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Over the weekend, I saw Tyler Florence make his “Ultimate Salmon Hash” for Mother‘s Day Brunch – Fresh Wild Salmon, Red Bell Peppers, Hollandaise Sauce.  Then I opened the paper, and Salmon was on sale all over the place – but even at these low prices, how could I pull it off for under $5.00 and still retain the luxuriousness of the dish?  (By the way, if you’ve never made Hollandaise before, Tyler’s method is no more difficult than making a smoothie, and probably easier, so don’t be intimidated!)

Salmon & Asparagus Hash with Hollandaise

My cost when I worked up this recipe in May 2010 my Bargain Meal of the Week, $5.00 more or less post.  If you didn’t have previous sale items to use for this dish and had to buy everything this week, your cost will run around $5.16.   Obviously, there are compromises here, but you’ll be amazed at how good my budget version is.  I’ve used the Ocean Eclipse Salmon, $1.00 per four ounce portion,  and I’ve keyed the salmon down to just a note in the symphony of flavor.  I’ve also substituted our fresh asparagus on special for the red bell pepper.
Recipe:  Salmon & Asparagus Hash with Poached Eggs and Hollandaise, 6 servings.
  • 2 salmon portions, 4 ounces each
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Fresh chives for garnish
Hash:
  • About 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 6 russet potatoes, about 5 ounces each, cut into large dice (no need to peel)
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 5 to 6 ounces of asparagus, a little less than half a bundle
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • ¾ teaspoon dried tarragon
  • Fresh chives, to taste, chopped with a few whole for garnish
  • Pinch cayenne pepper
Poached Eggs:
  • Near simmering water
  • Splash of White vinegar
  • 6 large eggs
Lemony Hollandaise:
  • 3 egg yolks
  • scant teaspoon lemon zest
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard  (hold back a bit until you taste it, then add it all if you like)
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • Pinch cayenne pepper
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

For the salmon:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Place the salmon fillets on a baking sheet skin-side down, as close together as possible. Drizzle salmon with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Place into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until flaky, but remember the point here is to be able to have visible chunks, not shreds in the hash. Transfer to a cutting board and let rest while you proceed. Don’t forget to turn up the oven and put in your Rhodes brown & serve rolls shortly before the hash is done.

For the hash:

Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat and add olive oil.  After you’ve diced your potatoes, rinse in a large bowl of water to remove excess starch, drain on an absorbent clean kitchen towel blotting up as much of the water as possible before adding the potatoes to the hot oil.  Shallow-fry for about 8 minutes until evenly browned on all sides, stirring slowly as needed. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon and place onto a paper towel-lined plate or baking sheet.  Season with salt and pepper, and transfer to a large bowl.

Remove most of the oil and reserve for another use, leaving only a couple of tablespoons. Place over medium heat and add the onions, the bottoms of the sliced asparagus and garlic, after it’s sautéed for a couple of minutes add in the thyme, tarragon, and then the tops of the asparagus. (They are so tender, they require a little less cooking time, and will more likely stay intact better with a shorter cooking time.) Cook till asparagus is tender, but still a little crisp. Add the chives about a minute before you take it off heat. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

For the eggs:

Place a large saute pan with high sides or Dutch over over medium heat and fill with a few inches of water. Heat until just below a simmer. Add a splash of white vinegar and using a wooden spoon, stir the water in 1 direction to create a small whirlpool. Crack the eggs and add, 1 at a time, into the spinning water. Allow to poach until desired doneness. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate.

For the Hollandaise:

Put the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, mustard, water, salt and pepper, to taste, into a blender. Blend together and then slowly start pouring in the very hot melted butter with the blender running. Stop the blender when all the butter has been incorporated. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Thin the Hollandaise with a little water, if it is too thick. The butter will cook the egg yolks, but not to 160 degrees, so see the warning from the food network. You can place this in a thermos that has been warmed with hot water if you’d like to make it and set it aside while you’re poaching your eggs and sautéing your vegetables.

To put together:

At the last minute, so potatoes don’t get soggy, gently fold in the asparagus mixture to the potatoes. Using 2 forks, flake the salmon, removing it in chunks from the skin, and fold into the potatoes. Place the salmon-potato hash on serving plates or serving platter and top with the eggs. Pour Hollandaise sauce over the eggs and garnish with chives. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Expect some left over Hollandaise – use it on the Asparagus you didn’t cook up.

*RAW EGG WARNING from the Food Network

  • Use caution in consuming raw and lightly cooked eggs due to the slight risk of Salmonella or other food-borne illness. To reduce this risk, we recommend you use only fresh, properly refrigerated, clean, grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell.

Money Saving Strategies:

For pricing, remember to use your coupon matching sites for your local stores.  My favorite is Pocket Your Dollars in my area, but every store has a group of enthusiastic couponers who can point you to the best bargains.  Don’t be discouraged if your prices are higher at first – just keep shopping the best sales and follow the strategies and you’ll get there!  Check under Saving on Basic Ingredients for more detailed information and storage hints – use <control f> to search each page to bring you to the item you want to check out.

