To read this newsletter as an HTML page, go to http://www.samcooks.com/newsletter.htm IN THIS ISSUE: SALMON - It’s everywhere, but is it always good? ROSÉ WINES - Refreshing but not sweet GRILLED PIZZA - An easy and fun idea for summer COOKING TO BEAT THE CLOCK - The appeal of veal SAM IN PRINT Dear readers, You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t sent out a newsletter since April. The reason is that I’ve been working on the sequel to last year’s Food Encyclopedia issue of Wine Spectator, which will appear in the September issue. Happy Independence Day. Sam SALMON First the good news: Salmon is everywhere. Now the bad news: Salmon is everywhere. Thanks to aqua farming, salmon is the new chicken. Unfortunately, most of it also tastes like so much industrial chicken - insipid and soulless. Fortunately, the heart of the wild salmon season is upon us. “There’s nothing wrong with farmed salmon. It’s just that wild salmon is a superior product with more intense flavors and distinctive characteristics,” says Roger Berkowitz, owner of Legal Sea Foods, a Boston-based chain of restaurants and retail stores. “Farmed salmon are born in a laboratory, put into pens and given feed that has no resemblance to what their cousins in the sea get,” says Marshall Shnider, owner of Farm2Market, an online food retailer in Roscoe, NY. “Wild salmon is born way upstream in water uncontaminated by anything. Then it goes on a thousand mile migration for three to four years. Imagine the diversity of what they eat - fish, algae, bugs, worms. Then, when it’s ready to reproduce, it goes right back to where it was born. What an interesting and poetic life! It tastes waaay better too.” There are two kinds of salmon, Pacific and Atlantic. All commercially sold wild salmon is Pacific, because it comes from ocean waters from Alaska to California. King or Chinook salmon is the best known of five species of Pacific salmon. It has the richest flavor because it has the highest oil content. The color is a deep orange, though there are albino kings, which have become more available in recent years, mostly as novelties. Kings, such as the prized Copper River and Yukon River salmon, are typically named for rivers to which they return. Differences among king salmon can be quite dramatic. For example, I had an absolutely delicious, meaty salmon from Cooks Inlet in Alaska (purchased from Farm2Market) that just blew away a Yakutat Alaskan salmon (from ChefShop.com) that was so tame, it looked and tasted as if farm-raised. Sockeye salmon, also known as red salmon because of its color, has the second highest oil content of all wild salmon and the heartiest flavor. Sockeyes, which peak in supply in July, are a particular favorite for smoking, which doesn’t overpower their robust quality. Coho or silver salmon have about sixty percent of the fat content of king salmon and are thus not as flavorful. Chum salmon look similar to silver salmon but they have less fat. Still they can make good eating, and are often featured as supermarket specials in summer. Ditto for pink salmon, the most abundant salmon, though most pinks are canned. Better technology and transportation have significantly stretched the fresh salmon season and have made “FAS” salmon (frozen at sea) as good as or better than fresh. “At some tastings, people have preferred FAS to fresh. It’s the difference between a fish caught and put in a freezer in less than five hours and one that is five days old,” says Peter Hoffman, owner of Savoy restaurant in New York. Farmed salmon is primarily the Atlantic species, wild Atlantic salmon having been fished out decades ago. These fish are raised in floating pens off the shores of North and South America and Northern Europe. Because they are raised under tightly controlled conditions, farmed salmon are milder than wild salmon, though with a steady food supply, their fat content is slightly higher. Despite their implied uniformity, not all farmed salmon taste alike. I tried six farm-raised salmon in a tasting at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Philadelphia, arranged by Joe Lasporgata, director of purchasing at Samuels & Son Seafood in Philadelphia and conducted by hotel executive chef Vincent Alberici. My favorite was an organic salmon from Clare Island salmon off the west coast of Ireland, followed by an organic Black Pearl brand salmon from the Shetland Islands off Scotland. Both fish had a luxurious richness that the others lacked. In fact, though I tasted them on separate occasions, I’d say that these two were equal to or maybe an