Oven Dried Tomatoes

This is a rare post for me. I cooked this for dinner tonight. Typically it takes me weeks or even months before getting back to something I want to blog about. This dish was simple, delicious and looked great that I figured I’ll get off my lazy behind and post it here.

I picked up some lovely Alaskan Sockeye salmon and treated it to a salty brine for 15 minutes. This is my go-to method for treating most fish before cooking. A 10% salt solution seasons, firms up and rinses off any impurities on the fish. The fish went into Ziploc bags with olive oil ready to cook sous vide. I use these bags and the water displacement method to bag meats for sous vide a lot. It is simple and works very well removing almost all air from the bags. The fish cooks for about 20 minutes at 50 C then the skin gets seared till crispy.

For the cauliflower, I tossed it with olive oil and pepper and heated my oven to 400 F. I put the sliced cauliflower cut side down on a baking sheet and cooked on top of the baking steel for about 25 minutes while the salmon cooked in the water. I love the dark almost-burnt sides so I did not bother turning them over giving me a nice contrast.

The citronette is a cute name for a vinaigrette made with citrus juice instead of vinegar. So, this one is nothing more than lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon mustard and salt. I added a few minced celery leaves for flavor. To get some freshness and crunch, I very very thinly sliced celery and cauliflower stem. Not bad as far as knife skills go! I tossed those in the sauce and used them to garnish the fish.