The morning air is thick with anticipation, and the grass is still cold with dew when we head down to the boathouse. Only three grown-ups and two children can fit in the old flat-bottomed rowboat. The boat smells of tar and salt, and the oars bite into my hands as I row slowly out toward our net. Once we have reached the bright yellow buoy marking the beginning of the big net, the kids hang over the boat’s gunwale, scouting for the shimmering silver of the salmon in the dark water. “I can see something down there! I can see something down there!” they whisper excitedly, most of the time just seeing their own reflections in the waves. Then we start pulling our way through the net. It is heavy and cold, and sometimes a sea nettle has been caught in it, making your hands even sorer. Everyone is quiet, sensing the authority of this ancient tradition—you don’t play around or make noise in a small rowboat when you are out inspecting the salmon nets. And then we see the big strong body of a silvery fish coming toward the surface, still struggling in the net. Once the fish is brought on board and untangled, and the rest of the net examined, we turn back toward the boathouse and breakfast. By the time we arrive, the boat is covered in shimmering silver dust from the scales of the fish. “We always get a good catch when you come along,” I hear my father-in-law whisper to his daughter, as he always does when they go fishing together. And, as always, I can see it makes my wife proud, giving her the extra strength to carry the big, heavy fish up to Grandma’s house.
On good days, there can be as many as ten salmon caught, causing the net to get all tangled up around the powerful fish. Sometimes it takes hours just to get the net untangled without damaging the fish.
Even during summer, the water is cold—it seldom reaches 60 degrees before July—and the strong ocean wind makes the sun feel more like a giant light-bulb than a provider of heat. When we are finished, it takes enormous amounts of hot coffee to warm us up again. But the fish is more than worth the effort.
There are few things more beautiful than the Atlantic salmon. Just before it heads toward the rivers, the fish is at its best. The flesh is wonderfully pink and tasty after two or three years of feasting. As an extra bonus, the abdomen of the females is full of beautiful orange roe—like a hidden treasure of soft, shiny pearls.
By midsummer, our freezer is full of salmon. Most of it we send off to Uncle Ole, who salts and smokes the fish to perfection over juniper and oak wood shavings in his own smokehouse.
The finest specimen is reserved for the great midsummer night’s feast. On the longest day of the year, when it never really gets dark, all the men are sent off, and all the women prepare the traditional salmon dinner. The salmon is cooked early in the day, and placed on the landing to cool (with a heavy weight placed on the lid to prevent cats from helping themselves). As the guests start arriving in the evening, it is customary to show them the fish, encouraging them to comment on it and to share their best fishing stories.
If the weather is fine, we eat on the lawn outside the red house. The table is decorated with daisies and lilacs. The long summer night, with its famous Nordic light, veils everything in its pastel hues. The shiny pink flesh of the fish, gently cooked, skinned, and served cold; the fresh light green cucumber salad; the bright yellow new potatoes, no bigger than eggs and wonderfully sweet; the green dill; and the white sour cream—the pastel beauty of it all is like a romantic midsummer night’s dream. A master chef could not create anything more beautiful. At the beginning of the meal, I always think we have far too much food, that a twenty-pound fish is too much for twenty-five people, including some normally fish-phobic children. But no matter how big the fish is, we always manage to finish it off, with a bit of help from the cat.
THIS IS THE CENTERPIECE OF THE TRADITIONAL MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S FEAST. THE FISH IS FLAVORED WITH BAY LEAVES, BLACK PEPPERCORNS, AND CORIANDER AND SERVED COLD. WHEN IT IS ALLOWED TO COOL IN THE COOKING WATER, THE FISH DEVELOPS A DEEP, ALMOST SHELLFISHLIKE FLAVOR.
SERVES 8
One 16-ounce container sour cream
2 teaspoons grated horseradish
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ cup salt
¼ cup white vinegar
20 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 to 4 whole cloves
2 teaspoons dried thyme
One 7-pound salmon, cleaned and scaled
1 recipe Cucumber Salad (recipe follows)
Boiled new potatoes for serving
To prepare the horseradish sour cream, combine the sour cream and horseradish in a bowl. Add lemon juice to taste. Cover and refrigerate.
To prepare the fish, bring 1½ gallons water to a boil in a pot large enough to hold the fish. Add the salt, vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaves, coriander, cloves, and thyme. Place the fish in the pot, return the water to a boil, and turn off the heat. When the water has cooled to lukewarm, remove the fish. Serve, or cover and refrigerate for up to a day before serving.
Serve with the horseradish sour cream, Cucumber Salad, and boiled potatoes.