  • Rolls - Rhodes Brown and Serve Rolls are on sale for free or near free with a coupon, especially right before any Holiday.  The budget‘s tight on this dish – to come in at the less than $5.00 price per meal, you‘ll need to serve one per person, and save the other three for another meal.  I bought two packages, so I’ll get three meals out of them with no waste.  Cost: 19 cents.
  • Salmon – Use a smaller amount, as more of an accent than a star. Save the more expensive, gorgeous Fresh Salmon Fillets for another dish, and another budget! The Ocean Eclipse Salmon is a real bargain at $1.00 per portion, ($4.00 per pound.) You’ll buy and use two packets – $2.00.
  • Potatoes – Generally more inexpensive if bought in larger bags – store in a dark, cool place away from onions.  A good price in our area is $1.98 for 10 pounds, each potato is about five ounces.  Cost: 37 cents.
  • Olive Oil – You could lower the cost a bit by using another type of oil, but I worry about trans fat, and Tyler did emphasis that the potatoes were wonderful fried in olive oil. I’ll find some other use for the excess after draining the potatoes – do do otherwise would be a huge waste… at about 8 cents an ounce, one cup is $.60 cents.
  • Asparagus – $1.99 a pound, even at this low price, it always feels like an indulgence. Bell peppers were about the same price, but asparagus is so seasonal, and I think we can get a little more mileage from it. To bring this to the budget price, I’ll have to use a little less than half, about five ounces, but I’m already thinking I’ll have a light version of Louisiana Hot Browns with asparagus instead of tomatoes later in the week, and use the Buddig deli meat, $.50 cents with a doubled coupon. My cost for the asparagus: $.62.
  • Onion – I violated my frugal policy of Banking your Food - ran out of onions, was forced to buy a three pound bag for $3.99. More per pound than my salmon! I’m only using a half an onion – I don’t want to overpower the wee bit of salmon and the delicate asparagus. Cost: $25 cents.
  • Eggs – Mine were free, one of the several offers around Easter (Eggs can store so long in the fridge, 4 – 6 weeks, that it always makes sense to pick them up on sale.)  Make deviled eggs or egg salad if you find yourself needing to use them up! You’ll want to save those three whites for an egg white omelette tomorrow or the next day.  I try to buy at around a dollar or less for a dozen, so I count them as about 8 cents each – 12 cents on the high side.  Cost at a dollar a dozen: 80 cents.
  • Butter – Gone up since I wrote this, a good price a year later?  About $1.99 on sale, or if you’ve picked up over the Holidays, $1.49 a pound.  Cost: $.37.
  • Lemon – I always have one or two in the fridge, and I buy whenever they are on sale, especially late winter and early spring when they drop to a rock bottom low. Something lemon is always a pick me up when all you see outside is dreary skies and dirty snow. They’re still not to be wasted – take off all the zest, although the recipe says use half. Put that little bit left over in a snack zip bag and freeze, or spread on a plate and dry, and just keep adding to it, use in vinaigrettes.  If you’re just using a small bit of the juice, you can also “fork” the lemon – just stick the tines of the fork right in the rind and squeeze out what you need.  The rest stays fresher.  Use the rest of the juice in another recipe or squeeze in to water or tea.  Mine was $.33 cents, used half, so 17 cents.
  • Spices and Herbs – I changed out the smoked paprika for something lighter to work with the asparagus, using tarragon instead, omitted the green onions and dill and substituted chives. If you don‘t have chives, it‘s almost the perfect time to pick some up at the garden center – they come back year after year, are not particular and will grow in a pot or in your garden, and you can bring some in every year to last you over the winter. Cost: nominal.

Nutrition:  Fried potatoes, only a few veggies, eggs, Hollandaise sauce? To tell you the truth, I really don’t want to know.  Let’s just consider this a one time indulgence, forget the nutrition, and get right back on track tomorrow with an egg white omelette for breakfast using up those three egg whites leftover from the hollandaise.
Put your own spin on it:

  • Add in the flavor profile you like, along with whatever vegetables really look great at the store and are on special the week you’re cooking. You could go from Spanish with the pepper and smoked paprika like Tyler, to a more French look like mine, to any other flavor combination you can think of.
  • How about Mexican with a little cayenne and cumin in the potatoes and green chiles, or Italian with oregano and artichoke hearts?

My Payoff - I brought in a dish that has a real gourmet quality, using easy to master techniques but cheaper ingredients for under $5.00. Can it compare to two pounds of fresh, wild Salmon? Perhaps not, but on my budget, this is a dish that is truly outstanding, different from our normal fare, and a luxurious change of pace.

Salmon & Asparagus Hash with Poached Egg and Hollandaise made May 2010

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