Baked Salmon with Cream Sauce

 This uses a middle cut of salmon. 

"Butter a large sheet of white paper, pinned the ends around salmon. Melt 4 Tablespoons butter in 3 Tablespoons boiling water. Lay fish in baking pan, pouring over it the butter and water. Cover and put in oven for 1 hour. Boil 1/2 pint cream with 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, add 1 Tablespoon butter, 1 Tablespoon parsley, salt and pepper. "

End of story.

Sauteed Grouse on Wild Rice with Brandy Cream Sauce

SP has always made me gourmet meals out of the birds he kills. More often than not these birds die upon impact with his truck. Tonight we ate roadkill and it was scrumptious. I remember, when miserably sick when first pregnant with our daughter, SP made pheasant with sour cherry and blueberry sauce. Last night one male grouse made the perfect dinner for two - no marketing necessary!

Ingredients

1 Grouse breast

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup Cream Sherry
1/4 cup minced shallots

1/4 cup brandy

1 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 cup wild rice

handful sliced mushrooms (optional)

Process

• Bone breast and separate tenders.

• One at a time place pieces between two sheets of waxed paper and gently pound into 1/4 inch thick paillard (I don't have a fancy paillard which I think is a French word for 'meat hammer', so I use an empty beer bottle- funny, I always seem to have plenty of those)

• Make rice. Wild rice is fickle and tough to pin down regarding proportions and time. I add 1 cup uncooked rice to 3 cups water. Bring water to a boil, stir once and cover.

• Simmer over low heat until all the water is absorbed by which time the rice kernels should crack open revealing their tender white innards. It will take between 30 minutes and one hour. If all the water is absorbed before the kernels break open, add more water 1/4 cup at a time until the rice is fluffy, cracked open and tender.

• While rice cooks, melt butter in a 12" skillet over med heat.

• Saute paillard in butter- about a minute per side.

• Add Cream Sherry and saute until meat is glazed and sherry is mostly gone. Probably unnecessary but I happened to have Cream Sherry on hand (leftover from last weekend's soup) and I love the flavor.

• Remove meat from pan and cover to keep warm.

• Add minced shallots and saute for about a minute. My wife, your blog mistress, simply abhors mushrooms, but if you, like me, love them- add a handful of sliced mushrooms. I recommend shitakes, but use what ya got and we just happened to have some leftover int he fridge from last weekend's pizza making!

• Remove pan from heat and add brandy. If brandy flames don't panic, just wait for it to burn out. Return pan to heat, bring to boil and cook until brandy is nearly gone- about 5 minutes.

• Add stock, bring to boil and cook until reduced by half- about 5 minutes.

• Add cream, return to boil and cook until reduced by half.

• Finis

• To serve: Place a bed of rice on plate, top with one breast piece and one tender and smother with sauce. What I did was make a plate for the mushroom hater ... ... then add mushrooms to the remaining sauce in the pan, hit it with a splash each of brandy and cream, cook until the mushrooms were tender then plate up mine (see photo at top).

Molded Halibut - a mousse - with almond cream sauce

Nothing about this recipe appeals to me except the fact that it was written by my Great-grandmother. I am sure someone would love this, but for me fish mousse is my Kryptonite. The almond cream sauce however is a keeper! I could see this making a nice appetizer for a party.

Ingredients
1 lb Halibut
I loaf crusty bread or 1 pint breadcrumbs
1 cup cream
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
4 eggs separated

and ingredients for the sauce (to be made while mold cooks)
1/4 lb almonds
2 Tablespoons butter
1 pint cream, 2 Tablespoons flour
pepper
salt

Process

• Preheat oven 350 degrees.
• Chop the one pound of Halibut very fine.
  
• Cook 1 pint bread crumbs, from middle of loaf, with 1 cup cream to a smooth paste.
  
• Add fish, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon celery salt.
  
• Beat egg whites and fold into mixture.
  
• Bake in mold lined with well greased wax paper.
  
• Bake until firm - about 1/2 to 3/4 hour.
  
• While fish is cooking, blanch 1/4 pound almonds, chop fine and blanch in 2 Tablespoons butter.
  
• Make a cream sauce from 1 pint cream, 2 Tablespoons flour, pepper and salt.
  
• Add nuts and butter.
  
• When finished cooking, turn out mousse and cover with sauce.
  

Baked Salmon in Cream Sauce

This is another one of those recipes written without weights or proportions and with archaic directions that only confuse me. Unless someone can explain to me the history of using white paper in cooking, I am omitting the confusing part and replacing it with instructions about what type of dish to use. This recipe is clearly one way to take a heart healthy fish and use it to clog your arteries!

Baked Salmon with Cream Sauce

Ingredients:
Salmon
Butter
Water
cream
cornstarch
parsley
salt
pepper

Process:

• Preheat oven 350.
• Take a middle cut of salmon and place it in a loaf or other fitting pan.
  
• Melt 4 Tablespoons butter in 3 Tablespoons boiling water.
  
• Pour butter water over the fish.
• Cover and put in over for 1 hour.
  
• To make the cream sauce, Boil 1/2 pint cream with 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Add 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.
  
• Serve piece of salmon with sauce over top. Garnish with parsley.
  

Crabmeat Claridge

I am unsure if Claridge refers to the famous hotel in London, but many of their more famous recipes do involve crab meat. I can just picture Baba strolling into this foyer of the Claridge, sending Lambert to the kitchen in order to get recipes for the farm! What ever it's origin, this one sounds delicious (and easy!)

Ingredients:
Cream
Mustard
Worcestershire
1 can Campbell's tomato soup
Canned Alaska Crab meat
grated cheese


Process:

• Make a rich cream sauce and season with mustard and Worcestershire. Make enough to make one pint.
  
• Add one can Campbell's tomato soup to one pint sauce.
• Add canned Alaska King crab meat and heat.
• Put in baking dish.
  
• Sprinkle with grated cheese on top.
  
• Bake until cheese melts.
  

* Back in the day, "make a rich cream sauce" was probably a standard statement, but today I am sure many readers won't know the first place to start. While any good remedial cookbook should have a recipe for this in it, and I know Joy must have handfuls of recipes, I thought I should add a link to a cream sauce recipe.

http://www.kitchenlink.com/cookbooks/2002/1893062295_2.html

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