Yes.

That's ready.

Got it all prepared.

Its finished.

It's stunning.

Yes.

It's great.

It's all so ready.

So just let it all begin.

Hi, folks.

It's Chris Fennimore here in the QED cooks kitchen.

And today's theme is all about seafood.

Growing up we ate a lot of seafood because, believe it or not, fish was less expensive than beef.

In those days, we had flounder, fluke, cod, shrimp, crabs, clams, and even tuna fresh tuna.

Both segments on this show come from the special we did called gifts from the sea, and we're going to start with a recipe from Nancy Polinsky for Baked Salmon.

But the real star of this recipe is not the salmon, it's the Creole mustard sauce that she makes as a garnish for the salmon.

It's absolutely delicious.

It's easy to make, as usual with Nancy and it enhances the flavors of anything you put it on.

And I'm talking about any kind of meat or any kind of steamed vegetables.

So this recipe has two great recipes.

But let's let's start with, we'r going to start with a marinade.

First you marinate it as much as overnight three tablespoons of brown sugar right.

Which are so soft.

And then you need two tablespoons of soy sauce.

And so it's got a little Asian just a little bit two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.

So well you know you wouldn't even be measuring it.

You would just be doing this right.

Because that's just the Fennimore way.

One tablespoon.

Except I just got a seed in there worry about it.

I dont want any boday eat a seed.

You're a fussier cook than I am Nancy Polinsky.

And there's the other tablespoon.

And oh, the magic of the microwave here is a half cup.

They call him the kitchen magician.

Melted.

He's got his sorcerer's apprentice with him today.

How clin is here?

The most educated kitchen helper we've ever had.

He's got his masters in culinary studies, but, you know, so.

All right, so this is once again, a half cup of melted unsalted butter.

And it's really makes a difference whether it's salted or unsalted.

So do get the unsalted butter three tablespoons of brown sugar two tablespoons of soy sauce two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.

And I'll tell you sometimes if I have an open bottle of white wine I don't open a bottle just for this.

But if I have an open bottle wine, I throw maybe two tablespoons of a dry white wine in there.

Just gives it a little more something, let me tell you.

That smells good enough.

You can put it on toast.

It is really good.

It's good.

Okay, then.

Now I because I've told you this before, when I get a recipe, I follow it religiously.

I do not deviate because I don't have enough confidence or knowledge to, deviate.

The recipe that I got says line the pan with aluminum foil.

So I lined the pan with aluminum foil.

We're not going to do that here.

And then, arrange the fish.

This is salmon filets, thick cut salmon filets with the skin on one side.

You're going to put the skin side down in a single layer.

Now usually I don' Id made this in a little bowl.

Bowl.

This is now going in over foil.

And then you pour this over but instead of pouring it over I'm just going to just make sure you get that.

Yeah.

So you get that do this because it's going to get nice and brown.

Because of the brown it gets very brown.

It is delicious.

This came from when I asked my sister in law after I've been into it said, oh my gosh, where did you get this recipe?

She got it from one of those southern magazines.

I don't remember if it was Southern Living or Veranda.

But she pulled it out of a magazine and I copied that recipe and brought it right up to Pittsburgh.

And I've been making it ever since.

Okay, s then you're going to cover this, and you can refrigerate it for as little as one hour, if that's all you have, one hour will do it or up to six hours.

Now, I'm told that if you marinate fish for, you know, too long, it it gets tough.

And maybe that's why it says up to six hours.

But yeah, I would marinate it for an hour or so.

But it's going to it's all those flavors are going to be it because you bake it right in in that sauce.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Yeah That's what you're going to do.

All right You're going to bake it in here.

We'll put this in the marinating section okay.

Yes.

Now it after it is marinated you're going to bake it at you're going to preheat the oven to 400 and then you're going to uncover it's marinating covered.

And you're bake it until it's just cooked through basting occasionally.

And this says about 18 minutes.

And I that usually works for me about 18 minutes okay.

All right.

So that alone is delicious.

Just you just that alone.

It's delicious okay.

But then there's this sauce that goes on top of it.

And this sauce you can use it for.

And I put it there's always left over.

The sauce has to be makes so much sauce that the next day I make beef and I pour it over the beef.

