Smoked Trout Salad Recipe

Directions

Ten Speed Press

For the trout salad:

Use a vegetable peeler (and a paring knife, if needed) to remove the brown skin from the celery root, then cut it into ice cube-size chunks. In a food processor, pulse the celery root until it’s the size of couscous. Transfer it to a large bowl.

Rinse the capers, squeezing out any excess water, and then finely chop them. Add them to the celery root. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, crème fraîche, mustard and dill. Add this dressing to the celery root mixture and stir to combine thoroughly. Place the smoked trout on a baking tray or large cutting board and carefully remove the skin and bones. Smoked trout filets contain a lot of tiny, nearly transparent bones that can be hard to spot. Comb through the fish with your fingers to get them out, as ideally no bones will sneak into your salad. Flake the deboned fish into pea-size pieces. Add the flaked fish to the celery root mixture and stir gently. Season to taste with the lemon juice, pepper and salt, if needed.

Serve the smoked trout salad on the bread and garnish with the pickled red onions. Alternatively, you can serve the salad in small ramekins with toast or bread alongside. For an extra-special festive touch, garnish with the roe. Store the salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 to 4 days.

For the pickled red onions:

There are lots of recipes out there for pickled onions, but I like this one because it doesn’t require you to boil a brine first, which makes it faster and less fussy than some other recipes. It also doesn’t include any sugar, which is my preference, allowing the natural sweetness of the red onion to shine. At Kantine, we like to add a slice of raw red beet to the onions, which makes them even more vibrant in color without imparting any flavor. If you have a beet lying around, try this!

Place the onion in a nonreactive (glass or stainless-steel) bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Stir in the salt and let the onion sit for 15 minutes, or until limp. Add the beet (if using). Then pour enough vinegar to come halfway up the slices of onion and let that sit for about 1 hour, giving it a stir every 10 to 15 minutes.

Discard the beet slice and serve the pickled onion. Store the onion, still in the vinegar, in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

For the sprouted rye bread:

Makes one 9-by-5-inch loaf

This is the bread that I first sold at the San Francisco Ferry Building farmers’ market. Once we put out a basket of small chunks of sample bread, people started coming to our stand week after week. This recipe requires you to first sprout rye berries, which are the whole-grain form of rye flour with only the hull removed. These berries are available online and can be purchased in bulk at some health food stores and shops featuring organic ingredients. When using rye berries in this recipe, begin by soaking them in water for several hours and then placing the soaked berries on a baking tray, covered, for an additional day. While this process is simple and straightforward, do make sure to allot the time you need for the sprouting to happen, about two days before you want to bake your bread.

At Kantine, we use a natural leavener (like a sourdough starter). Our previous leavener was nicknamed Barack Doughbama before its name changed to Marilyn Mondough. This starter allows us to bake rye bread without commercial yeast. But for the novice home baker, dry yeast makes producing a good loaf a lot easier. However, I encourage you to set aside a half cup of the dough each time you make this bread, storing it in the refrigerator in an airtight container, to add to future loaves. This will give your bread some of the delicious natural tanginess of a sourdough leavener. If you have two loaf pans, definitely consider doubling this recipe. That way you’ll have enough bread for sandwiches.

Two to four days before you want to bake the bread, begin by sprouting your rye berries. This makes them softer and sweeter, adding a nice flavor and chewy texture. Soak the rye berries in a bowl of room-temperature water, covered by about 1 inch, for a minimum of 6 hours and up to 12 hours. Thoroughly drain the soaked rye berries in a fine-mesh strainer and spread them out on the bottom of a loaf pan. Cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel and keep it out at room temperature until they begin to sprout. This will take about one day, possibly longer if the air is cold. If the air is very warm, you may need to occasionally sprinkle them with water and move them around with your fingers so that they don’t dry out completely. Look for a tiny filament sprouting from one end of the rye berry. You may notice them moving a little, if you look very closely, as they sprout before your very eyes! Don’t let the sprouts grow too long or the rye berries may taste too sweet. Once a little thread has emerged from most of the berries, transfer the sprouts to an airtight container and store them in the refrigerator, where they will keep for up to two days.

On baking day, in the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the hot water and buttermilk. Use a digital thermometer to measure the temperature: 105°F to 110°F is the ideal temperature for the yeast to bloom. Add the yeast and malt syrup, whisking to combine, and let the mixture sit for 10 minutes. Then add the all-purpose and rye flours. Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed until well blended. Let this mixture rest for 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, lightly oil a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan and line it with parchment paper. Cut it to fit the pan lengthwise, with flaps of 1 to 2 inches, hanging over the two longer sides of the pan, so that you can lift the baked loaf out.

When the dough is done resting, add the salt, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and sprouted rye berries and mix with the paddle attachment on medium until well combined.

Scoop out ¼ cup of the dough. Place it in an airtight container, and refrigerate for up to three weeks, so that it will ferment and you can add it to your dough the next time you bake this bread, lending it a pleasant depth of flavor. Keep doing this every time you bake rye bread, always reserving ¼ cup for your next loaf.

Transfer the remaining dough to the prepared loaf pan. It should fill the pan about three-quarters of the way to the top. Cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap, being careful to stretch it tight so that it doesn’t come into contact with the dough, and let it proof for about 1 hour. The rise time can vary slightly depending on the temperature of your kitchen. You’ll know it’s ready when the dough appears fluffy and there are tiny air bubbles bursting on the surface.

About 30 minutes into the proofing, preheat the oven to 500°F. Put the loaf in the oven and immediately throw a cup of water onto the bottom of the oven to create steam. Close the oven door and decrease the temperature to 275°F. Bake for 1 hour, then use a digital thermometer to check the temperature at the center of the loaf. It should read 210°F. If it’s lower, return the bread to the oven and keep checking every 5 minutes until the center of the loaf reaches this temperature.

After taking the pan from the oven, immediately remove the bread by tipping the pan onto its side, tugging on the parchment paper, and tapping the bread out. Let it cool overnight for the best slicing, although I won’t blame you if you can’t resist lopping off the hot heel and smearing it with a thick layer of cold butter. Store the cooled bread wrapped in parchment paper or a clean kitchen towel at room temperature, where it will stay fresh for up to three days, or in the refrigerator for up to one week.