Friday, July 20, 2012

French Fridays with Dorie - Salmon with Basil Tapenade


This week´s recipe for the French Friday`s with Dorie group is Salmon with Basil Tapenade. The ingredients for this dish already sounded delicious to me. What is not to like about a recipe that requires you to use fresh salmon, homemade black olive tapenade, basil, lemon, pepper, salt and some olive oil.




My fishmonger had wonderful Norwegian salmon and he cut perfect fillets from the thick center portions (no filleting any flounder required for this recipe, and I was relieved). I ended up buying enough fish to feed eight people, it was easy to double the recipe. I prepared the black olive tapenade and added fresh basil, lemon juice, pepper and fine sea salt. Since I made the tapenade with extra virgin lemon olive oil, I did not add lemon zest to the mix. I cut two pockets in each piece of salmon, filled the incisions with the basil tapenade, gave each piece a “little massage” (that was Dorie´s idea, not mine!) and cooked the salmon exactly as specified in the recipe.




I served the salmon with miniature new potatoes, more of the lemon olive oil, extra tapenade and a small purslane salad. All of the taste testers were extremely pleased with the way the salmon tasted and loved the taste of the tapenade, mini potatoes and purslane salad together with the fish. This recipe is definitely a keeper and it scored extra points for ease of preparation. This is simply a wonderful recipe!


What a treat!




Purslane (“Portulak”) - since I love the taste and look of this unusual salad, here is a wonderful quote with respect to purslane that I found  while doing a bit of research on salad recipes: “ You might run across purslane, with its glossy, plump leaves, at a farmers market—and you might even find it growing in the cracks of your sidewalk or in your yard. Luckily, this incredibly nutritious and juicy green is a weed, which means it pops up wild nearly everywhere”. Ian Knauer, Gourmet, August 2008

To see how the other Doristas prepared the Salmon with Basil Tapenade, please click here.



13 comments:

  1. Andrea, Your salmon looks so mouthwatering! Gorgeous photos! I love purslane…my grandmother always made salads with it! Many Americans think of it as a weed without realizing how good it is. Happy Friday!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your fish looks perfect! And now that I have seen your photos, I finally understand how I was supposed to cut it, it all makes sense now! It turns out that I didn't cut my fish correctly and I also didn't let my pan get hot enough before adding the fish, which means that it didn't come out so pretty. But it was very tasty and I learned something new, so we'll call that a win for the week.

    And my Rewe is only open until 8 :-(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Andrea your pictures are always lovely but especially nice job on this one! Those little olives were ridiculously hard to pit, weren't they?:)))

    ReplyDelete
  4. Does that mean that I could be saving on salad greens if I just check out the lawn??? Believe me, I have some great weeds and now I'm
    wondering if they are Purslane...... Only kidding, Everything looks fantastic. Hubby and I enjoyed this one a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful job.
    I don't think I have ever heard of purslane. It doesn't look like any of the weeds in my backyard :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looks great! I've never heard of purslane. I'll keep my eyes peeled for it in the yard. haha

    ReplyDelete
  7. Picture perfect! Wow. Just wow. Can I hire your stylist? :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love your Purslane research. You do write the best Posts. Your salmon fillets are just perfect, plump enough to make good pockets. And, I can tell you weren't at the grocery store buying your tapenade. (Shame on me.) Yours looks beautiful and black. The potatoes are such a good sidedish - serving both green beans and potatoes would work, I think. A lovely dinner. Nice pictures. Nice words. Yes, I will be up early to watch them ride into Paris. I just love the last Sunday of the Tour. I'm happy with a B. Wiggins win. Will be thinking of you watching it also.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Andrea, Your plates always look so wonderful. I really enjoyed this one too. I have purslane growing (as a weed) in my garden. I've never thought to make a salad from it when I pull it out. Interesting... Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your plate looks restaurant-worthy! I love how beautifully you presented the food. We enjoyed this dish, too. Tapenade and salmon make a wonderful combination.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I’m sure your dish tastes as good as it looks. =) I must try

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your salmon looks amazing, and so do those potatoes! I missed the last two recipes, so I guess I´ll try to make them all for next friday.. I want to try that roulade! Great pics Andrea, have a great week!

    ReplyDelete