Salmon with Pinot Noir

Few meaty items are so naturally good as fresh wild salmon. It doesn't need aging, brining, curing, or drying. After a quick turn on the grill, maybe a squirt of lemon juice, a pat of butter, and a dash of salt and a grind of pepper, and you are set. I take salmon adulteration very seriously, but count the Mark Bittner’s salmon with pinot noir as one of the best preparations. His NYT column, The Minimalist, has inspired culinary gems like this one, to certain travesties--usually Asian dishes of lethal salinity-- that I have expunged from my memory. Of course, how could he possibly go wrong with fresh salmon and a sauce based on caramelized sugar and pinot noir, especially when he is pulling the base recipe from Seattle's Brasa.

Unlike many sauces and stocks, which require hours of roasting bones, chopping vegetables and meats, and more hours of simmering, this sauce is made in minutes due the miracle of caramelization. Bittner's recipe calls for the dry method of making caramel, which can be a bit trickier and less forgiving than the wet method I described in an earlier blog, the Marriage of Heat and Sugar. But it only calls for a 1/2 cup of sugar, so give it a whirl. Wine is added to the darkened liquified sugar, which will solidify from the cool wine, before dissolving. To this is added some rosemary, a complex vinegar such as balsamic, and a pat of butter. The acid and the fat in the butter should also help the sauce from forming crystals. The resulting rich thick, red-black sauce verges on opaque. He preferred the pinot noir, which is fruitier and more complex than most red wines, and suggests Joseph Drouhin's La Foret. But I have tried it with some cabernet with sirloin cuts and had wonderful results. Both sauces are great to keep on hand for a simple, after-work dinner that will rival most restaurants.

The pan-roasted salmon steaks also is a nice change of pace from firing up the Weber. But Bittman calls for non-stick pans both for the sauce and the salmon. This is laziness at its silliest. First, you can't gauge the color transformation during the caramelization process with the dark finish of non-stick coatings, and second, caramel, being only sugar, is one of the easiest items to clean. Third, in my experience, you will trash a non-stick pan by putting it in the oven like this, and fourth, there are cheaper and safer alternatives for pan roasting, like a good old fashioned cast iron skillet.

ROAST SALMON STEAKS WITH PINOT NOIR Adapted from Mark Bittner
Total time: 30 minutes
1/2 cup sugar 2 cups pinot noir
1 3" sprig rosemary, plus 1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
4 wild salmon steaks, each about 1/2 pound
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon butter.

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place sugar in heavy-bottomed saucepan, preferably stainless steel and with rounded sides, and turn heat to medium. Cook without stirring (just shake the pan occasionally to redistribute sugar) until sugar liquefies and begins to turn brown, about 10 minutes. Turn off heat and carefully add wine. Turn heat to high and cook, stirring, until caramel dissolves again. Add rosemary sprig and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is syrupy and reduced to just over 1/2 cup, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. As liquid reduces, heat a cast-iron skillet over high heat until it begins to smoke. Season salmon on both sides with salt and pepper, then place in pan and immediately transfer to oven. Cook 3 minutes, then turn salmon and cook another 3 minutes. Remove salmon when medium-rare or thereabouts (or cook another minute or two if you like it more done) and keep warm.

3. When sauce is reduced, stir in balsamic vinegar and butter and turn heat to medium-low. Cook until butter melts. Season with salt and pepper and remove rosemary sprig. Taste and adjust seasoning, then serve over salmon, garnished with chopped rosemary.
Yield: 4 servings.

*Even back in the mid-nineties, I had stopped using non-stick pans for anything but scrambled eggs after I had heard about pet birds developing respiratory problems (Actually, they'll develop respiratory problems from sauteed butter, but that weakens my point). Even the non-stick industry warns about heating a pan over 500, and independent tests show that most pans heated above this in everyday cooking, albeit momentarily. But listen: if a person heats an empty non-stick skillet till it begins to smoke, what do you think is smoking? It’s the Teflon, now in aerosol form! And maybe its growing up with Watergate, exploding Pintos, and Silkwood, but do you really think that industrialists would tell us the truth or release all of their test results?! The tobacco industry still tries to deny the risks of smoking. Anyway, try a good cast iron pan, seasoned well. Look for used American-made pans at Goodwill or other thrifts, like the Salvation Army. Not only will you save your lungs, and have a pan in which you can use as many sharp metal objects as you desire, but you'll be creating an heirloom-quality item.