anchovy length better than that Yakutat wild Alaskan salmon. Norway farmed salmon was my third choice. It had good character though it wasn’t as lush as the top two. Canadian salmon from New Brunswick was just a shade behind the Norwegian. Though it had good orange color (farmed salmon, except if organic, are given coloring agents) and a decent fat content, farmed Scottish salmon had a chalky texture. Dead last, the Chilean salmon tasted as pale and wan as it looked. Chilean salmon is typically $1 or $2 a pound less than other farmed salmon, which were selling at my local fish monger for $9 a pound (less in supermarkets, about $2 a pound less than wild salmon.) Organic salmon exceeds the cost of wild salmon. Organic and wild salmon have an appeal beyond taste. Consumers have been told to eat salmon for its heart-healthy Omega 3 fatty acids. However, a study published in the January 2004 issue of Science magazine found that traditional farmed salmon have much higher levels of certain contaminants (notably PCBs and dioxin) than wild salmon, primarily from the fish oils and fish meal traditional farmed salmon eat. The study was controversial because the level of contaminants in farmed fish is below Food and Drug Administration allowances but above what the Environmental Protection Agency recommends. While many in the seafood industry strongly disagree, the study recommends no more than one to two meals of traditional farmed salmon per month. Most salmon is consumed in the form of steaks or fillets. Fillets should have taut flesh that has no gaps in the muscles and no particles of flesh detectable when you rub your hand across them. Thin white pin bones should be removed with needle nose pliers. If steaks show blood around the bones, that’s a sign the fish is fresh. Fresh salmon should always have a clean ocean smell. Aiden Coburn, who buys fish for The Fish Market restaurants in California, suggests rewrapping salmon in aluminum foil for storage. “The foil is a good conductor of cold and it protects the fish from other odors in the refrigerator,” Coburn says. The great thing about preparing salmon is that it is essentially a blank canvas, adaptable to almost any cooking method or seasoning. Marinate it in soy sauce and sesame oil and steam it Asian style with lemon grass. Bake it and serve it Mediterranean style with tapenade. Or make Scandinavian gravlax, cured with dill, salt, and sugar in the refrigerator for 48 hours. For a great summer lunch dish, do what Alison Barshak does at her restaurant, Alison at Blue Bell in Blue Bell, PA: add a piece of grilled salmon (with tarragon mayo) to a BLT. Summer is also a great time to grill salmon, especially steaks, which hold up beautifully. Use medium heat, and brush the salmon liberally with oil. Poaching salmon in olive oil has become a popular method with many chefs. Alberici puts bay leaf, garlic, shallots and lemon zest in enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the fish and cooks it at about 220 degrees on top of the stove for about 12 minutes. At Annissa in New York, chef Anita Lo poaches her salmon in a beurre fondue of reduced lobster stock into which an ungodly amount of butter is whisked. Hands down, though, the best way to cook salmon is to oven roast it, as in this adaptation from Mark Bittman’s recipe in Fish (Macmillan). Melt a half stick of butter in an ovenproof skillet. When the sizzling subsides, add a one pound piece of seasoned salmon, flesh side down. Put the pan in a preheated 475° F oven for four minutes. Turn the fish over and cook four minutes more. Since Pinot Noir is the wine choice of many salmon aficionados, I tried five. Oregon just edged out Sonoma. Both had good fruit and depth but the Oregon Pinot had better acidity, enabling it to cut through the fish’s fattiness better. A bottling from New Zealand’s Marlborough region came in third. It had good balance but just not enough oomph to keep up with wild salmon. Wine Spectator columnist Matt Kramer argues that Oregon Pinot Gris is an even better choice. Pinot Gris, yes, but from Alsace, not Oregon. The Alsatian Pinot Gris had much more richness and firmer acidity, both of which helped it to stand up nicely to the fish. Now that’s good news and good news. How to Get It Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, www.alaskaseafood.org (Go to the “Locate Seafood Suppliers”) Farm2Market, Roscoe, NY, 800-663-4326 farm-2-market.com Pacific Gourmet, 800-996-9980, northwest-seafood.com This article first appeared in the May 15, 2004 issue of Wine Spectator magazine. EVERYTHING’S COMING