I decided to make something special for the return to indoor Fish Hell Night.
Mon mari is happy to eat almost anything if he can cook it on the grill – even fish.
Things get a bit trickier when the barbecue gets put away for winter.
However, he will also eat almost anything if it’s served on spinach.
Baked Salmon Florentine
Total time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
- 12oz (350gr) salmon
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 4 shallots, sliced
- 4oz (120gr) fresh spinach
- 1/3 cup (3oz, 90ml) white wine
- 1/3 cup (3oz, 90ml) chicken stock
- 1 tsp tarragon
- 2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbs water
- 1/3 cup (3oz, 90gr) Greek yogurt
- 2 tbs whole grain mustard
- 2 tsp olive oil
Instructions:
- Salmon:
- Sprinkle thyme and paprika on salmon. Bake for 10 minutes at 400F (200C).
- Remove and cut into 1″ (2.5cm) slices.
- Sauce:
- Heat wine, chicken stock and tarragon to a boil.
- Add cornstarch mixture and stir until thickened.
- Remove from heat and stir in yogurt and mustard.
- Vegetables:
- Sauté shallots in oil until tender. Wash spinach and spin dry.
- To assemble:
- Put spinach in a gratin dish just large enough to hold everything. Top with shallots and sliced salmon.
- Spoon sauce over and bake, 350F (175C) for 15 minutes.
And as long as we did something ‘Florentine’ – and after spending a few days eating in Paris, I decided to resurrect an old post describing food styles…. As in something done in the style of…..
Some are fairly well-known:
- Florentine – with spinach
- Lyonnaise – with onions
- à la dijonnaise – with mustard
- au gratin – with a thin, browned crust, often with breadcrumbs (may or may not have cheese)
- à la meunière – coated with flour, sauted, served with butter and lemon
- à la espagnole – with red peppers, tomatoes and garlic
Some are fairly common:
- forestière – with mushrooms, diced potatoes, sliced truffles and gravy
- normande – with apples and Calvados
- Rossini – noodles, Parmesan, truffles and foie gras in a Marsala sauce
- provençale – tomatoes, onions, garlic, olives, anchovies, breadcrumbs
- Saint-Germain – with peas
- landaise – foie gras and truffles
- à la savoyarde – with cheese and potatoes
Some are not so common:
- financière – cockscombs, truffles, mushrooms, olives, veal or chicken quenelles in Madiera sauce
- godard – same as financiere but with the addition of sweetbreads
- judic – small braised lettuces with cockscombs, truffles, kidneys in sauce demi-glace
- à la grecque – vegetables cooked in water, cooled and served cold
- toulousaine – with cockscombs, kidneys, sweetbreads, truffles, mushrooms in a sauce bound with egg yolk
- à l’oriental – usually with saffron
Of those last few there are some I want to remember – so I don’t inadvertently order them.
I’ll eat squirrel but not a cockscomb…..
Last update on November 7, 2014
Very interesting article Katie. I just spent half a day driving around town trying to find lengua (beef tongue). Most supermarket chains said they’d special order it for me, but you know how that goes $$$. I have been looking for a tienda (Hispanic grocery) here but have been unsuccessful. I finally found a high-end butcher shop that normally carries them, although I had to come back the next day to get one. It was only $5.99 a pound and was from hormone-free grass fed beef, a big plus in my mind.
But back to your article. How easy is it for you to find cockscombs, truffles or sweetbreads? And I won’t even ask about foie gras…
Chuck
This looks great. We have a freezer full of salmon so I need to add this to our weekly rotation.
I am not a salmon eater but I could use chicken here as I love anything a la gratin.
brassfrog. if it’s edible (or even not) I can find it (if I want it) All of our supermarkets have butchers and all the towns have little specialty butcher shops – horse? beef? pig? As well we can buy directly from the farmers….
Jerry, a freezer full? Did you catch it? :Lucky you.
Kate – chicken would be great – thanks for the idea LOL