Salt-Roasted Salmon and Frisee Salad with Lardons and Poached Eggs

I seem to be in something of a rut these days.  I keep cooking meals from the same cookbooks or genres, over and over and over again.  It occurred to me the other day that it has been some time since I last cooked salmon (or fish of any sort if I really stop to think about it).  We cook shrimp fairly often, but to my recollection we haven't cooked fish once in 2011.  How sad is that?  Instead we have been cooking tons and tons of meat.  For the next few months I resolve to cook more seafood and vegetables, and less meat.  We used to be really good about cooking vegetarian meals and seafood at least once each a week, but we have failed lately.  Granted, it is winter so there aren't a ton of fruits and veggies in season, but what is my excuse for not making fish for at least the past 3 months?!  There isn't one!

So I found this recipe the other day when I saw the recipe for the Pan-Roasted NY Strip in my Tom Colicchio cookbook.  I have never tried salt-roasting anything, but I figured why not give it a shot?  So the salmon was perfectly cooked, with a lovely crispy skin.  And you know how much I love a good crispy salmon skin.  I really enjoyed it, except that in certain bites I couldn't get past the salt level.  I'm not sure if there is a way to remove more of the salt from the flesh of the salmon, but some bites were just so salty.  We tried brushing it off as instructed, but there was a certain amount of salt that was just stuck on there and impossible to remove.  Perhaps we didn't pat the salmon dry enough or perhaps we should have tried brushing the salt off with a basting brush or a clean kitchen towel.  Either way, we did our best to remove the salt from the salmon but we just couldn't quite get enough off.  As for the salad, I was thinking it would be nice to have a traditional French bistro salad to go with our salmon.  I wanted something a step or two up from our typical arugula salad (partially because we already had arugula salads with our dinner twice this week), something with a little bitterness and richness.  I wish I had added a little Dijon mustard to the dressing to give it a little more acidity and richness.  It would also have thickened the dressing just a little bit.  The red wine vinegar gave it a little acidity, but I really could have gone for just a little more.  I also wish we had toasted a little bread to serve on the side.  So if we could have made just those few tweaks, I think it would have been a phenomenal bistro-esque meal. 

Recipe after the jump!

Salt-Roasted Salmon

Adapted from Think Like a Chef

By Tom Colicchio

INGREDIENTS:

1 tbsp evoo, plus additional for drizzling (we used a Lisbon Lemon EVOO from Stonehouse California Olive Oil that we picked up in San Francisco to drizzle over the salmon)

3/4 lb center-cut salmon fillet, skin on, cut into 2 equal pieces (about 1-inch thick)

about 2 cups coarse sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Heat 1 tbsp evoo in a medium ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers.  Pat salmon dry.  Add the salmon, skin-side down, and cook until the skin begins to crisp, about 2 minutes.

Mound the salt around and over each piece of salmon and roast in the oven for 5 minutes for medium-rare.  Remove the salmon from the oven and carefully brush away the salt.  The top should still appear slightly rare, but the sides should be opaque.  Transfer the salmon to a clean work surface, brush away the remaining salt, and season with freshly ground pepper. 

Drizzle with additional evoo and serve immediately.

Frisee Salad with Lardons and Poached Eggs

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups frisée, light green parts only, torn into bite-size pieces

4 thick-cut bacon slices, cut into lardons 1/4-inch thick
2 tbsp distilled white vinegar
2 large eggs (use the freshest eggs you can find)
2 tbsp shallots, minced
2 tbsp red-wine vinegar

freshly ground black pepper

flaked sea salt

evoo

Fill a 4-quart saucepan with 4 inches of water and stir in white vinegar.  Bring liquid to a bare simmer. Break each egg into a teacup.  Use a spoon to stir the water until it forms a vortex.  Slide 1 egg into center of vortex.  Simmer egg about 1 1/2 minutes for runny yolk.  Remove egg from pan with a slotted spoon to a plate.  Repeat with remaining egg. 

In a heavy skillet cook bacon over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until golden.  Remove bacon from skillet using a slotted spoon.  Add shallot and cook, stirring, 1 minute.  Add red-wine vinegar and boil 5 seconds.  Immediately pour hot dressing over frisée, top with lardons and toss with salt and pepper to taste.

Place salad in a serving bowl and top with poached eggs.  Season eggs with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little evoo.

Serve immediately.