VARIATION: If you do not have a pot big enough for the fish, you can cut it into 3 pieces. The fish will not look as impressive, but the taste will be the same. You can also season the fish with 3 tablespoons salt, the bay leaves, pepper, and coriander, wrap it in foil, and bake it at 350°F for 1½ hours.
SERVES 8 AS A SIDE DISH
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
3 to 4 cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
½ cup white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
⅓ cup water
Sprinkle half the salt in the bottom of a large deep dish or bowl. Place the cucumber slices in the dish. Sprinkle with the rest of the salt. Place another dish or bowl on top of the cucumbers, hold them tightly together, and shake well to extract some water.
Combine the vinegar, sugar, and white pepper in a bowl. Add ⅓ cup water. Pour the mixture over the cucumbers and let stand for an hour before serving.
THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE WAYS TO COOK SALMON. SO SIMPLE THAT IT HAS SAVED MANY A BUSY WEEKNIGHT DINNER, IT IS ALSO SO GOOD I DON’T HESITATE TO SERVE IT TO GUESTS.
SERVES 2
1 pound salmon fillet, skin on, any pinbones removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
Fleur de sel
4 sweet apples, such as Golden Delicious
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small sprig fresh rosemary
Fresh mint leaves for garnish (optional)
Rinse the fish under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towels.
In a shallow dish, mix the olive oil, honey, mustard, garlic, lemon juice, and chili powder, if using. Place the fish in the mixture, turning to coat it with the marinade. Cover and marinate for 2 to 3 hours in the refrigerator or, if pressed for time, for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Transfer the fish to a baking dish. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the flesh flakes nicely with a fork. Season with salt.
Meanwhile, core the apples and cut each into 8 wedges. Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the apples and rosemary, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for 5 minutes, until tender. Remove from the heat and discard the rosemary.
Serve the fish with the apples, garnished with mint, if desired.
VARIATION: Reserve the marinade. After 8 minutes of baking, pour the marinade over the salmon. Serve the salmon with the pan juices spooned over it.
Serve with sour cream and New Potatoes with Chanterelles and Dill (page 79).
The wild Atlantic salmon is a unique and vulnerable fish. It lives most of its life in the ocean but can spawn only in freshwater. Every one of these fish has a special homing device that scientists have yet to account for, and after roaming around in the Atlantic Ocean for two or three years, covering tens of thousands of miles, the fish returns to the same riverbank, only a few feet from where it was hatched, to spawn.
For every five thousand salmon eggs that are laid on sandy riverbanks, only five fish live to reach the ocean. Of these five, only one survives long enough to return home and spawn again. This is a cycle that is vulnerable to overfishing and the effects of human enterprise.
With increased industrialization and fishing, wild Atlantic salmon has become an exclusive food, reserved for the rich and powerful—or for those, like my wife’s family, who are lucky enough to have fishing rights where the last remaining wild salmon meet. Luckily, modern aquaculture has given the salmon back to the people. Today the quality of farmed fish is generally very high, although it is often somewhat fattier than wild salmon.
If you have the choice between wild and farmed salmon, you should naturally opt for the wild one—at least if it is very fresh and the price is just slightly higher than the farmed fish. But when the price is double or triple, you will be paying more for the romantic idea of the fish fighting its way up the rivers than for actual flavor.
THE SPICES USED IN THIS RECIPE—DILL SEEDS, CUMIN, CORIANDER, FENNEL, AND CARAWAY—MAKE THE DISH SEEM DISTINCTLY MIDDLE EASTERN. BUT THE SAME SPICES ARE ALSO IMPORTANT IN SCANDINAVIAN COOKING—IN FLAVORING AQUAVIT, THE TRADITIONAL SPICED POTATO LIQUOR—SO YOU WILL FIND THE SAME WHIFF OF SPICES IN ALMOST EVERY SCANDINAVIAN HOME AROUND CHRISTMASTIME.
SERVES 2
1 pound salmon fillet, skin on, any pinbones removed
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons dill seeds
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon aquavit or Mock Aquavit (page 293) (see Note)
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chervil
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar, or to taste
1 recipe Baked Fennel (page 236)
Rinse the fish under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towels.
In a small skillet, toast the coriander, cumin, dill, and fennel seeds over medium heat for about 2 minutes, until they start to release their fragrance. Transfer to a small bowl, add the salt, and mix well.
Rub the fish with the spice mixture and place in a baking dish. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours.
To prepare the aquavit sour cream, in a small bowl, mix together the sour cream, aquavit, caraway seeds, and chervil. Add vinegar to taste. Cover and refrigerate.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Place the baking dish with the fish on the middle oven rack and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the fish flakes nicely with a fork.
