Whisk Wednesdays—Saumon au Champagne (Salmon in Champagne Sauce)

This next class is all about poaching. The curriculum called for us to make pot-au-feu (chicken cooked in water), but Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook doesn't have this recipe in it. Another Le Cordon Bleu cookbook does have it (Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook Home Collection), so the Whisk Wednesdays group could opt to make chicken pot-au-feu from this other cookbook or poach salmon in Champagne. I thought the salmon and Champagne sounded tastier.

Champagne
Poaching in champagne. Although I would have loved to use real Champagne from the Champagne region of France, I couldn't justify the cost so I used an Italian sparkling wine instead. This recipe uses Champagne in both cooking the fish and in the sauce.

Fish Stock
The first step was to make a fish stock. Onions, carrots, and the fish are cooked for a bit before bathing it in Champagne and water. A Bouquet Garni and some salt and pepper add some flavor to the broth. This bubbles away on the stove for awhile, building flavor.

Poaching
Next, I prepared the salmon by drying it with paper towel and seasoning it with salt and pepper. After buttering a roasting pan and sprinkling the finely chopped shallot in it, I put the salmon in the dish. Then, I added the remaining Champagne and water. Topped with a butter parchment paper, it was ready for its quick oven bath.

In my reading about poaching salmon, I came across this interesting method for poaching fish in the dishwasher. I'll have to give this a try sometime.

Sauce
Finally, I made the sauce. I started with a roux and added the reduced 2 cups of fish stock. This simmered for about 10 minutes before I added the liaison of cream and yolk, slowly so as not to curdle the egg. I seasoned the sauce, and it was ready to go.

Recipe

Serves 6

For the fish stock:
1½ tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, sliced thin
1 carrot, sliced thin
1 pound whiting
2 cups Champagne
1 cup water
1 Bouquet Garni
Salt and pepper

For poaching the salmon:
6 salmon steaks
1½ tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large shallot, chopped fine
1 cup Champagne
2¾ cups water
Salt and pepper

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2½ tablespoons flour
2 cups fish stock
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper

You can find the recipe for Saumon au Champagne (Salmon in Champagne Sauce) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
All in all, this was a very simple dish with only three pots dirty in the sink. Not bad for Le Cordon Bleu. The Champagne is the secret ingredient that adds a depth of flavor, and using the real stuff I bet is even better. This was delicious. Salmon is so much better with sauce, and one bathed in Champagne is decadent.

Next Week (December 10)
• Truite de Mer, Sauce Verte (Whole Poached Salmon Trout with Herbed Mayonnaise)
pages 84-85

My Bucket List

Taste a real bottle of Champagne from the Champagne region of France.

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Running total: $887.49 + $33.10 = $920.59

Butter used so far: 8 pounds, 19 tablespoons

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::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.

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