UP ROSÉS For a lot of wine drinkers, rosé wine is like kissing your sister. It’s better than nothing but not your first choice of a drink with dinner or at a cocktail party. Jeff Morgan wants to change all that. “I think rosé can be the next Pinot Grigio. It drinks like a white. Acts like a red. And it can stand up to a lot of food pairings,” says Morgan, author of Rosé, A Guide to the World’s Most Versatile Wine (Chronicle Books). While rosé can be enjoyed year round, its crisp, light, and refreshing qualities make it an ideal wine for summer. Morgan’s interest in rosé isn’t merely academic. Since 2000, he and partner Daniel Moore have made SoloRosa (Italian for “only pink”), a blend of Sangiovese from Atlas Peak in California’s Napa Valley and Merlot from Lodi. Not everyone shared Morgan’s passion for rosé, at least initially. “The wine geeks loved it, but they said I couldn’t sell a dry rosé for $15. It was either white Zinfandel at $5 or forget about it,” Morgan says. Tony Soter stopped making rosé under his Etude label about 10 years ago even though he loved making and drinking it because “there was no money in it.” But in 2005, Soter made a trial production of 600 cases of rosé from Pinot Noir grown in California’s Carneros region. And despite a retail price of $20, he sold the entire amount to distributors. SoloRosa went from 22 cases in 2000 to 2400 cases for the 2004 vintage. Morgan’s and Soter’s success seems to indicate that America is overcoming its bias against rosé as an unsophisticated or sissified wine. “I’ve had many people say ‘Gee, this is not sweet,’” Morgan says. “There is a misconception that pink wines are sweet from white Zin to Lancer’s and Mateus before that.” Though it is technically possible to make a rosé by mixing red and white wines, the classic way of making rosé is the saignée method in which the skins and juice of crushed red grapes are kept in contact for several hours or longer. This gives the wine a pink hue as opposed to the red color achieved for red wine when skins and juice are left in contact for an extended period. Once the skins have been removed, the rosé juice is essentially fermented like a white wine. Sparkling rosé is produced like any other sparkling wine except that the juice used is pink. Ironically, rosé sparkling wine, particularly rosé Champagne, is typically more expensive than white sparkling wine because it is made in smaller amounts. Rosé Champagne can also be aged, unlike still rosé, which should be consumed within a year or two. No other part of the world appreciates rosé more than Southern France. In the Cotes de Provence region, for example, approximately 85 percent of the wine made is rosé. Appellations such as Bandol and Tavel within this region are known almost exclusively for their pink wines. Provencal rosés are typically more acidic, less alcoholic and lighter in color than those from California, though there are notable exceptions such as Tavel rosés, which are darker and heavier in body. Rosés from Pinot Noir are also produced in the Loire Valley and Burgundy. Some outstanding French rosé producers include: Canto Perdrix, La Mordorée, Chateau d’Acqueria, Domaines Ott, Domaine Tempier, Jean-Luc Colombo, Chateau Routas, Guigal, Chateau de Manissy, Domaine Bruno Clair, and Domaine de Fontsainte. Southern French rosés are usually blends of Rhone varietals, predominately Grenache but also Mourvedre, Cinsault, Syrah and a few lesser known grapes such as Carignan and Clairette. The increased popularity of Rhone varietals in California has brought about a corresponding interest in rosés from them. “You are starting to see grapes dedicated to rosé among Rhone producers,” says Jason Haas, winemaker at Tablas Creek, a winery co-founded by the Perrin family, which owns Chateau de Beaucastel, the celebrated property in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Tablas Creek’s rich, dark, and meaty rosé is 64 percent Mourvedre and 28 percent Grenache. “Rhone varietals have a lot fruit and acid and not a lot of tannin, which is a great combination for rosé,” Haas says. Soter disagrees. “I think of Rhone varietals as coarser and flabbier,” he says. “I think of ours as a brut Champagne without the bubbles. (Soter also makes a Pinot Noir Brut Rosé sparkling wine at Soter Vineyards in Oregon.) Morgan says that the varietals used in rosé make less of a difference than the terroir of the region and the skill of the winemaker. “The differences among varietals is muted by the lack of skin contact,” he says. Morgan adds that California has less vintage variation