a food festival to remember
Monday, May 5, 2008 at 09:16PM 
I live in the Washington D.C. area, so whenever my mom visits me from Oregon, we travel somewhere in Maryland or Virginia (so far, Charlottesville, VA is my favorite spot). During our travels, we always try to cook together – at least once.
The last time she visited, I accidentally sliced my finger while chopping a carrot for an Italian side dish and blacked out twice within a few minutes from the shock. When I woke up the second time, mom’s panic turned to light-headedness, and then she had to lie down to keep from fainting.
We stayed there – our bodies half in the tiny apartment kitchen and half in the dining room – laughing for about ten minutes at our wimpiness before we had the strength to stand up and wash and bandage my finger. We put the carrot and salmon we were going to eat back in the fridge and skipped dinner.
Two years later, we still giggle at the memory of us lying on the floor from shock, panic, and fear from what turned out to be a non-emergency cut. Like mother, like daughter.
When mom visited last week, we rented a condo with a spacious kitchen in Ocean City, Maryland. Without thinking about the finger incident, we planned another menu with carrots and salmon. We thought we would recreate the warm smoked salmon with fresh lentils and tomatoes dish that Chef John Doherty of the Waldorf-Astoria demonstrated at the St. Michael’s Food and Wine Festival we went to the day before.
John Doherty was one of three chefs presenting at the festival, located in the quaint waterfront town of St. Michaels on Maryland's eastern shore. We picked his dish to cook because it didn’t require us to buy a ton of ingredients to bring home, we both love salmon, and we thought Chef John Doherty was handsome in that Robert Redford kind of way – rugged and gentle. At about six feet, he’s formed what could be the perfect chef’s paunch – tight and robust – tucked nicely into his chef's whites.
Gawking aside, mom and I admired his talk about leadership in the kitchen. As a senior chef who has cooked for four presidents, he says he can’t always be in the kitchen to command the brigade of cooks assembling meals for the Waldorf-Astoria’s well-heeled clientele, so he tells them: “Cook like I’m here with you… Cook like you’re cooking for your family, your friends, your wife.” And, he says, paramount to running a world-class kitchen is having a vision for the cuisine and the organization.
We liked his dish and we loved him, so Mom and I adapted his recipe for our Ocean City kitchen. And this time, I let her chop the carrot.
Warm Copper River Salmon with Lentils and Tomatoes
Serves Four
For the tomato-basil salad
1 clove garlic, crushed with a knife
4 ounces grape (oval) or cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 large basil leaves, julienned
Pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepperFor the lentils
1/8 cup diced bacon
¼ cup diced onion
1/8 cup peeled and diced carrot
1/8 cup diced celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup green or brown lentils
2-1/2 cups chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to tasteFor the salmon
4 6-ounce salmon filets
Olive or grapeseed oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (Doherty uses white pepper – a lot – but I prefer black)To prepare the salad: Rub the inside of a mixing bowl with the crushed garlic to provide flavor for the salad; discard the garlic. Place the tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil, and basil in the mixing bowl and toss to thoroughly combine. Season with salt and pepper.
To prepare the lentils: Place the diced bacon in a large saucepan set over medium heat. Cook 5 or 6 minutes until the bacon is almost crispy and most of the fat is rendered. Remove the bacon from the saucepan and reserve. Discard all but a tablespoon of bacon fat. Add the onion to the pan and cook over medium heat until translucent, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add the carrot, celery, and garlic, and cook for 4 more minutes. Add the lentils and the chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 25 to 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and keep warm over low heat.
To prepare the salmon: Chef Doherty smokes the Copper River salmon on apple or cherry wood chips (soaked first in water) in a smoker for 7 – 10 minutes. We didn’t have Copper River salmon, nor did we have a smoker or wood chips so we coated our Chilean salmon filets with olive oil, then sprinkled with salt and pepper and broiled the filets for five minutes, turned off the broiler and left them in the oven for another minute.
The plating of the dish is where the magic happens. Spoon the lentils onto the plate in the center. Place the salmon filet over the lentils, then spoon a tiny bit of the tomato salad on top of each filet (this will be about four halves).
Our version:
John's version:
Reader Comments (10)
Angela, it's so nice to see you personalize your blog with you in the kitchen and with 'Ma!
The salmon and lentils sound wonderful together.
Finally, don't use your knife like that..you'll cut yourself!
What a funny story and a great tradition to carry on with your Mom! That salmon looks great!
Thanks, Peter! The old advice to always tuck your knuckles close to the knife just doesn't work with round carrots. Lesson learned. :) I hope all is well with you!
Judy: Thanks for your comment and for visiting. It's always nice to have traditions with one's mom -- and memories you can both laugh at!
That looks FABULOUS! (And I've bookmarked it, too); once the Copper River Salmon starts making it's lovely way around here, I'll be making some of it for my son and myself; reminds me of "home", anyway... *smile*
Glad you had such a wonderful time with your mom - and an hilarious memory to go with it! *grin*
What a great post for Mother's Day :) I cook with my mom sometimes, but she pretty much drives me nuts in the kitchen so I have a hard time with it!!
Your version looks just as pretty as theirs!
Angela, you did yourself down. Your salmon is beautiful!
Love, Vicky xxx
Thanks, Renee! It would sure be nice to have access to Copper River salmon year round. Thanks for visiting and let me know what you think of the recipe!
RecipeGirl: Thanks! I know what you mean about cooking with relatives -- you definitely need to decide who is chef and who is sous chef. Have fun, and happy mother's day!
Vicky: Thanks so much! I just saw your amazing salmon dish and commented on your beautiful blog (I love that eggplant picture!). Talk about outdoing yourself. You rock!
Angela - I'm dying picturing you and your Mom laying on the floor, great story! Thanks for your great comment today. So glad you visited, bc it brought me here - to your lovely blog, so thank you. :)
That looks so good! Love the story about you and your mom! That is so funny! My mom and I are really close too, so we have lots of insance kitchen stories together too!
Thanks, Jenn! Isn't great to cook with your mom? It's such a great bonding experience. I'm glad you enjoyed the posting. Thanks for visiting!