There is a diner (the upscale yuppie variety) near my house called Skillet, which serves a extraordinarily good hamburger. I am somewhat of a devotee of the hamburger. (And I don’t mind much if it’s the posh kind or the fast food kind – if by fast food you mean Dick’s) Anyway, at Skillet they have this condiment called bacon jam. It’s as heartstoppingly wonderful as it sounds. Of course bacon jam is heartstopping in every sense of the word. So much so, that having eaten at Skillet several times in the course of a few weeks, I felt I had to explore other parts of the menu. After carefully looking it over, and with a flicker of regret as I passed over the burger (bacon jam, arugula, creamy blue cheese), I ordered the Moroccan Sockeye Salmon Sandwich, which had condiments that sounded intriguing too: harissa aioli and crisp fried preserved lemons.
The salmon sandwich handily beat the hamburger – the epic Skillet hamburger with bacon jam. No kidding. Harissa aioli and fried preserved lemons beat bacon jam?! Yes they did. It’s true. Sharp bittersweet tang, then more sweet, and smoky too, the tangled crunch – oh just a little bit more – What?! How can it be all eaten up already?! I had to figure out a way to make this sandwich at home because ordering two would be embarrassing.
Guess what? It was easy. There are a couple of ways to get there too. This could be a project kind of sandwich, with toasting, grinding and soaking the spices for the harissa and the ras el hanout yourself or you can just buy them ready-made at a grocery store. Moroccan food has become ubiquitous in cities and I see these condiments all over the place. That being said I would not deny myself the pleasure of the scent of freshly roasted cumin, or the sinus clearing burn of roasted dried chili de arbol. (Please try making these condiments just once!) However, I do understand that this is just a sandwich. A fifteen minute proposition if you don’t make all the condiments yourself.
Removing the pin bones with needle nose pliers
Moroccan Sockeye Salmon Sandwich – serves 4 generously
- 1 1/3 lbs sockeye salmon filet
- 1 tbsp ras el hanout (see recipe below)
- spray olive or canola oil
- 1/2 c. mayonnaise (I like the Trader Joe’s brand)
- 1/4 c. harissa (or to taste – see recipe below)
- 1 medium sized preserved lemon, sliced thin, seeds removed and dried off with a paper towel (I prefer Le Moulins Mahjoub brand for their firm skin. It makes it a lot easier to slice. I bought them at the grocery store)
- Canola or peanut oil
- 1/4 c. rice flour
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 handfuls of arugula, rinsed and dried
- 4 brioche buns or soft potato rolls
- Using needle nosed pliers (I have some reserved for the kitchen in a drawer) remove the pinbones from the salmon. If you run the tip of your finger lengthwise down the fatter side of the salmon, you will find the bones poking upwards.
- Heat the grill or the grill pan, to medium.
- Spray the salmon on both sides with olive oil and sprinkle the ras el hanout evenly over the top of the fleshy side. It will tend to clump in spots but you can even it out with a stiff brush or even your fingers.
- Place the salmon flesh side down over medium heat on your grill and set the timer for 8 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat about 1/4″ of canola or peanut oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat.
- While the oil is heating, combine the rice flour and the cornstarch with a pinch of salt on a small plate. Lightly coat the sliced preserved lemon in the dry ingredients and set aside.
- Test the oil by dropping a little piece of bread into it. It should brown quickly and evenly. It it burns right away, it is too hot and you’ll have to begin again.
- Carefully, so you don’t splash yourself, lay the lemon slices in the hot oil. They should take a minute or two per side to become golden brown.
- Set aside on a plate lined with a paper towel.
- Whisk the harissa into the mayonnaise with a fork.
- The salmon should be ready to flip now.
- Flip the salmon over and set a timer for two minutes. Allowing the salmon to cook thoroughly on the flesh side should make flipping it over a breeze. It simply does not stick to the grate if you grill it this way and you get beautiful grill marks.
- Bring the salmon inside and cut it into 4 generous pieces.
- Spread both sides of the brioche or potato rolls with the harissa mayonnaise. Lay the salmon, then the arugula, then the preserved lemons and top with the other half of the roll.
- 2 Tbs. sweet paprika (preferably Hungarian)
- 1 tsp. granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne
- 6 dried chile de arbol, ribs and seeds removed – this is much easier to do when they are dried
- 2 San Marzano tomatoes, canned
- 1/4 tsp whole cumin seeds
- 1 medium cloves of garlic
- freshly ground black pepper – several grindings
- 1 tsp kosher sea salt
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/16 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar
- 1/2 c. extra-virgin olive oil
- Heat a medium sized heavy sauté pan over high heat for 1 minute. Add the chilies to the pan and dry toast them until they have little black spots and they smell wonderful. Depending on the heat of your stove this could happen in seconds or take up to a couple of minutes – so don’t walk away! When they are done, set aside in a heat proof bowl and cover with very hot water. Set aside for 15 minutes.
- Setting the heat to medium, toast the cumin seeds. Seeing as the pan is already quite hot, this will take less than 30 seconds under your watchful eye. When they smell fabulous, take them off the stove and grind them in your mortar and pestle. If you don’t have one, crush them with the edge of the bottom of a wine bottle on a cutting board, or in a clean coffee grinder.
- In the same pan, cook the tomatoes over medium heat until darkened and somewhat thicker. Set aside.
- Drain the chiles and put them in a food processor or blender with the garlic, tomatoes, paprika, cumin, cayenne, vinegar, salt and pepper. Puree until combined. You will have to scrape down the container with a spatula frequently; this doesn’t make a lot of harissa. With the motor running, add the olive oil in a thin stream and blend until smooth.
To give you some idea how of delicious and universally pleasing the Moroccan Salmon Sandwich is, I will tell you that my picky five year old demolished his and ate half of a second and Martin and I ate ours and split a third. There was nothing left for Siri and Alistair and they had to be consoled with ice cream sundaes, which were clearly running a distant second to the sandwich. Alistair even ate just bread with the sauce and arugula because we’d run out of the salmon. Ok. I confess that the fried preserved lemon was a tough sell. My daughter managed to pick hers off even though I trickily shoved it underneath the tangle of arugula leaves. Siri is nobody’s fool and saw through my ruse immediately. The boys blithely polished the whole thing off, lemons and all.
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