Long gone are the days when ordering the fish dish on the menu was a boring option. Wheeler’s Exec Chef Gavin Gleeson has devised an extravagant salmon dish that will leave even the most bloodthirsty carnivore ditching the steak.
INGREDIENTS Serves 4
Salmon
- 4 x 170g Salmon with skin
Baby beetroots
- 10 baby beetroots, stalks removed
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 10g grapefruit zest
- I clove garlic whole
- Seasoning
Red cabbage
- 400g red cabbage, thinly sliced
- 75g honey
- 75g raspberry vinegar
- 10g crushed pink peppercorn
- ½ cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
Beetroot and mustard puree
- 400g large beetroot, peeled & diced in 3cm square cubes
- 50g good quality balsamic vinegar
- 20g thyme
- ½ bulb garlic, peeled
- 150ml cream
- 30g Dijon Mustard
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
For the baby beet, cut out 2 sheets of tin foil in 25cm x 25cm squares and lay them on top of each other. Place all of the ingredients for the baby beets in the centre of the tin foil, season and fold the tinfoil around them to make a loose ball. Place in the oven to cook in their own juices for approximately one hour. Remove and allow to cool enough to handle, gently rub the outside skin off the beets and cut in half. Reserve until needed
For the beetroot puree place all the ingredients except the cream (reserve for later) in a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, season with sea salt and wrap tightly with tin foil place in the oven for one-and-a-half hours or until the beets are soft. When soft remove from the oven and transfer the contents of the tray to a pot. Add the cream and mustard, bring to a boil, reduce the cream by half, blend to a fine puree with a liquidiser or stick blender if you do not have liquidiser. Reserve until needed.
For the red cabbage place all the ingredients in a pot, season and cover with a lid. Let the cabbage cook over a low heat allowing it to steam adding a little water at times if needed, when soft and tender remove the lid and allow the extra liquid to reduce down to a glaze. Reserve until needed.
To pan fry the salmon, heat a pan over a medium heat. Dry the salmon with kitchen paper and place in the pan with a drizzle of olive oil, skin side down, shake the pan once to stop the fish from sticking. Leave on the skin side for four minutes or until the side of the salmon has cooked half way up (it will change colour), turn the salmon and repeat on the other side, when cooked squeeze fresh lemon juice over the salmon and serve as shown.
Alternatively try the dish yourself at Wheeler’s, DIFC, wheelersdubai.com, (04) 3860899
