Escalopes of Salmon Troisgros - Rick Stein

Recipe of the month - May

“This dish is one of the first I cooked when I joined The Seafood Restaurant over 20 years ago. I remember the beautiful wild salmon we used to get from the Camel Estuary; coming from London I was amazed by how fresh it was. I remember we used to drive up to Rick’s house every morning to pick the sorrel from his herb garden to use in the dish. It’s such a simple yet flavourful dish and was definitely one of the best sellers on the menu all those years ago and is still popular in the restaurant today.”

Paul Ripley, head chef at Rick Stein’s Seafood Bar in Falmouth

© Recipe taken from Rick Stein's English Seafood Cookery, published by Penguin Books, 1988.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb (775 g) salmon fillet from a good-sized salmon
Groundnut oil
Salt
1 pint (600 ml) fish stock 1 fl oz (30 ml) dry white wine
1 fl oz (30 ml) Noilly Prat
2 oz (60 g) sorrel leaves
3 fl oz (90 ml) double cream
3 oz (90 g) butter
Juice of a quarter lemon

Method

Remove any bones in the fillet of salmon with small tweezers, long-nosed pliers or by trapping them between the point of a small knife and your thumb. 

With a sharp filleting knife or carving knife cut the salmon into 12 diagonal slices about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick, rather as if you were cutting thick slices of smoked salmon, i.e. cutting on the slant down to the skin.

Brush a grilling tray with oil and place the 12 escalopes of salmon on it. Brush them lightly with oil and season lightly with salt.

Turn on your grill and put four large plates in the oven to warm. Place the fish stock, wine and vermouth in a small pan and reduce by three-quarters by rapid boiling. 

While this is reducing, wash and pick the stalks from the sorrel and slice the leaves into a thin chiffonade. When the fish stock has reduced, add the cream, reduce still further, then whisk in the butter. Add the lemon juice and stir in the sorrel. Take off the heat.

Put the fillets under the grill. You don't need to turn them; they are done when the flesh changes colour from dark pink to light pink (about 30 seconds). Pour the sauce over the warm plates.

Carefully lift the escalopes off the grilling tray with a palette knife and lay them on the plates slightly overlapping. Sprinkle a little chopped sorrel over them.

For the fish stock:

Ingredients

1 large onion
1 large carrot
1 stick of celery, including the top
3 lb (1.4 kg) fish bones, including heads
3 pints (1.7 litres) water

Method

Clean and peel the vegetables, then chop them into pieces roughly a quarter inch (6 mm) cube. The stock takes only 15 minutes to cook, so the vegetables must be cut small to extract the maximum flavour in so short a cooking time. Place the vegetables in a large saucepan (holding at least 6 pints or 3 litres) and put the fish trimmings on top. Pour on the water and bring slowly to the boil, turn the heat right down and leave at a very slow simmer for 15 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and leave the stock to go quite cold before straining. Making stock this way keeps the liquor clear and clean-tasting.

( Last Updated: 15-09-2011 )