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3. Vinaigrette (page 36)

4. Gribiche (pages 36–37)

5. Verte (page 34)

6. Tartar (pages 35–36)

Cucumber salad is the traditional accompaniment, and a salad of string beans in vinaigrette sauce garnished with tiny artichoke hearts is another excellent addition.

Elizabeth David serves a walnut and horseradish sauce with cold poached salmon that is excellent. To make the sauce for 3 or 4 people, use 2 ounces of skinned walnuts. Skin the walnuts, by putting boiling water over them and rubbing off the skins as soon as the walnuts are cool enough to handle. Chop them finely. Stir very lightly into 1/2 cup heavy cream and add 2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish, 1 teaspoon sugar, a little salt, and the juice of 1/2 lemon.

VARIATIONS

1. Salmon steaks may be poached in court bouillon and chilled and served in the same way. They make an attractive platter if they are of fairly even size. Naturally they take much less cooking time than a large piece of fish.

2. Spiced salmon is another fine cold dish. After poaching the fish, reduce the court bouillon to half its volume. Flavor to taste with vinegar, herbs, and seasonings; pour this over the salmon and let it stand for 24 hours. Drain and serve with a mayonnaise. The pickle should be highly spiced and quite well laced with vinegar.

SAUMON FROID AU CHAMBERTIN

Whole salmon with head

Red wine court bouillon (page 19) (6 cups clarified bouillon)

3 envelopes gelatin

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Prepare about 4 quarts or more of red wine court bouillon, using heads and bones of fish. (The amount you will need depends on the size of the salmon.) Wrap the fish in cheesecloth or place it on a rack and poach it according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 12). Remove the fish carefully to a large board or platter and let it cool. Take off the skin, cutting sharply at the tail and stripping it up to the head.

Reduce the bouillon to about 2 quarts. Clarify it with the white of an egg and the shell (see page 18) and strain it through a linen napkin. Dissolve the gelatin in 3/4 cup of cold water and prepare an aspic, using 6 cups of the hot bouillon stirred into the gelatin.

While the aspic is cooling, prepare the garnishes:

1 cup cooked small peas

1 cup finely cut, cooked snap beans

1 cup finely diced, cooked carrots

1 cup finely diced, cooked potatoes

Mayonnaise (page 34)

Small tomatoes

Ripe olives

15 hard-cooked eggs

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Chopped ripe olives

Cucumbers, sliced

Lemons, sliced

Mix the cooked vegetables with enough mayonnaise to bind them stiffly. Peel and scoop out the tomatoes and stuff them with the vegetable salad. Brush the tops with a thin layer of the aspic and top each one with a ripe olive. Cut the eggs in half horizontally and remove the yolks. Mash and mix with salt, pepper, chopped ripe olives, and mayonnaise. Heap this mixture into the whites, or pipe it through a pastry tube. Glaze the tops with aspic. Brush the salmon with aspic, giving it a thick coating. It is sometimes better to give it a first heavy coating, then let it set thoroughly, and give it another coating. Decorate the fish with thin cucumber slices, lemon slices, and quarters of ripe olives and hard-cooked egg yolk.

You may arrange the platter as elaborately as you wish, for this is a showpiece. Surround the salmon with the stuffed tomatoes and the stuffed eggs. Serve with either mayonnaise or sauce verte (page 34).

SALMON CUTLETS IN ASPIC

6 salmon steaks

White wine court bouillon (pages 19–20)

Fresh tarragon leaves, if available

Hard-cooked eggs

Cucumber

2 envelopes gelatin

Poach the salmon steaks in the bouillon according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 12). Remove them to a dry towel or absorbent paper and take off the skin. Arrange the steaks on a deep platter or in individual serving dishes. Decorate them with tarragon leaves and hard-cooked eggs, or any other garnish you may prefer.

Prepare an aspic by dissolving the gelatin in 1/2 cup of cold water and combining it with 4 cups of hot