plating and appearance.  (I was very disappointed with the plating, so much so that this dish almost did not make the blog.)  As for taste, it was delicious.  I will definitely try to make this dish again and see if I can do a better job.

PAN-ROASTED SALMON STEAK WITH TOMATO VINAIGRETTE

Adapted from recipe by Ted Allen and available at Food & Wine

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 pint of grape tomatoes, halved

1 medium shallot, thinly sliced 

1 tablespoon of drained capers

2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

Salt

3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

4 salmon steaks

Freshly ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin

     or 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

2 tablespoons of canola oil

1 tablespoon minced parsley

1 tablespoon of chopped basil

Directions:

1.  Begin the vinaigrette.  While the oven is preheating to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, toss the tomatoes with the shallots, capers, vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a bowl. 

2.  Cook the salmon.  In a medium ovenproof skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil.  Season the salmon with salt and pepper and add it to the skillet, skin side up.  (If you are using salmon steaks, just add them to the skillet.) Cook over moderately high heat until well-browned on the bottom, about three minutes.  Carefully flip the fillets (or steaks).  Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast until the salmon is cooked through, about 7 minutes.  Transfer the fish to the plates and pour off any fat in the skillet.

3.  Finish the dish.  Place the skillet over moderate heat and add the tomato mixture along with the cumin (or crushed red pepper), canola oil and remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Cook, scraping up any bits stuck to the skillet, until the tomatoes just soften, about two minutes.  Pour the sauce over the salmon, sprinkle with the parsley and basil and serve immediately.

PAIRING THIS RECIPE

Food & Wine suggests that this dish could be paired with an Argentinian rose wine.  Those may be a little difficult to find.  French rose wines are generally more available.  Winemakers in Provence and the Loire Valley produce some great rose wines.

ENJOY! 

Smoked Sockeye Salmon

Salmon has a very important place in the culture of Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest.  The tribes long believed that if someone mishandled the fish, the great spirits of the sea would drive the salmon from the waters.

It is known as the Legend of the Lost Salmon.  Briefly, the Creator told the people that the salmon, which had been created especially for them, had to be treated in accordance with certain rules.  The people initially followed those rules; however, over time, they became careless.  They stopped following the rules and the salmon vanished.  As the people walked the river, they were shocked that the salmon were gone.  They came across a dead salmon and all cried out that, if they were only given one more chance, they would do better.  They also thought if they could revive the dead salmon, the salmon would return to their waters.  

The tribe called a council and asked one of their most venerable members, Old Man Rattlesnake, to help them.  Old Man Rattlesnake went to where the dead salmon laid and crawled over the salmon four times.  When he crawled over the salmon a fifth time, something magnificent happened ... Old Man Rattlesnake disappeared into the fish and the salmon awoke.  The people learned their lesson about taking care of salmon and the fish returned to the streams. 

The Legend of the Lost Salmon is not just a story passed down by generations of Native Americans; it has a moral that transcends cultures and nationalities.  We all have to "follow the rules" when it comes to the fauna and flora in our environment.  Our failure to do so could lead to us losing them.  This morale is especially true when it comes to fish, because our activity has decimated the stocks of many fish around the world, including salmon. Today, there are a lot of rules when it comes to the fishing of  Pacific Salmon and Alaska Salmon, including Sockeye and King Salmon.  These rules have led watchdog groups like Seafood Watch to give these fish the "Best Choice" when it comes to sustainable fish.

Recently, while visiting Eastern Market with Clare and her parents, we stopped by Southern Maryland Seafood and saw some beautiful fillets of wild Sockeye Salmon.  We decided that we would buy a two pound fillet of Sockeye Salmon.  Our plan was to smoke the fish.

Smoking fish involves choices.  Before the smoking can begin, one must decide on how to "cure" the fish.  There are two methods: wet cure or dry cure.  A wet cure is a brine with a base of water, salt and sugar (as well as other ingredients).  A dry cure is a rub, usually consisting of salt and sugar (as well as with other herbs and spices).  Once a choice has been made with respect to the cure, the next decision to make is the method of smoking the fish.  Once again, there are two choices: cold smoking or hot smoking.  Cold smoking involves cooking the meat with smoke at temperatures of 85 degrees Fahrenheit or less.  By contrast, hot smoking involves cooking the meat with smoke at temperature between 120 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit or more. 

Ultimately, we decided to use a wet cure and the hot smoking method to smoke our Sockeye Salmon fillet. We created a simple brine for the fish and let the fish rest in the brine for about forty-five minutes.  While we were air-drying the fish, we decided to smoke the fish using apple wood.  Most often, salmon is smoked using alder wood, but apple wood is a tame wood that imparts a sweet smoke flavor to meat.  After about an hour, we pulled the fish from the heat and were treated to an amazing meal.

SMOKED SOCKEYE SALMON

Adapted from Great Salmon Recipes
Serves many

Ingredients:

2 pounds of sockeye salmon

4 cups water

3/4 cup of Kosher Salt

1/2 cup of light brown sugar

Directions:

1.   Brine the salmon.  Combine the water, salt and brown sugar to create the brine.  Add the sockeye to the brine and allow the fish to rest for about forty-five minutes. After forty-five minutes, remove the fish and set it out to air-dry.  

