Citrus Marinated Salmon with Orange Confit

Inspired by Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 side salmon, skinned and boned

Citrus Marinade

finely zest of 1 orange, 1/2 lemon, 1/2 line, 1/2 grapefruit

1/3 cup of Hamalyian crystal pink salt

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp freshly grounded white pepper

Orange Confit

4 navel oranges

1/2 cup of Simple Syrup - 1/2 cup each of s ugar and water reduced to 3/4 cup of simple syrup

1/2 tsp white wine vinegar

Eating so many salmon these years, I actually got a little bored of it until I read Keller's receipe. The salmon is cured and flavoured with ground citrus zest.

1) Trim the salmon - trim the salmon of its thin fatty belly flap and cut off the last 2-3 inches of the tail end (reserve them for another use). Trim off any dark flesh.

2) Prepare the citrus marinage

- combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl, stirring with a fork to break up any clump

3) Sprinkle half of the marinade down the center of aluminium foil (longer than the fillet) and srread it into the shape of the fillet. Place the fillet on it and sprinkle the remaining marinade over the fish. Fold the foil into a pocket. place it on a baking sheet and weight it lightly in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

4) Remove the marinated fish from the foil, rinase of the marinade and dry the fillet thoroughly.

5) Cut it into pieces of 3" by 1" wide. Let the fish stand at room temperature for about 30 mins to an hour.

6) Pour enough olive oil to cover the fish in a pan. Heat the oil to 110F. Put the salmon pieces in the oil and heat them for about 10 mins. Maintain the oil at 110F by moving the pan on and off the heat as necessary. When the salmon is cooked, remove the fish from the pan and drain briefly on paper towels.

7) Peel the oranges including all the white pith and membrances. Bring the simple syrup and white wine vinegar to a boil. Pour over the orange segments and let cool to room temperature.

Keller's cookbook also has the pea shoot Coulis for this dish which I skipped. Instead of expensive caviar, I used the roe that usually use for California rolls.

8) Place warm orange sections side by side to form a rectangle in the center of each serving place, set the fish over than oranges and garnish with caviar. Dust each plate with a pinch of citrus powder.