Summertime is a culinary gold mine; all the fresh local produce that’s available this time of year inspires cooks to create colourful, seasonal dishes that are healthy and flavourful.  As summer approaches, it is a good idea to start thinking towards lighter, healthier meal options that are packed full of local fruits and vegetables. After all, we only have a season to enjoy this produce at its peak, and then it’s gone for another year.

Salmon and beurre blanc

Today I will show you how to make a simple, elegant summer: meal- olive oil poached salmon with a creamy beurre blanc sauce, accompanied with pan-roasted cherry tomatoes. Although this meal is good on its own, it can also be paired with many of your favourite local ingredients; steamed asparagus, broccoli, fiddleheads or sautéed spinach all work nicely with this dish.  When preparing this meal (or any meal, for that matter), it is important to think of the timing involved. For example, the tomatoes are small and ripe and therefore take hardly any time to prepare, while the poaching process for the fish takes significantly longer.  As usual, I recommend having everything ready to go before you begin cooking.  For those of you that don’t know what a beurre blanc sauce  is, it is a creamy, tangy white sauce that goes very well with fish.  It is a classic sauce, served with fish in fine dining restaurants everywhere. While it may seem complicated at first, it isn’t hard to master and is an impressive finishing sauce for seafood.

Poaching a piece of salmon will take anywhere between 15 minutes to half an hour, depending on the size of the fish and the amount of poaching liquid. A good rule of thumb is to provide one 6 oz piece of fish to each of your dinner guests.  My recipe today will call for four 6 oz pieces of salmon- enough for four people. You can easily add more fish to accommodate larger numbers.

I hope you enjoy my olive oil poached salmon with pan roasted cherry tomatoes! I know your dinner guests will love the fresh, Mediterranean flavours of olive oil, lemons and tomatoes.

Eat well, live well, be well!

For the salmon:

You will need:

• 2 L olive oil
• 6 large shallots, peeled and sliced
• 2 oz fresh basil, torn
• ½ onion, sliced
• 1 fresh Bay leaf
• 2 oz thyme
• Sea salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 6-ounce boneless darnes of salmon
• 1/2 lemon
• Beurre blanc (see below)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170F. Place olive oil in an ovenproof dish and add the shallots, herbs, onion, and some salt and pepper.
2. Place in the oven and allow the oil to steep for up to two hours.
3. Season the salmon with sea salt and pepper.
4. Drizzle with the juice of the lemon, and place in the oil. Ensure that the oil fully covers the salmon.
5. Poach the salmon in the oil in the oven for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the salmon reaches 60C
   (140F). When the salmon is done, it will have the appearance of being betweenmedium-rare to medium.
6. Remove the container from the oven but leave the salmon in the oil.
7. Remove the salmon from the oil, directly onto a plate with paper towel.
8. Drain thoroughly and remove the skin from each darne.
9. Drizzle more lemon juice on the salmon andsprinkle with sea salt and pepper.
10. Drizzle with the beurre blanc sauce, and serve  with vegetables.

Beurre Blanc Sauce
You will need:

• ½ fl oz white wine
• 2 fl oz white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ shallot, finely minced
• ½ tbsp heavy cream
• 1 lb whole butter, cut into very small pieces and chilled

Method:

1. Combine the white wine, white wine vinegar, salt, and shallots in a small sauce pan over medium high heat. Reduce the mixture until the bottom of the pan appears dry (this is called au sec, which means dry in French; the sauce will be too thin if there is liquid in the bottom of the pan!). Reduce the temperature to low.
2. Add the cream to the pan, which will help stabilize the sauce.
3. Over a low heat, whisk in the butter a few pieces at a time. Make sure that you don’t add too many pieces of butter at one time (start by adding only 2 pieces at a time), and make sure they are thoroughly incorporated into the sauce before adding more. If you have a thermometer, try to keep the sauce between 43C (100F) and 49C (120F). Continue to whisk, making sure the sauce doesn’t break.
4. As the sauce thickens, you can begin adding more pieces of butter at a time, eventually up to 5 or 6 pieces at a time. Just make sure you whisk continuously, and don`t overload the pan with too much butter at one time. If you do, the sauce will break.
5. Once all the butter has been incorporated, immediately remove the sauce from the heat and save for service. Whisk every once in a while to maintain its consistency.

Pan Roasted Tomatoes with olive oil, lemon and basil
You will need:

• 2 oz basil, chopped finely
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 40 locally grown, ripe cherry tomatoes (10 per person)
• 2 fl oz olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. In a large mixing bowl, toss together all of the ingredients.
3. Place into the hot skillet, and allow to cook until the tomatoes become soft and tender.
4. Remove tomatoes from heat, and finish with a squeeze of lemon juice and some more salt and pepper.

Serve immediately.