Smoked Salmon with Eggplant                                        Starter

Ingredients

Serves 4

 

300 g                       salmon

4 EL                          oil

pink pepper

zest of 1 untreated lemon 

salt

3-4                            eggplants

lemon juice

butter

olive oil

Sauce:

200 ml                     fish stock (see basic recipes)

150 g                       butter

40 g                         basil

2 large tbsp           fine beech sawdust for smoking (fishing supply store)

lemon juice

Basil butter:

100 g                       basil

100 g                       butter

 

 

 

Preparation

 

Remove skin and fat from the salmon. Brush with oil, sprinkle with pink pepper and lemon zest, lightly salt and marinate for approximately 6 hours.

Peel and dice the eggplants and soak in lemon juice for 10 minutes. Strain diced eggplant dice, sauté in butter and olive oil, season with lemon juice until slightly sour in taste, then add salt.

To make the sauce, add butter to fish stock, bring to a boil, and season with salt and lemon juice. Whisk and finish by adding finely chopped basil.

Now slightly smoke the salmon with fine beech sawdust until it develops a wonderful smoky flavor. If it has already developed an intense smoky flavor but is not glassy in appearance yet, finish cooking in oven at 180° C

To make the basil butter, mix basil, butter and salt in a food processor.

To finish:

Blend some of the eggplants with basil butter and heat. If mixture is too greasy, add some water. Heat remaining eggplants as well. Divide salmon into portions and arrange on warmed plates, coat with fish sauce and garnish with eggplants.