than France. The 2003 vintage in France was particularly difficult for rosé because record-breaking summer heat created heavier wines with less of the usual acidity. In addition to SoloRosa, Etude, and Tablas Creek, other top California rosé producers include Beckmen, Bonny Doon, Chimney Rock, Kuleto, McDowell, Preston, Robert Sinskey, Rutherford Hill, Saintsbury, Sanford, and Valley of the Moon. Though their climates are warmer than in France, Italy and Spain don’t produce nearly as many rosés. Navarra is Spain’s best known rosé (rosado in Spanish) region, where Garnacha (Grenache) is the primary varietal. Rioja produces rosé from Tempranillo. Spanish rosé producers to look for include Ochoa, Vega Sindoa, René Barbier, Condesa de Leganza, and Faustino V. Italian rosés or rosatos tend to be fuller on the palate than those of Southern France, according to Morgan. Scalabrone from Tuscany, made by the Antinori family, is one of the best known. Valentini Cerasuolo Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is the most expensive.  The pairing of rosé with food will depend on the style of rosé. For example, the light and elegant Etude rosé would make an excellent aperitif or accompaniment to seafood, especially shellfish. (Soter favors cracked crab.) Heavier rosés such as Tablas Creek have enough stuffing for grilled meats. Try the ones in between with salads, sandwiches, and pizza. My favorite dish with rosé is a spicy fish stew or fish soup. Well-seasoned Asian dishes are another good bet. In fact, rosé goes with just about anything you can think of, including kissing your sister. This article first appeared in the May/June, 2005 issue of Specialty Food magazine. PIZZA ON THE GRILL  Like to make pizza but don’t want to turn your kitchen into a sauna this summer? Well, you can have your pizza and keep your cool by grilling your pie outdoors. Grilled pizza is easy. It’s a perfect vehicle for that bounty of local seasonal produce. And it’s a fun way to entertain. As with so many good things in life (Roquefort cheese, Madeira, Buffalo chicken wings), grilled pizza came about by accident. In 1982 George Germon was buying fish to grill at Al Forno, his restaurant in Providence, RI. The fishmonger mentioned that he had just come back from Italy, where he had eaten grilled pizza. Though Germon later realized that the fishmonger meant pizza cooked in a wood-burning oven, not a grill, the idea of grilled pizza got his creative juices flowing, especially since he had a grill but no wood burning oven. Germon’s wife and partner Johanne Killeen thought it was a dumb idea: “It’ll sag through the grate,” she warned.  George persisted and put it on the menu that night. Today, Al Forno makes 100 to 150 grilled pizzas daily. “With grilled pizza, you get the nuances of the fire. It’s exposed directly to the smoke [unlike wood oven pizza],“ Germon says. ”It’s the difference between grilled and baked food.” Because grilled pizza is always paper thin, you get the kind of crackling crisp crust you rarely find in oven-baked pizza. Toppings are lighter and fresher, so the pizza is less filling than so many doughy, oversauced baked pizzas. Though Germon is credited with the modern grilled pizza, grilled breads go way back, according to Peter Reinhart, author of American Pie, My Search for the Perfect Pizza (Ten Speed Press). “…people have been grilling bread over coals and melting cheese and other goodies on it for centuries. In other words, grilled pizza may be as old as pizza itself,” Reinhart writes. Any pizza dough recipe will work for grilled pizza, but one with all-purpose flour will make a lighter, less bready pizza than one made with bread dough. Seven ounces of dough makes a pizza that can serve as an appetizer for two to four or an entree for one. A charcoal grill fired by lump hardwood charcoal (not briquettes) is preferred over gas because it burns hotter and provides more flavor possibilities. However, you still need to create a cooler zone on the grill for better control over cooking. One way is to make a wall with a few bricks on the bottom of the grill. Put charcoal on one side of the wall for the hot zone. The cooler zone on the other side will have no charcoal. At Al Forno they create a sloping effect, with charcoal piled high at one end with less charcoal in the middle and no charcoal at the other end. This gives you the maximum variation in temperature to cook the pizza by moving it around as needed. It will still not be as evenly cooked as baked pizza. But that’s part of the charm of grilled pizza. Reinhart uses the entire charcoal grill as his hot zone and a gas grill as his cooler zone. This is handy if you are doing multiple pizzas for entertaining. Turning out a grilled pizza is much like cooking a Chinese stir fry. The cooking goes very quickly, so you have to have all your ingredients and tools at the ready--what the French call mise en place. Set up a work table next to the grill with enough space for the toppings, to roll out the dough, and for the tools you’ll need: a cutting board, rolling pin, tongs, large spatula, pizza peel, oven mitts, a dish of olive oil and a pastry brush.  