recipes

Charlie Trotter

Chef-proprietor, Charlie Trotter's, Chicago, USA

Charlie Trotter describes this dish as "extremely satisfying, true good-for-the-soul food". The salmon is roasted slowly on a bed of braised celery and topped with a layer of wild thyme. "The result is a highly aromatic piece of fish that is so smooth it literally melts in your mouth," he says. "Thus, the contrast of pairing it with the pungent red wine risotto is all the more dramatic."

Slow-roasted salmon with red wine risotto, wild thyme and tiny white asparagus

(From Charlie Trotter's Seafood, published by Ten Speed Press) Serves four

Ingredients

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup Spanish onions, diced

2tbs plus 1tsp butter

1 cup Arborio rice, uncooked

1 cup red wine reduction

1 cup roasted woodear mushrooms, chopped and roasted

Salt and pepper

1.25kg piece salmon, skin removed

4 stalks celery, peeled and cut into long, thin strips

11/2 cups fresh thyme

1 cup tiny white asparagus

1/2 cup veal stock reduction

Method

Sweat the garlic and onion in a medium saucepan with 2tbs of butter. Add the rice, stir to coat with the onion and garlic, and cook for five minutes. Add half a cup of red wine reduction and continue to cook over medium-low heat while stirring gently and constantly. Once the rice has absorbed the red wine reduction, add the remaining half cup, stirring constantly. After all the red wine reduction is absorbed, add quarter cup additions of water until the rice is just cooked. It should be al dente, yet creamy. Fold in the roasted mushrooms and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Season both sides of the salmon with salt and pepper. Place the celery strips on a small baking sheet, creating a rack for the salmon. Place the salmon on top of the celery and cover with11/4 cups thyme. Roast at 140ºC for 15-20 minutes or until just done. Remove from oven, cut celery into small dice and fold them into red wine risotto.

Quickly sauté asparagus in a small pan with the remaining 1tsp of butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Warm the veal stock reduction in a small pan.

To assemble: place a mound of red wine risotto in the centre of each plate and top with a piece of the salmon. Arrange some of the tiny white asparagus and remaining fresh thyme on top of the salmon. Spoon the veal stock reduction around the risotto.