Pan Roast Salmon Fillet Recipe by Chef Igor From The Gibson Hotel with watercress purée, black salsify, fondant, santos tomatoes confit, goatsbridge caviar and lemon foam.
Ingredients:
Serves 4
– Fish 4 portions of Irish salmon fillet, pin boned & descaled
– Watercress purée
– 100g of watercress, picked and washed
– 100g of baby spinach leaves, washed
– ½ large onion, finely diced
– 2 garlic cloves, minced
– 100ml of cream
– olive oil
– salt & pepper
Fondant potato
– 4 round potato fondants
– 80g of Irish butter
– salt
– sprig of thyme
– 4 garlic cloves, peeled
Salsify
– 500g black salsify
– 1 lemon
– 20g butter
– 10g caster sugar
Tomatoes
– 8 santos tomatoes
– olive oil
Lemon foam
– 5 lemons, juiced
– 125g of sugar
– 100ml of fish stock (good quality)
– 20ml of double cream
– 1 tsp lecithin
– 20g Goatsbridge caviar
Method:
Salmon
1. Pan-fry the salmon fillet skin down on a very hot pan till golden colour, then place it in the pre- heated oven 180*C for 8 minutes. When fish is ready set aside and rest in the warm place.
Watercress purée
1. For the watercress purée, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Submerge the watercress and spinach into the boiling water for 1 minute.
2. Strain and place into ice water for 10 minutes. Pour enough olive oil to coat the base of a large pan and place over a medium heat.
3. Add the onion and a good pinch of salt and pepper and sweat until soft. Add the minced garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
4. Add the cream, bring to a simmer and reduce down by half. Add the blanched watercress and spinach and cook for a further 1 minute.
5. Place into a blender and process until smooth. Pass through a fine strainer, season to taste with salt and pepper.
Salsify
1. Start by peeling and cutting the salsify into 5cm long pieces of 1/2 cm thickness. Bring a medium pot of water to the boil add the juice from 1 lemon and a pinch of salt.
2. Blanch the salsify until tender, remove and refresh in iced water. Heat up a small pan then add butter and the sugar and leave to caramelise, then add salsify chunks and cook over a high heat for a few minutes until its hot.
Potato fondant
1. Place a saucepan over a medium heat and add the butter. When the butter is foaming, add the potatoes and garlic and season with salt.
2. Baste the potatoes with the foaming butter, turning them over until golden brown on both sides. Put the fondants in the deep tray and cover with an aluminium foil.
3. Cook it at 180*C in the oven until soft but not braking apart.
Santos tomatoes
1. Roast tomatoes with a little olive oil in the hot oven for 6 minutes. Sprinkle with some sea salt.
Lemon foam
1. To make lemon foam by adding the stock, vanilla, cream and lecithin to the warm syrup and frothing the mixture using a hand blender to create a foam.
To finish
1. Place the fondant in the middle of the plate then spoon some watercress puree and salsify chunks. Add salmon and santos tomatoes.
2. Finish by drizzling the lemon foam over the fish. Garnish over with some caviar and nasturtium leaf, serve immediately.
Igor Cikarev is the executive head chef at The Gibson Hotel. A Russian native from Riga, Igor got his start in the Latvian capital and has continued to grow his experience over the years.
Chef Igor also cooks for many of Ireland’s romance seekers on RTÉ’s popular TV show, First Dates, which is filmed at The Gibson Hotel in Dublin.
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