And then the next day I put it on asparagus.

I mean, it's a great sauce.

Okay.

All right.

So let's go with that.

Starting with I take this fishing.

One cup of whipping cream.

Here we go.

Yes.

I love all this pre-measured stuff.

You need to go.

Can you actually whip it or you just or just, you know, you don't whip it, all right?

A quarter cup of a Creole or a course grain mustard.

Now, I wanted to know exactly what kind of mustard my sister in law use that day.

She used a horseradish mustard.

So I use the horseradish mustard.

But any thick grained, coarse, spicy mustard will work.

And this is, you know, really the key to it all is this mustard.

Everything else is just an additive.

You know I was just down in New Orleans.

Oh, yeah, I was and didn't take me.

No, I know I was a guest of my wife.

She, she had a wife, so it's always the wife.

I know.

So.

But I was surprised because they, they use that Creole mustard, and everybody was, was saying, what's that flavor?

What's that flavor?

Because it's not like regular mustard.

It's really is different.

It's got a kick to it.

All right then we're going to add four teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce.

Oh I love that stuff.

Yeah it goes good.

And anything more mustard.

This is one tablespoon of Dijon mustard.

Which is made with wine.

So yeah.

Okay.

And then three quarter of a teaspoon of ground pepper.

Oh that's not the pepper.

That's the basil.

That's the, the person here Oh here's this is white pepper.

That's what you call for.

Well first there's oh white pepper.

Yes.

Okay.

This just has ground pepper on here.

But you're right ground white pepper.

But there's also let's just start with the regular pepper.

This has three kinds.

This has a three quarters of teaspoon of just ground pepper.

This is a peppery, peppery recipe.

Okay.

You tell me then there's a half teaspoon of basil.

And then there's a half a quarte teaspoon of ground white pepper.

And then a quarter teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper.

Three kinds of pepper in here.

Young pepper thing.

You know we are talking you know some kind of Creole southern spicy thing here I need I get it I'm just going to whisk.

There's a how about a whisk is better.

Thank you.

Let me put this.

There we go.

So this this sauce does not cook.

Oh it does.

Oh it does it does.

You're actually supposed to combine this in a heavy sauce pan.

Okay.

And then you're supposed to boil it.

Can I have a sauce pan on?

I just put it in this bowl because this bowl was sitting here.

But this is a all right, all right, there we go.

Yes.

Now, I always wonder about this because I actually this is one of those things I make this in advance.

And then I stick in the refrigerator and then end up heating it up again.

So, I actually think probably you don't have to.

If I put this in the refrigerator, I probably wouldn't have to cook it right now.

Just put it in the refrigerator and then cook it tomorrow.

But because I stick to the recipe so religiously.

Right.

Well, I think one of the reasons why it says to cook it is so that it, it's war when you serve it on your sauce.

Right?

Yeah.

And this is almost complete if you prepare it in advance.

And I sometimes make this the night before.

Do not put in the last ingredient until the last minute.

And the last ingredient is one cup of sour cream.

You add that at the very end, after it is cooked and you've turned the fire off, you add the sour cream and then you serve it over the fish.

Okay, well, let's put it in.

Deep it.

All right.

Let me help clear the deck here.

I once forgot to do this because it's the last minute thing.

And the sour cream was sitting in there and no good.

No, it's good, but it's it's the sour cream cuts a lot of the other stuff.

Oh, I see it was really powerful.

Everybody bit in and puckered up and I thought, what's wrong.

But it was good.

We all ate it.

But it, All right.

It was only after dinner that I realized when I was cleaning up afterwards that the sour cream was still sitting in the refrigerator.

We all hav those cooking things, don't we?

Oh, my gosh, have I ever told you?

Have I ever told you?

My gefilte fish in the oven story.

You'll love this one.

My mother cannot believe I'm going to tell you people in public this, the the two big cooking Jewish holidays are Passover in the spring.

And then there's Rosh Hashanah in the fall.

And I made this really delicious.

It's in the cookbook gefilte.

The fish casserole recipe for Passover in the spring.

And I made two of them.

And I served I made two casseroles and then we had a big seder lots of people.