2.  Smoke the salmon.   Prepare the fire for the smoker.  Once the fire is set, add some pieces of apple wood to start the smoke.   Ideally, you do not want the temperature to exceed 200 degrees Fahrenheit.  (It is better for the temperature to be less than 200 degrees.)  Add the salmon and smoke it for about one hour.  The internal temperature should reach about 140 degrees Fahrenheit and the meat of the fish should be easy to flake. 

3.  Finish the dish.  Remove the fish from the heat and allow it to return to room temperature. Serve immediately.

ENJOY!

For more about smoking salmon, check out the Gourmet Food Store.  For more about the Legend of the Lost Salmon, check out Native American Indian Legends.

Cedar Plank Salmon

Recently, I wanted to make Cedar Plank Salmon.  For me, this dish takes me back to my very first trip to the Pacific Northwest, when I went to Seattle for a job interview.  I arrived late in the afternoon and was scheduled to leave the following afternoon.  With little time to see the city, I went straight for the Pike Place Market.  By the the time I got to the market, it was about to close.  My disappointment over missing an opportunity to walk the aisles of this famous market soon faded after I sat down for dinner at a restaurant in downtown Seattle.  I do not remember the name of the restaurant, but I do remember the dish ... it was my first experience eating Cedar Plank Salmon.  

I wanted to make this dish using a recipe from the Pacific Northwest.  Fortunately, during my honeymoon, I picked up a cookbook called The Paley's Place Cookbook.  The Paley's Place is a restaurant in Portland, Oregon, which focuses its cuisine on local, organic and sustainable foods.  Clare and I never made it to the restaurant for a meal, but the cookbook is really, really good. 

I made two changes to the recipe.  In the original recipe, it calls for using a dry cedar plank and allowing the plank to burn around the fish.  However, I think the smell of the cedar wood contributes to the flavor of the overall dish.  So, I soaked the cedar plank for about an hour before assembling the fish and grilling it.  Once put on the grill, the soaked plank will begin to smoke and that smoke will infuse much more cedar flavor into the fish and the onions.  I left the instructions for the original recipe below, but, I would recommend soaking the wood so that you can amplify that cedar flavor in the final dish.

The second change involved the type of salmon that I used for the dish.  The original recipe calls for king salmon, which is by far one the best kind of salmon to use on a Cedar Plank.  However, I did not have access to king salmon.  I used sockeye salmon, which worked just as well.  I would also recommend using coho salmon as a substitute.  All three types of salmon -- king, sockeye and coho -- are wild salmon, which is the type of salmon that has the best health benefits, such as Omega 3.  

CEDAR PLANK SALMON

The Paley's Place Cookbook at 92-94

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:
2 pounds of salmon, preferably king salmon, but you can use coho or sockeye salmon
2 tablespoons of Kosher salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
Grated zest of 2 oranges
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
1 small bulb of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped basil leaves

Directions:

1.  Prepare the marinade.  In a bowl, mix the salt, brown sugar and orange zest.  Generously rub the mixture on both sides of the salmon.  Cover the fish and refrigerate for two hours.

2.  Prepare the salmon for the grill.  Preheat a grill on medium.  Brush the cedar plank on both sides with three tablespoons of olive oil.  Spread the chopped garlic on the plank the length and width of the salmon fillet.  Place the salmon on top of the garlic and cover evenly with the chopped basil and onion slices.  The onions do not just add flavor, they protect the fish from burning while it cooks. So make sure that the onions cover both the tops and the sides of the fish.  Drizzle three tablespoons of olive oil over the onions.

3.  Grill the salmon. The grill should be hot enough to ignite the plank when you place the plank in the grill.  Let the plank burn around the fish.  Once the plank has burned, cover the grill.  Continue to grill the salmon until medium rare, or 130 degrees Fahrenheit, which should take about fifteen minutes. 

ENJOY!

Buttery Salmon with Shiitake Mushrooms and Shallots

Every once in a while, it is okay to splurge.  This meal is definitely a splurge.  It is a sockeye salmon sauteed in butter and then topped with a little "salad" of shiitake mushrooms and shallots and topped again with a chiffonade of sage.  The butter makes this dish decadent,  making each mouthful of salmon something to treasure.  I would not make this often, but it is definitely a good creation.

BUTTERY SALMON WITH SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS AND SHALLOTS
A Chef Bolek Original
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
1 pound of sockeye salmon fillets
8 shiitake mushrooms, medium to large
1 shallot, julienned
1 garlic clove diced
5 tablespoons of butter
4-6 large leaves of sage, chiffonade

Directions:
1.  Cut the salmon into 2 or 4 slices.  Salt and pepper liberally.  Clean the shiitake mushrooms and slice them into little strips.  Heat a pan on high and throw the mushrooms into the pan.  This will draw the moisture out of the mushrooms.  Stir the mushrooms.  After a couple of minutes, add 2 tablespoons of butter, the shallots and garlic.  Saute for about five minutes.

2.  In a separate plan, while the mushroom mixture is sauteing, heat 3 tablespoons of butter on medium high heat.  When the butter is melted and bubbling, add the salmon, flesh side down.  Saute for about 5 to 6 minutes and flip.  Saute for about five more minutes.  Take a knife and poke gently into the salmon to determine if it is done. If the salmon begins to flake, it is basically done.  If it is not flaking, turn it one more time for a couple of minutes.

3.  Remove the salmon and plate.  Take a spoonful (or three, as I like it) of the mushroom mixture and gently pour the mixture over the salmon.  Garnish with the sage chiffonade.

ENJOY!