Serve the fish topped with the sour cream and accompanied by the fennel.
NOTE: If you cannot find aquavit, season the sour cream with ¼ teaspoon ground fennel seeds, ¼ teaspoon ground dill seeds, ¼ teaspoon ground cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1 tablespoon brandy.
I made this dish on the New Scandinavian Cooking program when we filmed on the River Namsen. I prepared the salmon fillet with the skin left on because it is less likely to fall apart during cooking.
Serve with Baked Fennel (page 236) or boiled potatoes.
COOKING FISH AT VERY LOW TEMPERATURES MAKES IT JUICIER AND MORE TENDER THAN THE TRADITIONAL HIGHER HEAT. EXACTLY HOW LONG THE COOKING TAKES DEPENDS ON YOUR OVEN. THIS COOKING PROCESS DEMANDS THAT YOU USE VERY FRESH FISH. IF YOU WANT TO PREPARE THIS DISH USING THE MORE CONVENTIONAL HIGH-TEMPERATURE COOKING PROCESS, FOLLOW THE BAKING INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN FOR SPICE-CRUSTED SALMON (PAGE 90).
SERVES 2
1 pound salmon fillet, scaled, skin on, any pinbones removed
¼ cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
Preheat the oven to 140°F.
Rinse the fish under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towels.
In a small saucepan, bring the soy sauce to a boil and boil for 3 minutes, or until reduced by one-third. Remove from the heat.
Place the salmon in a baking dish. Brush the salmon with the soy sauce. Sprinkle with half the ginger.
Bake about 45 minutes, until the temperature in the center reaches 120°F on an instant-read thermometer. Sprinkle with the remaining ginger and serve.
Both soy sauce and fresh ginger have become popular over the last few years as a consequence of recent Asian influences on Scandinavian cooking, but they are in no way novelties. Ginger has been known in Norway since the fourteenth century, soy sauce since at least the early nineteenth century. Both work very well with salmon.
Serve with Green Beans and Peas with Celeriac and Mango (page 230) and Cumin-Baked Parsnips with Salmon Roe (page 241; feel free to omit the salmon roe and sour cream).
I AM A MAYONNAISE ENTHUSIAST, SO I LOVE TO MAKE MY OWN. I LIKE THE TASTE OF CHERVIL, AS IN THIS RECIPE, BUT SOMETIMES, FOR VARIETY I SUBSTITUTE BASIL OR CILANTRO.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS RECIPE USES RAW EGGS. IF YOU ARE HESITANT TO USE THEM, YOU CAN SUBSTITUTE ⅔ CUP COMMERCIAL MAYONNAISE FOR THE EGG YOLKS AND OLIVE OIL—WHEN YOU FLAVOR THE MAYONNAISE WITH FRESH HERBS AND A LITTLE LEMON JUICE, THERE WILL NOT BE MUCH DIFFERENCE.
SERVES 4
Four ½-pound salmon fillets, scaled, skin on, any pinbones removed
About ¼ cup fleur de sel
2 large egg yolks
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh chervil
Scrape the salmon skin with a knife to make sure all the scales are removed. Rinse well and pat the fish dry with paper towels.
Heat a large nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat (no oil is needed). Place the fillets skin side down in the pan, without crowding. Cover the flesh side of the fish with the salt and cook for about 10 to 12 minutes, until the fish is nearly done. (If the fish is very fresh, I like it best when rare. If you are not so sure about the freshness of the fish, give it an extra minute or two.) Transfer to a plate.
While the fish is cooking, whisk together the egg yolks and one-third of the lemon juice in a small bowl. Whisk in a drop of olive oil; when the oil is completely incorporated, whisk in another drop. Continue adding the oil little by little, whisking continuously, then add more lemon juice until you have a fresh-tasting mayonnaise. (You may not need all the lemon juice.) Whisk in the cayenne pepper and chervil until well blended.
Gently brush the salt from the fish. Place one salmon fillet on each serving plate, and place a dollop of mayonnaise on top of each. Serve the remaining mayonnaise on the side.
This recipe is adapted from Eyvind Hellstrøm, the chef-owner of Restaurant Bagatelle in Oslo, a luxurious, modern restaurant with two stars in the Michelin Guide Rouge. The salt-baking technique is very simple and can be used with other fish as well, even with lean fish like cod. The idea is to season the fish from the top and cook it from the bottom, and the result is a deliciously salty, wonderfully tender fish.
Baked Fennel (page 236) and a salad make perfect accompaniments.
