American, Idle

It’s just too damn nice out for me to spend much time in front of the computer, so I haven’t been. I’ve been a plate-making machine, though, so there will be lots of hot, amateur man-on-clay action in the coming weeks to help slake your insatiable cravings for content. There has been food, though; cooler (perfect, beautiful) weather has allowed me to spend actual consecutive minutes in front of the stove, resulting in some pretty good meals. I’ll try to play catch up over the next few days.

One of the advantages of having a friend in the fish biz is the occasional hors commerce hookup: in this case a side of wild sockeye salmon and a big hunk of cod fillet. The cod is going to be either fish and chips or a coconut curry, but first off we had at the salmon.

You see where this is going, right?

I made a few of these for myself while I worked on a big platter: rolls of different combinations of the fish with tomato, carrot, cucumber, chives, red scallions, shiso, radish greens, and edible flowers plus some sashimi for good measure. A 180 ml bottle of Tomio Hanaichirin “A Flower” Junmai Daiginjo sake was a handsome match for the meal; round and supple, with excellent balance between the honey and melon flavors and the almost beany koji notes. It should come in a bigger bottle. (That’s it in the triangular blue thing behind the fish board).

I also picked a variety of greens (black and red kale, chard, mizuna) and steamed them before rolling them into an oshiashi of sorts. Sometimes I like to have the food really pop against the plate, but this time I opted for a more unified, earthy combination so it looked like the whole thing grew on the plate. I sauced the rolls with ponzu and Brother Victor-Antoine’s raspberry vinegar, and garnished them with thyme flowers and grated bottarga that Claudia gave me.

This meal didn’t stand a chance. We finished it all, and the cat was ecstatic with the scraps.