whine & dine

I’ve always been a little wary of cooking fish. Most of the time, it’s so delicate, and so incredibly easy to ruin, so I generally leave it to the professionals to handle. Besides, as much as I do enjoy eating fish, it isn’t my favourite meat – I tend to prefer pork (in any form), or a good steak.

The bunny, however, is a huge fish lover, both as pets and as food. And even though I find it incredibly incongruous, it’s sort of in my interest to encourage the eating bit of this equation, since the three cats at home make it a little hard (thank heavens!) for her to have her way with a fish tank. It’s no surprise then, that our second dinner cooked in the Sous Vide Supreme was a fish dinner.

Cooking salmon at 49ºC gives it a luxurious mouthfeel – the interior of the fish is satiny, rosy, and has an almost gel-like texture. It remains unbelievably moist, even if you leave it bagged up and in the water bath for an hour, and – again – only takes 15 seconds in a screaming hot pan to give it a little colour before it’s ready for the table. I served last night’s fish with a garden salad dressed in a simple vinaigrette of sesame oil, sherry vinegar and some dijon, on a bed of mashed potatoes. And, boy, it was so, so good. And now that the guesswork has been taken out of the equation, I’ll be confident enough to serve my fish-loving girlfriend as many fish dinners as she can stomach. :)

Note: If, like me, you’re jury-rigging a domestic vacuum sealer, instead of using a chamber vacuum sealer, you’ll probably have some problems with sealing liquids into the bags as well. I normally just vacuum the bags until the liquids start to creep towards the opening, then stop the process and switch to sealing, but I’ve read that another alternative is to freeze tablespoons of oil into gel-like cubes and pack that in instead. I didn’t have time to freeze the oil last night, but I’ll try that out next time and let you know how it goes.

Olive Oil Poached Salmon
2 salmon fillets, skin removed, about 1 inch thick
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

optional: canola oil for frying

Check the fish for pin bones, and pat dry with paper towels. Season all sides well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss the fish with the oil gently, then bag it up in a single layer, and seal. Cook in your water bath at 49ºC for 20 minutes, or for up to about an hour.

You can either serve the salmon as is, or sear it for 15-20 seconds per side in a screaming hot pan to give it a little colour.