And I put the second one that we hadn't cut open yet in the bottom oven just to stay warm through dinner.

And, I didn't end up using it and forgot about it, and it sat in my bottom oven until Rosh Hashanah in the fall.

Because I don't use my double ovens very often, I just use my top of it.

Come Rosh Hashanah, it' time to use the two ovens again.

I opened the bottom ove and there is something I did not even recognize it.

What is that?

Unbelievable.

It's out there.

All that time, it never created a smell.

Believe me, if there had been a smell, I would have gone looking for it.

I couldn't believe it.

Okay I'm going to get a spatula here.

So that's a lot worse than for getting sour cream in a refrigerator.

All righty.

So that has been cooking fo 18 minutes or so, correct?

Yes.

Oh, God.

And then what I like to do is I'm going to I like to spoon some of the juice over it even before I sauce it, because I want to make sure that when people bite into it, they've got some of that fresh sauce on top that smells so good just the way it is.

Never mind.

Now let's put it on the plate.

It's going to break.

It's okay, it's okay.

We don't care.

Yeah.

Now I serve this with rice.

Here we go again down sout and serve everything with rice.

But I just think rice is the perfect accompaniment.

I serve it with a delicious brown rice.

It's made in a sort of a beef bouillon consommé.

Nicely done.

That one held together.

Well, it's a little bit hot.

Give me the pretty one.

Yeah, you take the pretty one off.

No, no.

Just for just to show on TV.

Now I serve just a dribble like this on when I serve it, but then I put a, saucer of the source of the sauce.

Because believe me, people are going to want more after they bite into it.

You can put a little bit on here.

And of course, people drown their fish in this sauce after they taste it.

It looks like a picture from a magazine.

It's just just gorgeous looking.

It's the way it tastes more than anything.

And I sure hope you like it.

Well, the.

You see how tender that salmon is?

When you taste that, just wait until you taste a little.

I know what it tastes like.

I was waiting for you to taste it.

Between the, you know, the flavors and and everything is just delicious.

That's delicious.

I just don't know how she does it.

You know, you have the.

You have the simplest approach to cooking.

Everybody you are.

You're always saying, oh, I cant cook.

And then you always end up with the most delicious thing in the whole show.

This one is delicious.

This is it has a lot of ingredients, but it's not difficult.

You just have to pu all the ingredients in the pot.

That's all you have to do.

But it's more than four ingredients and don't leave it in the oven until fall.

Okay?

That segment was worth it just for Nancy's story about the gefilte fish in the oven.

It's been such a pleasure to share the kitchen with Nancy over all these years.

She is so generous with her recipes and her wonderful stories.

Next up is a rather elegant way to cook and present fish.

The method or technique is called cooking en papillote or in paper And as I mentioned i in this segment, you'll hear me.

I learned the technique from one of Pittsburgh's culinary legends.

Her name was Christine Dauber, and she had the wonderful restaurant Le Pommier on the south side.

When she came on the show many years ago, she was still in that restaurant.

Chef Dauber was a treasure.

So let's start folding some paper.

And it's called seafood en papillote.

You know, fish in in parchment paper.

I know that French.

So you gotta get some of this stuff, and it's, you know, I buy it in sheets, in full sheets and then I cut them in half.

This is so simple.

This is, you're going to love this, but, you know, you use the word elegant.

And it's true.

When I see a menu and something is prepared on parchment, I write, I think.

Oh, elegant.

The other thing about this is that you can, prepare this.

You don't have to make the same thing for everybody.

The other night, I made this I made three different flavors.

So I'm going to start, Martha, you should start another one.

Right.

Okay.

Just, Sure.

Pull out a piece of paper.

I can do that.

And we will, give you some fish.

What kind of fish are we starting with?

This is cod fish and you basic.

And you want to lay it close to the center.

Fold long ways.

Okay?

Okay.

So in other words, you're going to fold over.

So you want it all.

Oh.

All stacked up.

Yeah.

Okay.

On the on the central center okay.

Now I'm going to make this one, Asian.

And for that I'm just going to take some hoisin sauce.

That's pre-made.

And I'm just going to put a tablespoon or so on there.

Okay.

And I'm going to put just a touch of sesame oil and, what else do I need?

