Sous Vide Salmon with Crushed Potatoes

Sous Vide Salmon with Crushed Potatoes

A few good friends were coming over for dinner.  What does one cook?  Heston Blumenthal's Sous Vide Salmon with Crushed Potatoes from his book Heston Blumenthal at Home, of course!  My son has just purchased another sous vide-r, and has been cooking sous vide-d salmon.  Well, if he can cook, mary can cook too.

Ingredients:

4 salmon fillets, skin on

80 g olive oil

groundnut oil or grapeseed oil

salt

Preheat the water bath to 50 degrees Celcius.

Place the salmon fillets in individual sous-vide bags with 20 g olive oil in each bag.  Seal under full vacuum and place the bags in the water bath for 15 minutes.

Heat a thin layer of oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat.  Remove the salmon fillets from the sous-vide bags and pat dry with kitchen paper.

Season the fillets with salt and place them, skin-side down, in the hot pan.  Cook for approximately 30 seconds until the skin turns golden and crisp.  Serve on top of crushed potatoes with 2 tablespoons of sauce per portion.

Crushed Potatoes

Potatoes are cooked until soft, then dressed with a shallot and oil mixture before being crushed with a fork.  It's a recipe with plenty of potential variations.  You can add rosemary, thyme, onions, shallots, garlic and even smoked bacon to the cooking water.

Ingredients:

750 g potatoes, washed and halved

4 cloves garlic, peeled, and bashed with the flat part of a knife or by hand

Salt

4 shallots, peeled and finely diced

150 g olive oil

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

15 g white wine vinegar

sea salt and black pepper

Put the halved potatoes and garlic in a saucepan, cover with water and add a teaspoon of salt.  Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are soft.  (Approximately 20 mins).

In a frypan, cook the shallots gently in the olive oil for 5 minutes and set aside.

When the potatoes are done, drain them, discarding the garlic.  Place the potatoes in a bowl, and pour over the shallot and olive oil mixture.  Add the grain mustard and vinegar and crush with a fork until the potatoes are roughly broken up but not fully mashed.

Generously season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Make a stock with the salmon bones together with a carrot and an onion.  Reduce and strain.  Add truffle salt to taste.

Serve salmon on top of crushed potatoes, boiled beans, with 2 tablespoons of salmon stock.

Enjoy!