San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Crispy Salmon With Caramelized Orange Salad and Spiced Yogurt
This light, bright meal from Oakland chef Rahanna Bisseret Martinez comes together quickly and doubles easily to feed a family. The star is the salmon’s shatteringly crispy skin, juxtaposed against soft, just-cooked flesh. Being a Bay Area native and attuned to the rise of plant-based diets, Rahanna also provided vegan substitutions, located at the bottom of the recipe. Chile California is dried Anaheim pepper, which you can find at Latin American grocers and specialty spice shops.
Seasoning mix
1 teaspoon California chile powder ½ teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Salmon
2 skin-on salmon filets, 4 ounces each Salt to taste
Spiced yogurt
cup plain Greek yogurt ½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
For the seasoning mix: In a small bowl, blend the chile powder, cumin and thyme. For the salmon: Remove the scales from the salmon and pat dry. Rub each filet with 1 teaspoon of the seasoning mix and a hefty pinch of salt. Set aside while you prepare the yogurt and salad.
For the spiced yogurt: In a small bowl, mix yogurt with ¼ teaspoon of seasoning mix and the olive oil.
For the salad: Zest the orange and set aside zest. Cut the orange in half. Heat a nonstick or cast-iron pan, which you’ll later use to cook the salmon, over medium-high heat. Place a piece of foil on top. Place the orange halves on foil, flesh side down. Cook until orange caramelizes and lightly browns in color, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
Pat the lettuce leaves dry and stack. Starting at the greenest part of the leaves, cut long strips of lettuce horizontally until you get to the white section. Set aside the green strips, and finely chop the white section of lettuce and combine it with the cilantro and orange zest in a small bowl.
When the caramelized orange is cool enough to handle, squeeze the juice into a bowl for the salad dressing. If necessary, remove the seeds. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Salt to taste.
To finish: Remove the foil from the same pan you cooked the orange and heat the pan to medium. Add the grapeseed oil. When the oil starts to shimmer, add the salmon skinside down. Add a pinch of salt to the salmon. Cook until two-thirds of the salmon turns a lighter shade of pink. Flip. Cook for 20 seconds. Let the salmon drain on paper towels or a cooling rack.
Spoon the yogurt onto two plates and spread into a circle. In a medium bowl, toss the chopped lettuce with 4 tablespoons of salad dressing — you might have leftovers — and pile small mounds on top of the yogurt. Garnish the salad with cilantro-orange zest mixture. Place the salmon on the edge of the salad and serve.
Vegan option: If you want to make this recipe vegan, swap the yogurt for a vegan
Salad
1 small orange
½ head butter lettuce, leaves separated and washed
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil Salt to taste
“She’s very professional, very curious, really helpful, constantly going around the kitchen asking what we need help with. There’s a lot of initiative.”
To finish
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil or other
neutral oil yogurt, such as Kite Hill’s almond milk yogurt. Swap the salmon for a medium-size globe eggplant, sliced lengthwise into ½-inch steaks. Cook the eggplant over medium heat with the 2 tablespoons oil for about 4 minutes per side. If the eggplant sticks to the pan, slowly add more oil — a tablespoon at a time — as necessary to loosen it.
Melissa Chou, Mister Jiu’s pastry chef