A little bit of, pepper and a little bit of salt.

This is very free form and.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

And this is, just some ginger, which, you could use the pickled ginger that they have, but I like the fresh ginger, and I just cut the thinnest little slice because it's very, very pungent.

Yeah.

I'm suddenly smelling ginger.

An overwhelming smell of ginger.

Okay, okay.

All right.

Now.

So now you want to do something different.

You want to make something different.

So what are my options?

How about if you make, the butter, lemon and caper butter lemon and caper.

Okay, so a couple of, Pats.

Pats of butter across it?

Yeah, just put it on the top.

This all gets steamed together, so it's not critical.

You know exactly where you put this or that.

Oh, I love that.

Where it's not, not critical.

Right.

Magic words for me.

Butter.

Lemon.

You out.

I'm going to slice some lemon slices for yo if you put the capers on those.

Are these happen to be those great big.

Yeah.

I was going to say I've never seen capers this big giant capers.

Who lays them this big?

Oh, what the heck is a caper?

It's a berry from a from a bush.

From a caper Berry bush.

And they're picked individually or they grow in clumps.

I've never even seen one.

I don't know, I think they are individuals that they have to eac be picked off like a blueberry.

That's why sometimes capers are very expensive.

Sometimes, though they're always expensive.

Yeah.

Okay.

So you put some of those.

Now you put, some of these lemon slices right on top.

I'm thinking this is kind of an Italian flavor here with capers and lemons.

Well, only because I just, butter was really recently in Ital and everything there had lemons and in capers.

And you want probably want to put a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Let's look for everything.

You know, sea salt.

All right.

So now here here's the, the tricky part.

Fold it over.

Oh I shoul have had it to just to the side.

To the side of the center.

Yeah I had it on the center okay.

Now I understand why it ha to be to the side of the center.

I need to see it.

Haha.

Okay, so you fold it over.

Okay.

And then you have it oriented properly.

I'm just following you, babe.

You start in the left hand corner.

Or at least I do.

Yeah.

And you pull up a corner.

Okay.

A little triangle like that.

Okay.

Got it.

I feel like I'm making a paper hat.

Like I'm making a paper hat.

But now we're going origami on us right here.

Because you you fold up again.

Oh, yeah.

And then you fold again, and you just keep folding in the like, as if you're making air paper airplanes and turning at the same time.

So you fold.

Oh.

And it's so it's coming out on an angle now.

Yeah.

Just fold it and press and fold it and press.

Just make that crease nice and sturdy.

Yeah.

Where did you learn how to do this?

Wow.

From public television.

You know, I even saw, you know.

Oh, yeah.

Teach you many years ago, actually.

How'd you do this?

Wasn't it?

Was somebody here on the show?

Christine Dawber was, she used to work at a restaurant here in Pittsburgh called Le Pommier.

Yeah, I remem her restaurant all, remember?

And, And she came on, and she made something en papillote.

And I watched her and it was fascinating and good.

You know, she was really terrific.

Okay, so now I'm going to take this one, an that's going to hold together.

Well, yeah, actually it does.

I'm just I feel like I should be stapling it, keeping it.

No, no, no.

All right.

So that's that one.

Now this one I'm going to again make, make this stack of fish here, I think.

Yeah, I this is, you could, you know, you could make this any kind of thing that you want.

You could put, like, the fridge if you had some peppers and onions and, you could chop them up and put that on the top.

You could put carrots, you can put squash, you can have your vegetable right in here with the fish.

All right if you'd like to.

So we're not really sharing a recip so much as teaching a technique.

Exactly.

A little slow to the party, but I, just just a little late to the party.

Slow to get it mixing metaphors here.

But I get it now where we're teaching you how to cook with parchment paper.

And I think you're right.

Any combination of anything that you like that's going to sort of steam together.

Yeah, is going to be delicious.

It is.

And, I like this one because this reminds me of the, the Christmas Eve dish that we make, the baccala.

I'm using cod here.

I should talk about this.

I love cod because it's, it's sort of easy to handle.

It's nice and firm.

When it cooks, it gets nice and flaky.

The other thing about this dish is that you can use a wide variety of fish.

I make this all the tim with tilapia, which you know, is is really available and it's reasonable and so on.

