Medium Rare

I have an enduring fascination with early man's diet and whether that has altered our current diet to the good  . One thing standing out from these extensive researches is that we are biologically equipped to eat raw meat and fish. which would suggest the following range of cookedness:

• Room temperature
• Seared
• Cooked
• Overcooked

It would be interesting to compare these values against the experience of someone on the frontline.

My suspicision is that medium rare will be over represented because it combines "medium" i.e. cooked, with the antithetical "rare", indicating a certain Bohemian and reckless nature.

Anyhoo, cooked a steak the other day. Intended to be rare, but the meat was so thin that it got cooked medium rare to perfection:

First time sushi

So there is a bit of salmon leftover and time to try sushi and sashimi .
Down to Fresh Market to get some Clearspring sushi price, but balk at paying big bucks for the wasabi - this comes back to haunt me.
Dig out some roasted seaweed bought a few years back in one of my Asian superstore lucky dip - can't make out any date on it but it doesn't smell too bad.
Time to follow the sushi recipe which mainly involves a rice cooker. Don't have one so wash the rice four times instead of the recommended three then stick into the smallest pan at lowest heat.
Prep the seasoning which as far as I can tell is rice vinegar reduced, sugar and a bit of salt. Go low on the salt which will again come back to haunt me.
The rice is sitting there now  time to tackle the salmon. This is where it gets weird. I've eaten raw salmon many times at restaurants, but serving it up it's like I'm worried there's some Secret Sauce these restaurants apply to raw fish.
But there can't be so sharpen up the knife and slice that baby on the bias.
Now I'm waiting on the rice to cool down, though a little voice is saying to put the fish on the hot rice to at least partially cook it. I resist but stick the rice in the freezer as the family are hungry Right Now.
Ten minutes later and it's sushi chef time - roll a rice ball, press into the salmon, wrap with seaweed, repeat.

Oh yes, season the rice with the vinegar and sugar reduction - precisely.

So how did she eat? Okay is being generous:

•  The rice was simultaneously grainy and mushy.
•  Too conservative in the seasoning so extra soy was needed. 
• The portions were 3 bite rather than 1 bit sized.
• The raw salmon was delish.
• The wasabi was sorely  missed, especially as I have a jar of raw horseradish expiring in the fridge that would have made a noble substitute
• A lot cheaper than any other sushi sources

Next time the sushi will sing

The Knowledge of Salmon

Since this blog overtook Nigella Lawson (google "bacon pavlova", preferably from my google account) I've decided to scale back on the minutiae of my kitchen. Thus Thursday's spaghetti carbonara, despite being photographed, and including the heretical notion of cooking pasta in other than a giant pan at a  rolling boil
Similarly,
Friday's veg+tinned salmon+gram flour fritters miss out. Though those babies are a bit of staple Chez Cattanach and are probably more worthy of a post than lobster ravioli.

Back to the salmon. Allegedly peasants of the 19th century used to revolt amongst other things at being fed too much salmon (similar stories exist regarding lobsters and oysters in America). Then salmon became scarce and thus desirable before being farmed and ubiquitous.

The problem with farmed salmon is it is yuck -flabby and luridly coloured. Meantime, wild salmon has become practically unobtainable.
Luckily for the committed pescavore Clare Island organic salmon is available from Kish Fish in Coolock and that fishmonger guy at Temple  Bar market.
Now it`s not cheap, nor sustainable for a farmed carnivorous fish, but it is damned tasty.
Without further ado, here are the salmon darnes baked in tinfoil with butter, fennel leaves, lemon slice and a splash of good Reisling. Served with Vichy carrots (butter, sugar and rosemary, cut on the bias - Harold McGee, does the bias cut *really* matter?). And potatoes served "as gaeligae"