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February 2, 2009

Filed under: Uncategorized, Mexican — ros @ 12:46 pm

It’s 8am and I’m awake even though I’m not working today! It’s a miracle!

my window this morning

Well, actually it’s more of an accident. London woke to around 4 inches of snow this morning which meant, of course, that nothing worked. Buses and tubes all stopped running. Schools closed. My head of department rang me just as I was leaving the house to tell me I could go back to bed. Sadly, by then, I’d already consumed a two very strong cups of coffee so sleep wasn’t really an option.

Generally I don’t like the snow. I detest being housebound and already the boredom of being stuck inside has resulted in me scoffing most of a big block of cheese, several slices of toast and a significant amount of a giant Hotel Chocolat slab. But then again, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to teaching the Lower Sixth a lesson on data representation. At least now I can put that topic off for another few days and can blog and play the very silly facebook game that I seem to have become addicted to. Anyone want to be my hunting buddy? No, I thought not.

Another first for me was this bottle of Resposada Tequila I bought over the weekend to use in an interesting looking dish from my Mexican recipe book.

resposada tequila

I know what you’re thinking, ‘Any excuse,’ but please note that I have refrained from drinking more than one double shot over the whole of Saturday and Sunday.

This tequila has bas a slightly smoky, woody taste from being aged in oak casks. It is rounder and fuller than standard tequila but still works best when paired with citrus. It was this fullness of flavour that as called for in the recipe for salmon with avocado and tequila cream sauce. 

Salmon with Avocado and Tequila Cream Sauce 

salmon with tequila sauce

Quantities for 2 people  

  • 2 salmon steaks about 180g each
  • a little vegetable oil for frying
  •  a touch of flour to dust the salmon skin (optional)
  • 1 small, ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced into thin strips
  • half a small onion, very finely diced
  • 2 jalapeno peppers, cut in half and deseeded
  •  zest and juice of half a lime
  • 150ml fish stock
  • a splash of single cream
  • salt and pepper 
  • strips of green pepper and chopped fresh parsley to garnish
  1. Put the halved jalapenos, skin side up under a medium/high grill. When the skin is blistered and charred, turn off the heat and allow to cool. Peel the skin off and chop the flesh finely. 
  2. Sweat the onions gently in some butter or vegetable oil.
  3. Add the fish stock and bring to a gentle bubble.
  4. When the stock has reduced by one half, stir in the cream, lime zest and jalapeno and continue to bubble until it has thickened.
  5. Brush the salmon with a little oil and pan fry skin side down until golden brown. Dust a little flour and salt onto the skin side (if it has skin) then turn over and fry until the skin is crispy and golden.
  6. Stir the tequila  and lime juice into the sauce, season to taste and warm through for a minute ior two.
  7. Pour the sauce onto the centre of a large serving plate. Arrange the avocado and salmon on top, then garnish with the green pepper and chopped parsley. This meal worked well with sides of fried potatoes and roasted red peppers dressed in olive oil.

***************

I think salmon is too often served with bland flavours. It has a farily robust flavour, especially if it’s wild, and it is a welcome change to pair it up with a stronger sauces like this one. The jalapeno and tequila played equal parts in the flavour of this sauce and the lime gave it a light and fresh aftertaste. It would suit a white meat like chicken very well too.

New potatoes, cubed, par boiled then fried in olive oil made an excellent accompaniment to this. We also had roasted sweet red peppers dressed in a little olive oi.

8 Comments »

  1. I love the sound of this, I’ve got loads of tequila that I could do with using up.

    How did you find the avocado? I can’t quite comprehend eating it with something warm, although I have obviously eaten it guacamole with chilli before.

    Comment by Ginger — February 2, 2009 @ 5:28 pm

  2. This looks lovely.

    I had a 4 hour mission from Kensington to where I live - tube, then a boat to greenwich, then a 3 mile walk. Nice… if I wasn’t wearing converse trainers!

    Comment by Lizzie — February 2, 2009 @ 7:23 pm

  3. Ginger, the avocado itself was just below room temperature and the salmon and sauce weren’t hot but just warm and didn’t make the avocado warm at all. I didn’t find it weird. If the other accompaniments were actively hot I can see that it could be a bit odd but that didn’t happen here.

    Lizie, I walked a few miles to get to Andy’s flat yesterday. I feel your pain! I managed to step in a few icy puddles too but at least I didn’t have to endure public transport in the middle of it all. At least this probably won’t happen again for another 20-ish years- fingers crossed.

    Comment by ros — February 3, 2009 @ 7:44 pm

  4. Lucky! We’ve had 60+ inches of snow this winter alone - of course, its Chicago, so we are equipped.

    That dish looks delish - wish I liked salmon though!

    Comment by Biz — February 3, 2009 @ 10:54 pm

  5. Hi: I like reading your blog, though this is the firs time I’ve left a comment. Question: why garnish with parsley? This is a Mexican dish, so why not cilantro (coriander leaf)? I think cilantro would go with the flavours so much better than parsley. Thanks…

    Comment by SS — February 6, 2009 @ 10:58 am

  6. I garnished with parsley, because I tasted the sauce before garnishing and thought parsley would work better. Coriander just seemed a bit much agains the strong tequila flavour.

    Comment by ros — February 19, 2009 @ 2:51 pm

  7. That looks great. Was it hot to eat (I mean spicy) as my kids like salmon but I don’t know if I should use the jalapeno’s, it might be too hot for them.

    Comment by Mirren McLeod — April 9, 2009 @ 1:55 am

  8. Hi. I’m from Spain and I am studying for be a good chef, and I really liked this recipe. The picture looks great. I find it very interesting combination of avocado, jalapeno and salmon. And I also attracted much attention to the use of tequila sauce. I’m definitely going to try at home. Greetings.

    Comment by Rafael Muñoz Pérez — December 8, 2011 @ 11:45 pm

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