12.12.06

Furry Fish and Other Good Eating

Posted in cooking, domesticity at 9:04 am by Hanne Blank

I am one of those weird people who really loves anchovies.  I know I’m in good company, because some of my friends, and indeed my Belovedary, also adore the little furry fish (okay, they’re not actually furry, but their infinitesimally tiny bones sometimes stick out of the filets in ways that have made our household refer to them as “furry fish”).

Yesterday I scored an outrageous huge jar of primo Sicilian anchovy filets packed in beautiful olive oil.  This, you may rest assured, made me very happy, and I proceeded to bring it home and open it up to make one of my very favorite salad dressings, which I will now share with you here in order to spread the furry-fish love.  All quantities are approximate, and you may alter them as you please in order to get a different, or more intense, taste, as you prefer.

Hanne’s Mysteriously Good Salad Dressing

6-8 oil packed anchovy filets, mashed into paste with a fork
2 tablespoons oil from the anchovy jar
1 medium clove garlic, crushed or very finely minced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
large pinch sugar
2/3 cup good olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar (your choice)
freshly ground black pepper

Mash salt and garlic together with the back of a spoon to form a paste.  Add mashed anchovies and combine.  Add oil from the anchovy jar and other olive oil, then vinegar, and pinch of sugar.  Give it a half-dozen good turns of the pepper mill if you like, or alternately don’t add the pepper to the dressing but remember to pepper the salad itself.

Whisk together to emulsify.  Let stand 15-20 minutes minimum before serving, overnight is better.  Shake or whisk to re-emulsify before drizzling over your salad.

This makes about a cup.  People who think they don’t like anchovies often like this salad dressing, a fact which has always amused me.  Generally they can’t tell that there are anchovies in it, they just know it tastes good.  I don’t warn them, unless they’re vegetarians or vegans and they might be pissed off if I didn’t.  Give it a try.  It’s also very nice as a dipping sauce for steamed artichokes, if you are given to committing artichokage, which really you probably ought to be.

In other kitcheny news, I have been making many batches of fleur de sel caramels these past couple of weeks, in order to give them away as holiday-season gifts.  If you have not had the pleasure of a fleur de sel caramel, you’d be amazed by how good they are.  If you have had the pleasure, you’re probably wondering why I don’t just shut up and get to the recipe already.

All right, all right.  Sheesh.

Easy Fleur de Sel Caramels

For this recipe you need a large deep heavy-bottomed saucepan, at least 6 quarts, and a small saucepan.  You also need a candy thermometer, a wire whisk, a wooden spoon, and a plastic spatula, and an 8×8 inch baking dish or something of similar size.  Waxed paper, too, or, better yet, silicone coated parchment paper.

This recipe works best if you do all your mise en place before you start cooking anything.  So.
1. Line the baking dish with waxed paper or parchment paper.  You may use buttered parchment paper if you prefer but it’s a pain in the butt, so I don’t.
2. In the large saucepan, place 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, 1/4 cup water, and 1/4 cup light corn syrup
3. In the small saucepan, place 1 cup heavy cream, 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, and 1 heaping teaspoon fleur de sel.
4. Arrange, on a plate adjacent to your cooker (so you don’t end up getting sugar syrup everywhere), your wire whisk, wooden spoon, plastic spatula, and candy thermometer.

Now then.  Turn a medium heat on under your large saucepan and commence to whisking together the sugar, water, and corn syrup.  Keep stirring with the whisk as it comes to a boil, at which point the mixture should turn from an opaque slurry to a clear thick syrup.  Allow it to boil, swirling the pan occasionally to rinse any crystallizing sugar down from the sides of the pan, until it turns a nice light gold color.

While the syrup is boiling — it takes it a bit to start to turn color — turn the heat on under your cream, butter, and salt, and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally, then turn off the heat.

Once the sugar syrup is ready, pour in the cream mixture all at once and whisk like hell.  It will foam up, but don’t be afraid, just whisk it vigorously until it calms down some.  Now you will have a bubbling magma of caramel.  Put the candy thermometer in the pot and turn the heat down a bit so that the caramel simmers, but not so vigorously that it spits, because getting hit by droplets of boiling caramel is painful and also messy and really, you don’t need it.

Simmer, stirring occasionally (and scraping down the pan walls occasionally) until the mixture gets to 250F.  Pour into your prepared pan.  Sprinkle several pinches of fleur de sel over the top, it looks pretty and tastes nice.

Let cool 2-3 hours, or until the center is completely firm, before cutting into small rectangles.   Serve to the deserving, or hoard it all for yourself.

There.  Happy now?

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