Makes: 6
Pan Fried Salmon with Sea Vegetables, Samphire and Crushed Celeriac with a Gin Mare Butter Sauce
Ingredients:
- 6 salmon fillets, scaled and pinned
- 300g mix of sea vegetables (sea kale, sea aster, sea beet etc)
- 150g Samphire
- 1 Lg celeriac peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes
- milk just to cover celeriac
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 100g butter
- Pinch of celery salt
- Vegetable oil for cooking
- Salt & freshly milled white pepper
- In a pan add the celeriac, thyme, Bay. Cover with milk and simmer until the celeriac is well cooked, strain the celeriac removing the bay leaves and thyme stalks. Reserve the milk.
- Melt the butter in the same pan; add the celeriac back in, season with the salt and pepper and sauté for 2 mins to allow the celeriac to dry slightly.
- Pulse in a blender in until course (not too smooth), adjust the consistency with the reserved milk if needed. Season with celery salt and keep warm.
- Heat a non stick pan until medium hot, add a little vegetable oil and gently place the salmon fillets in, skin side down. Keep them cooking gently until the colour has changed half way un the side of the fish (this is all about controlling the temperature to not burn the skin but still get it crispy and cook the fish half way).
- Turn the heat off, turn the fish over and leave in the pan, the residual heat will finish cooking the fish through.
- In boiling salted water add the sea vegetables and cook for 2 minutes, remove and add the Samphire and cook for 1 minute.
For the Gin Mare Butter Sauce:
Reduction: can be made up to a week in advance and kept in the fridge
- 25g butter
- 2 shallots sliced
- 5g pepper corns
- 250ml white wine vinegar
- 150ml gin mare
- Handful of basil stalks
- Cook the shallots in the butter until soft, add the peppercorns, vinegar and basil stalks and reduce by half, add the gin and reduce again by half. Strain.
Finishing the sauce:
- 2 tbsp reduction
- 100ml chicken stock
- 1 tbsp cream
- 250g unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp gin mare
- Bring the reduction and chicken stock to the boil and reduce by a third, add the cream and then gradually whisk in the butter to form an emulsion.
- Season and finish with the gin mare. Don't boil the sauce or the butter will split!
To serve:
- Neatly arrange the hot celeriac and sea vegetables in a warm bowl, top off with the salmon and scatter over the Samphire, serve the butter sauce on the side to pour as needed.
Cooking with Gin Mare at Rocksalt Folkestone Recipes by Mark Sergeant