Mustard-maple salmon with hollandaise sauce

Sauces are one of those "scary food things" that have long intimidated me.

When I saw a "cooking class" article in this month's Cooking Light about sauces, I felt newly inspired to get over my anxiety and try making a sauce from scratch.

Lalah and I decided to try preparing a simple piece of salmon and making a hollandaise sauce to accompany it.

Step 1 was going to Whole Foods and picking out a really beautiful piece of wild caught walleye salmon. Behold:



Step 2 was buying the ingredients for the hollandaise. Hollandaise is basically a warm, buttery version of mayonnaise. It's one of the French mother sauces. (Frankly, just the phrase "mother sauces" makes me want to attempt cooking all of them. Either that, or take a bath in them.) Hollandaise known for its rich, silky texture and its versatility.

Because the hollandaise was going to require a lot of attention, we selected an exceedingly simple recipe for the salmon, something that would require us only to place it in a glass pan and put it in the oven.

A couple of hours before dinner, I marinated the fish in dijon mustard, maple syrup, and balsamic vinegar (recipe below). That was the most complex part of the salmon preparation.

Over at Lalah's house, we rolled up our sleeves and got into the hollandiase. The timing of this meal was tricker than most meals we've prepared. Because we wanted to have the salmon coming out of the oven at the same time that the hollandaise was ready, and also at the same time that we had fresh asparagus and broccoli emerging from steam, we had to be on our toes. We adopted the phrase "gazelle-like intensity" to explain our mindset for preparing the sauce. We did a little fist-bump and then donned our aprons.

As it turns out, preparing hollandaise sauce does indeed require gazelle-like intensity. This is not the meal for a lazy cook, or for a Sunday afternoon when you just want something nourishing and simple. This is a great dinner to prepare with a two-person cooking team interested in exploring a somewhat technical meal. The preparations basically required full attention from both of us.

Having had no previous experience clarifying butter, Lalah and I worked together to make judgment calls about separating the solids from the butterfat. That was really helpful.

It was really useful to have one person focus on the sauce while someone else watched the vegetables and salmon and managed the plating. (Sorry, I just said "plating." Someone shoot me.)

Yes, we melted and whisked and clarified and blended and by the time we were done, we had something approximating hollandaise sauce. I even pulled out my grandmother's old gravy boat so we could serve it properly. It was the first time I've ever employed that particular piece of china.



Conclusion: the salmon was excellent, and made even more excellent with the addition of the sauce. The sauce itself was a little grainy and not quite as velvety as the sauce in the beautifully art-directed photo in the magazine. It would never have made it into service at a mid-level French restaurant. But it had terrific flavor, and was a delightful addition to the meal. Two thumbs up for a challenging and spirited cooking adventure.

Mustard-Maple Salmon
3 T Dijon mustard
3 T maple syrup
1 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 t salt
1/8 t freshly ground black pepper
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets (about 1" thick)
Cooking spray

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag; add salmon. Seal and marinate in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 400º.
3. Remove fish from bag; discard marinade. Place fish in 11 x 7 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400º for 12 minutes, or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
— adapted from Cooking Light


Hollandaise Sauce
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks
2 T cold water
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/8 t salt
Additional equipment: cheesecloth

Editorial note: I'm transcribing this recipe exactly as we prepared it, and exactly as it appeared in the magazine. Some other recipes for hollandaise call for straining the melted butter through cheesecloth at the end of step 1. I think this is probably the traditional way of clarifying butter. I wish we'd had cheesecloth; it definitely would've helped us separate the butterfat from the solids. Also, some other recipes involve vinegar and peppercorns. Although this recipe worked well enough, I can see myself trying a different hollandaise recipe later.

1. Place butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat; cook 5 minutes or until completely melted. Carefully skim solids off the top with a spoon; discard solids. Slowly pour remaining butter out of pan, leaving remaining solids in pan; discard solids.
2. Combine egg yolks and 2 T water in a small saucepan, stirring with a whisk until foamy. Place pan over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens slightly. Gradually add 1/4 c clarified butter, about 1 T at a time, stirring with a whisk until each addition is incorporated and mixture is thick. Reserve remaining clarified butter for another use.
3. Stir juice and salt into butter mixture, whisking until blended. Yield: About 2/3 c (serving size: about 1 tablespoon).
— from Cooking Light