A few decades ago, HG/BSK and HG’s late sister and brother-in-law, Beulah and Daniel K., were seated in Le Vaudeville (Then very good. Now downhill.), the beautiful art deco brasserie opposite the Paris Bourse (stock exchange). Following some glorious appetizers (oysters for HG/BSK and Baltic pickled herring with warm potato salad for other duo), HG sipped chilled Muscadet and examined the carte. Saumon a l’ oseille was featured. This was grilled salmon with sorrel sauce, a dish made famous by chefs Pierre and Jean Troigrois at the brothers’ Michelin three-star restaurant in Roanne. Everyone at the HG table ordered it and it was a revelation. Salmon and sorrel were meant for each other. The slightly bitter and herbaceous sauce seemed the proper counterpoint for the rich (cooked semi rare) salmon filet. Sorrel is a rarity in American food markets. Here on Prince Edward Island, BSK cultivates a big crop of sorrel in the BSK herb garden. That means abundant sorrel soup and sorrel sauce. Salmon, of course, is the problem. Wild salmon has become ridiculously expensive and farm raised salmon is pumped full of artificial coloring, flaccid and tasteless. (HG/BSK are spoiled by their years in Vancouver where wild salmon is always available, inexpensive and delicious). The salmon HG/BSK purchase at By the Bay Fish Mart in St. Peters is farm raised in Nova Scotia in an apparently natural environment. Not as good as the wild but still tasty. HG/BSK grilled a big slab for dinner last night. BSK made sorrel sauce (sorrel, shallots, chicken broth, butter, egg yolks). Sublime. There were other good things on the table. Grilled asparagus. Fresh sweet corn (in season at last). Little potatoes dug from the Noel and Yossi M. garden earlier in the day. EM styled crisp fried pork bellies and mushroom caps smothered with chopped scallions and herbs. Another spectacular PEI dinner.
