Filet of Salmon with Roasted Red Pepper Hollandaise

Decadently delicious!  A very nice presentation too!
    
     Salmon and hollandaise sauce is a great classic combination.  Roasted red pepper puree adds a great flavor to the hollandaise sauce.  This wildly painted sauce has a great eye appeal that modern gourmet diners like.
     Empty plastic ketchup or mustard squeeze bottles can be found in the kitchen utensil section of nearly any store.  Restaurant supply stores stock color coded squeeze bottles.
     To paint two sauces together like the sauces in the pictures above, both sauces have to be the same consistency and temperature!
   
     Roasted Red Pepper Puree:
     A fine roasted red pepper puree needs to be simmered twice and strained twice!
     Very finely mince 1 peeled and seeded roasted red bell pepper.
     Place the minced roasted red pepper int a small sauce pot.
     Add 1/2 cup of water.
     Place the pot over medium low heat.
     Simmer the minced roasted pepper, till it becomes very soft and tender.
     Press the red pepper puree mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a second small sauce pot.
     Add 3 ounces of cream to the roasted red pepper puree.
     Place the sauce pot over low heat.
     Simmer and reduce the puree slowly, till it becomes a medium thick consistency puree reduction sauce.
     Press the creamed roasted red pepper puree through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl.
     Transfer the roasted red pepper puree into a plastic squeeze bottle.
     Keep the squeeze bottle of roasted red pepper puree warm on a stove top.
   
     Hollandaise Sauce Recipe: 

     Melt 4 ounces of unsalted butter in a small sauce pot over medium heat.

     Cook the butter, till the milk fats evaporate and till the butter gives off a light hazelnut aroma. 

     Take the pan off of the heat.

     Clarify the butter by pouring it through a fine mesh strainer into a second small sauce pot and leave the butter solids on the bottom of the first pot.

     Discard the butter milk fat solids. 

     Keep the clarified butter warm over very low heat.

     Place 2 egg yolks into a small mixing bowl.

     Add 1 teaspoon of warm water to the egg yolks while stirring. 

     Note:  Add about a 1/2 teaspoon of warm water per egg yolk.  This will make the eggs easy to control while whisking.  The small amount of water will keep the eggs from congealing unevenly.  Too much water added to the yolks will later cause the whisking process to take way too much time.  Do not add lemon juice at the beginning of making a hollandaise sauce!  The sauce will be disproportionately lemon flavored if you do so.  That is a mistake that many chefs make.

     Whisk the egg yolks in a mixing bowl over a double boiler set on medium low/low heat. 

     Constantly whisk, non stop, till the eggs souffle (puff up) and ribbons appear from the whisk.  The egg yolks will become a pale yellow color at this time.

     Remove the mixing bowl from the double boiler and immediately whisk the eggs while adding the warm butter one teaspoon at a time, till the eggs start emulsifying with the butter. 

     Return the start of the hollandaise to the double boiler.  (You can not stop whisking at this point or the egg yolks will sieze!) 

     Very thin stream the melted butter into the eggs while whisking constantly, till the egg sauce is formed.  (The classic proportion of butter to eggs is 1 1/2 to 2 ounces of butter to one egg yolk!)

     Remove the mixing bowl from the double boiler.

     Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice.

     Add 1 pinch of white pepper.

     Add 1 pinch of cayenne pepper.

     Add 1 pinch of sea salt.

     The hollandaise sauce should have a hint of lemon flavor and it should not taste like a lemon sauce.  The sauce should be rich and it should have a medium consistency.  Add a few drops of warm water if the sauce is too thick.  The hazelnut aroma of the clarified butter is the key flavor!   The cayenne pepper flavor should be barely noticeable. 

     Place the Hollandaise in a small ceramic bowl. 

     Set the ramekin in a bain marie that is set on very low heat to keep it warm.

     Stir the sauce occasionally.

     Hollandaise is a French mother sauce that is used for hundreds of recipes.  The basic hollandaise recipe never changes!

     Note:  I will also post the very old Le Cordon Bleu of Paris hollandaise recipe sometime soon.  This old French recipe has many extra ingredients in the recipe, so it is more like a modified hollandaise sauce and not a true mother sauce.  An accurate probe thermometer is necessary for this old hollandaise recipe version. 

   
     Baked Salmon Recipe:
     Brush a small broiler pan with melted unsalted butter.
     Place an 8 ounce salmon filet with its skin attached on the buttered pan.
     Brush the salmon with melted unsalted butter.
     Add 2 ounces of dry white wine to the pan.
     Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.
     Add 1 ounce of water or fume.
     Season the salmon with sea salt and white pepper.
     Bake the salmon filet in a 450 degree oven, till it becomes halfway cooked.
     Place the salmon under a broiler or salamander to finish cooking, so golden brown highlights appear.
     Note:  The salmon is best when it is cooked between medium well and fully cooked for this recipe.  Undercooked salmon does not take well to hollandaise sauce.  
     If salmon is served rare to medium for another recipe, then keep in mind that the salmon must be treated with sushi style deep freezing to kill any possible parasitic pathogens. 
     Set the finished salmon on top of the oven to rest for 1 minute.
   
     Filet of Salmon with Roasted Red Pepper Hollandaise: 
     The puree sauce and the hollandaise have to be the same temperature and consistency to paint a plate like this.  The salmon must be allowed to cool slightly, before saucing with hollandaise or the hollandaise will break.
     Use a spatula to place the salmon filet on a plate.
     Place a vegetable and potato of your choice on the plate.  (I served oven roasted potatoes and buttered wax beans with the entree in the pictures.)
     Place a parsley sprig garnish on the plate.
     Note:  The very last step is to pour the hollandaise sauce over the entree, so the hollandaise does not break or separate.  Be sure have the plate ready before saucing.
     Spoon the warm hollandaise sauce over the salmon.
     Paint the hollandaise with the squeeze bottle of roasted red pepper puree.
     Spatter drops of the red pepper puree on the plate around the salmon.
     Serve immediately!
    
     Magnifique!  A fancy modern looking plate of food!  The reaction this presentation gets from customers is fun to see.  "Oh my!" is usually the first words that are heard.
     I first cooked this recipe in the mid 1980's while working in a French cafe.  The customers liked this salmon with roasted red pepper hollandaise entree and the presentation.  Hollandaise and roasted red pepper puree are a nice combination of flavors for a salmon filet.  Delicious!  ...  Shawna