This beautiful, delicate dish features salmon three ways: fresh and smoked fillets and roe. Ripert gently poaches the fresh fillets for just a few minutes, yielding perfectly rare, incredibly silky fish.
Slideshow: More Grilled Seafood Recipes
Recipe from Food & Wine Best New Chefs All-Star Cookbook
How to Make It
In a medium saucepan of boiling water, cook the peas until just tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain and transfer to a blender. Add the wasabi paste and 6 tablespoons of water and puree until smooth. Season with salt and white pepper. Strain the puree through a fine sieve into a small bowl, cover and keep warm. Discard the solids.
In the same saucepan, bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil. Whisk in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until fully incorporated. Whisk in the yuzu zest, yuzu juice and piment d’Espelette. Season the sauce with salt and white pepper and keep warm.
Line a baking sheet with paper towels. In a large skillet, bring 1 cup of lightly salted water to a boil. Season the salmon fillets with salt and white pepper. Place the salmon in the skillet and reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook at a gentle simmer just until the fish is warm to the touch, about 3 minutes. Drain the fish on the prepared baking sheet.
Spoon the pea-wasabi puree onto plates and top with the salmon fillets. Drizzle the yuzu butter sauce over the salmon and garnish with the salmon roe, smoked salmon, celery and chervil. Serve immediately.
Notes
If fresh yuzu isn’t available, look for bottled yuzu juice at Japanese markets.