You could make this with literally anything.

You could put trout, you could put halibut, you know.

Anyway, there would you do the, would you do the oily fish and salmon and things like this, or would you stick with more of the you can cook the oily fishes in this, but to me it works better with the white or flakier it kind of things.

Right.

So now I'm just going to put these, olives, slices and get them distributed.

I'm going to have a little piece of, you know, the tops of, celery, the, the part that with the Leafs has great flavor.

So I'm told, you know, tried eating it raw.

It doesn't have a scent.

Don't do as much for me as the bottom of the celery.

And now I know whenever we bake a turkey, we throw in the tops and celery.

Yeah, I'm going to put just a drizzle of olive oil, make a turkey roasted turkey and I'm going to put a little bit of salt and pepper.

Wow.

Those olives a pungent pungent.

And you know, I'm not a big olive lover.

It's really hard for me to stand here.

Well, then you then you're then you're not going to get this first one.

But the other two are, right.

Other.

Yeah.

I love the Asian flavored ones.

Okay.

So now again, I start with a triangle in the corner, and then I just keep folding and turning.

And it's remarkable tha the parchment paper never burns.

Catches on fire.

No, it doesn't.

Well, I'm, Again, what I do is, I preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

That's hot.

It is hot.

Because what I want to have happen is for this to, start steaming the liquids in these packages as soon as possible.

So if I have it in a slow oven, it's going to sort of, like, just sit there for too long.

So I want it to start, you know, really blowing these packages up.

Got it.

Like a microwavable popcorn container.

It's going to just blow up and expand with heat.

Yep.

And when you open it up, because these are also, you know, as delicate and white as the, as the meat is, it's also, you know, shouldn't cook too long.

It's going to cook very quickly once it comes up to temperature.

All right.

So we can clear these things out of the way.

I'm going to get that dish.

That was my fish dish.

Because I have I have some in the oven and we'll see if we can get these out.

It's going to be so cool.

And I love the way when you order it in a restaurant, it comes in the parchment.

They open it for you right there.

Yeah, well, how pretty.

We're going to do the same thing.

Ooh la l if you have one of those plates.

Got it.

So which one do you think you want to try?

I'd like to try the Asian.

Okay.

Anything but the olives.

All right.

Let's put this one right there.

Oh, such beautiful plate.

And we'll put that one there.

Put this to the side.

Oh they're hot hot hot.

Yeah.

Okay.

And, so now here, here's the fun thing.

This is your, you you can put your vegetables out and everything and everybody's at the table.

And then you pass the scissors and cut.

This back.

Look, there comes the steam.

I don't kno if you can see that on the air.

Oh it is.

Look at how flaky look you can see.

And that hoisin sauce smells delicious.

And that amazing boy right now let's see I don't know which one is the you know you'll find out when you find out when we cut th if this is your onion I mean the so this is downright easy I know.

Oh look at look how beautiful this is.

The one I want with the, You can have it, baby, with the olives.

And there's.

I do have to be careful when you're opening these up, because the steam will reach up and grab you.

So you you really have to be careful.

Now, I want you to taste one of these.

Nancy.

Oh, do I have to?

But I just also.

I just think they look so pretty.

They do look pretty.

Which is odd, because all we'v done is wrap them up in paper.

What's a pretty bad paper?

But it is.

Or maybe it's just because we're conditioned to know that it's elegant.

But yeah, I'm going to start with that one.

Okay.

You taste that one.

I'm going to taste this one.

Here is your fork sir.

Yes.

Thank y'all.

And you know when it's don because the fish flakes easily.

But again how long it'll take about ten minutes because you can't look inside.

No no but you'll see the pouches will actually puff up.

Yeah.

And if you want it to be completely safe, you could put a thermometer into it.

And as long as it read about 140 degrees, the fish is cooked and 40.

But you're saying about ten minu Yeah, about ten minutes.

Not only is the technique easy and very impressive, but it causes all the flavors to be deeply infused into the fish that you use.

Whatever fish that is.

That's it for today.

I'm all enthused.

It's time to run out and get some fish.

And as I always say, we do it for you, but we can't do it without you.

So keep watching and keep cooking.

It's ready.