Salmon, Fennel and Onion

With Jane Ward

Want to solve the “What is for dinner in the middle of the winter riddle?” Jane Ward is a published author of fiction and a regular blogger as well. In her food blog, Food and Fiction and has written about this video shoot here. On a regular basis he shares her knowledge and experience at preparing many dishes. She also writes for http://www.localinseason.com with entries such as this recipe - Pan-seared Arctic Char with Fennel and Onions.

In the video Jane shows Food Columnist Heather Atwood how to prepare salmon using what Jane calls “my secret weapon: the orange juice-balsamic vinegar reduction.” In Jane’s own words, “In this recipe, orange juice and balsamic vinegar are combined in equal amounts and allowed to reduce down to something resembling molasses.  It jazzes up the salmon or arctic char that we seem to eat a lot of in our house, raising it above the level of ho-hum.  I’d opt for the char first if you can find it; it’s the sustainable choice.”

Ingredients

1-2 small to medium-sized fennel bulbs, cut into large slivers (green stalks and fronds trimmed and saved for another use like soup)
1 good-sized yellow onion, cut into large slivers
2 tablespoons olive oil
¾ cup orange juice
¾ cup balsamic vinegar
1 ¼ - 1 ½ pounds arctic char fillets (farm-raised are a good choice here), thinnest tail end trimmed, remaining fish cut into 4-6 pieces, depending on your appetite some kind of citrus-pepper seasoning, or seasoning of your choice
Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Trim and cut fish.  Sprinkle flesh side with seasoning (I use Penzey’s Florida Seasoning, which is a lemon-orange-black pepper blend) and a little salt and set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
3. Add olive oil to hot steel pan.  When heated add onions and fennel to pan and sauté over medium-high heat until brown spots start to appear on the vegetables.  Remove vegetables from pan to a cutting board in a single layer so they don’t steam.
4. In the pan where you cooked the vegetables, add the juice and vinegar.  Bring to bubbly simmer and cook liquids down over medium to medium-high heat until reduced to syrupy consistency, reducing by at least one-half, maybe more.  Syrup should look like thin dark molasses without being burned.  Reserve a couple of teaspoons of the syrup, and set the pan with remaining sauce on a back burner.
5. Heat a second steel pan that has been lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray over medium-high (emphasis high) heat.  Add the fish skin side down, if you like crispy fish skin (and I have a couple of fish skin fans here; cooking the skin first keeps it from steaming when you place the fish in the oven to finish), and cook for 4 minutes.  Flip fish in pan to flesh side down, and place pan in your preheated oven to cook for another 4-6 minutes.  Char is not very thick and doesn’t require much time, but home ranges and ovens can vary in intensity.  Use your best judgment for doneness.
6. While fish is finishing in the oven, add the vegetables back to the first sauté pan with the orange juice-vinegar reduction, toss with remaining syrup to coat, and set aside over lowest heat to warm through and keep warm.
7. When fish is done, plate some of the vegetables and slide a piece of fish on top, skin side up. Drizzle plate and/or fillet with the reserved syrup and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Jane Ward, www.localinseason.com, 2010.

Jane is the author of HUNGER (Forge, 2001) and THE MOSAIC ARTIST, and is currently at work on her third novel, THE WELCOME HOME.  A former baker and caterer, Jane hosts a new video blog for an internet recipe resource, and regularly contributes articles to the online regional food magazine, Local In Season. Jane also blogs weekly about food, and is writing a cookbook/memoir entitled TATTOOED WITH FOOD based on the blog entries.  From Food For Thought column: "Jane shows how ridiculously easy it is to make a loaf of ciabatta bread with a gutsy crackling crust that tastes like it was baked in a Tuscan panetteria. She teaches that the holes in ciabatta are specifically engineered to hold roasted peppers, pesto, gooey melted cheese, as it is the bread of bruschettas and picnic sandwiches. That purposely definitive crust holds everything inside, like a perfectly designed suitcase for foods, more than a sandwich."