Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon with Fettuccine in Scotch Cream Sauce
Kelly Rodriguez of the blog “A Lovely Life Indeed” and I were up in the air, holding on to suspended rings, smiling and flipping full circle, round and around on bright primary colored equipment that appeared as giant human sized K’NEX.
At the finish we would land on a huge red colored trampoline that slid along into a water path, though no one got wet. It became very dark and we were standing along the river with a few other bloggers with smiling faces who all looked familiar, but whose names I could not place, when at once a very large troupe of stern and serious dancers appeared and broke into something resembling a Cossack dance.
Shortly, we all got separated and somehow I landed into a dangerous area, maneuvering along alleyways of cobblestones in the dark, keeping to the crevices to avoid the men with twisted angry faces wearing hats and smoking long curled pipes. All of the sudden Kelly appeared with the other bloggers and quietly I said “How did you possibly find me?”
The giant salmon jumping in and out of the water reminded me I needed to prepare the vacuum packed, Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon in the box that my neighbors from across the street had brought me from their vacation on an Alaskan cruise.
Later we were climbing in and out of windows and doors, avoiding more danger when Kelly whispered, good we’re all ‘bad asses’ a term she occasionally uses in her blog. I’m pretty sure something good happened in the end, but despite the recent virus I’ve just recovered from, and not experienced anything like since childhood, there was some sort of semi-consciousness providing memory to some of it. I could barely lift my head. But when I did, poof, like magic, the dream disappeared.
The recipe might be adapted from Bon Appetit or Gourmet Magazine from over thirty years ago, perhaps even a restaurant I worked in, or a dish we prepared for a special, just like the end of the dream in the midst of a virus, I do not remember. Only that today, resuming as much ‘bad ass’ as I can conjure up, we prepare Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon with Fettuccine in Scotch Cream Sauce, which I do know with certainty, uses up the box of Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon that my neighbors from across the street brought me from their vacation on an Alaskan cruise.
Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon with Fettuccine in Scotch Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 15-16 ounces fresh fettuccine
- 12 tablespoons butter, 4 of the tablespoons cut into small bits
- 2 1/2 cups half and half
- 3-4 tablespoons Scotch
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 4 Scallions, chopped very, very finely
- 1 cup petite green peas
- 3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
- 6 ounces Smoked Wild Alaskan Salmon, broken into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped mint, plus 1 small leaf per plate for garnish
- few fresh thin chives for garnish
- coarse kosher salt
Instructions
- Cook fresh fettuccine in salted boiling water, drain pasta, transfer to a long dish, toss with 1 tablespoon butter and a pinch of kosher salt, cover to keep warm, set aside
- Scald the half and half in a pan, reduce heat to the lowest temperature
- Melt 6 tablespoons butter in a large warmed saute pan, stir in half of the finely chopped scallions, cook for 2 minutes on very low heat
- Pour the scotch into the pan, increase heat to medium and cook for three minutes until scotch is reduced
- Sprinkle over the flour, cook for three minutes, whisking constantly
- Slowly pour in the hot half and half
- Increase temperature to medium and cook sauce until bubbling hot and thickened, whisking regularly
- Remove sauce from heat and a little at a time whisk in the 4 tablespoons of butter bits
- Return pan to very, very, low heat
- Stir pasta through the Scotch cream sauce to coat well
- Tumble in the peas and the remaining chopped scallions
- Sprinkle in the parsley and mint, fold through
- Season with a couple pinches salt, stir, check seasoning, adjust to taste
- Gently fold through the smoked salmon
- Assemble plates dividing evenly, finish with mint leaves and snipped chives
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