Le Bernadin-inspired Salmon and Apples

I went to the store to get the ingredients for this great salmon recipe in my On the Line, Inside the World of Le Bernardin cookbook and, oddly, my fish monger had no salmon! So this went from a Le Bernadin recipe to a Le Bernadin-inspired recipe. This was night two of my exploration of the new cookbook (this is night one).

It is alternating layers of trout, apples, and smoked salmon. It's topped with a salad of julienned apples, celery, celery leaf, parsley, and lemon zest tossed with lemon juice and olive oil. The whole thing is drizzled with a serrano pepper emulsion.

I'd like to try it again with the proper ingredients, but this was amazingly good.

Wednesday Tartare Gets a Makeover

This week's farmer's market tartare got a little help from my new purchase, On the Line, Inside the World of Le Bernardin. The recipe I went for first is Seared and Marinated Yellowfin Tuna Tartare "Sandwich" with Ginger Oil. It was good choice. It wasn't far from my usual Wednesday tartare but improved just enough to seem super fancy and special.

I'll be working my way through that cookbook and posting the results here (ingredient search willing! I've already had to make substitutions).

Flounder with Mustard Greens and Raita

So, I'd a made my fish and couscous dish enough times now that I felt I needed to move on. I still bought some wonderful, local flounder at the farmers market and like the preparation of it dusted and semolina and pan fried but it needed to be reworked. I was losing interest.

I picked up some mustard greens, which I don't usually buy and I'm not sure why. Dinosaur kale is really my favorite so it was my go-to green. I changed it up this week. I started by sautéing some shallots, then adding garlic and the mustard greens. I sprinkled about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar into that and about a cup or pre-cooked lentils (1/2 cup dried; I'd made lentils the night before and had some left over).

While that was cooking down, I chopped up half the cucumber (I took out most of the seeds) and blended it with a cup of plain yogurt and a minced garlic clove, lemon juice, salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper.



I prepared the fish the way I typically do. I dusted it with salt, pepper, and semolina flower and fried in butter.

To plate I put a mound of the mustard-lentil mixture, placed the fish on that, and then poured the raita mixture on top.

It turned out great!