When the coals are bright red with a light ash on the surface, roll out the pizza. At Al Forno, the dough, which has rested for a few hours in a pool of olive oil, is not rolled but formed by hand into an oval/rectangle about 11 x 9 inches. Mine, using Reinhart’s 7-ounce dough recipe, were about 11 x 14 inches. I’ve found that forming by hand - pushing and pressing with fingertips and knuckles - on a sheet pan is easier than rolling. The pizza should be somewhere between an eighth and a sixteenth of an inch thick. Don’t worry if your pizza looks like it was formed by your 10-year old. Again, it’s part of the charm. Though Germon insists on forming the pizza immediately before grilling, you can get a leg up by forming the pizza 30 minutes ahead and letting it rest (covered) on a sheet pan in the refrigerator. Once it’s formed, lay the pizza on the hot zone of the grill. It will take about 3 minutes to cook on this side. You’ll probably notice some areas cooking faster than others. Move the pizza around, putting some parts over the cooler zone to get as even cooking as possible. Use tongs, oven mitts and the pizza peel to help you do this, if necessary. After the bottom is done - it should be nicely charred and blistered but not burned - flip the pizza over onto the cooler zone of the grill.  Brush the cooked side with olive oil. Then add the toppings, beginning with the melting cheese. (See toppings below.) Don’t try to cover the entire surface. Look for, as Reinhart puts it, “bursts of flavor” from your toppings. Once the toppings are on, you can cover the grill and let the ambient heat cook the pizza the rest of the way in the cooler zone. Or you can put the pizza over the hot zone of the grill, again moving it around to cook evenly. This will cook the bottom faster but requires more attention. The entire process should take about 7 minutes. When it comes to toppings, less is more. One reason is that the thin crust gets soggy quickly. Besides, summer weather is more appropriate for lighter, fresher fare, beginning with ripe, local tomatoes chopped and mixed with basil, salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Make sure the tomatoes (and any other toppings) are well drained before adding them to the pizza. Because vegetables on grilled pizza don’t get cooked as they would in an oven, use ones that are fine in the raw state, such as tomatoes, arugula, and sweet onions. Or cook other vegetables ahead such as roasted bell peppers, sautéed or grilled mushrooms, roasted eggplant, and grilled asparagus. Fresh herbs such as basil, thyme, rosemary and oregano can be mixed in with vegetables or sprinkled on separately. For cheese, Reinhart suggests combining a good melting cheese such as mozzarella, Monterey Jack, Cheddar or Gouda (I like Fontina) with a grating cheese like Parmigiano, Asiago or pecorino Romano. Al Forno uses Parmigiano and Bel Paese. These cheeses go on as soon as the pizza is flipped over because they need to melt from the heat of the cooked side. Softer cheeses such as goat cheese and blue cheeses go on last. Other toppings to consider are thinly sliced prosciutto or high quality Italian salami, strips of smoked chicken or turkey, olives, capers, and pine nuts. At Al Forno, the final topping is a drizzle of olive oil spiked with garlic, hot pepper flakes and paprika. The finished pizza is garnished with chopped scallions, though you could also use chopped fresh herbs. Wines with grilled pizza should reflect not only the lightness of the pie but the summer weather. Sauvignon Blanc is a good choice, especially if the pizza is heavy on the veggies. Sparkling wine helps to cut through saltier cheeses and prosciutto. Lighter, slightly chilled reds such as Dolcetto and Beaujolais are good too. But my favorite is a Rhône-style rose, one that has some stuffing and isn’t too sweet. You know, the kind you’d drink in the sauna. This article first appeared in the August 31, 2004 issue of Wine Spectator magazine. COOKING TO BEAT THE CLOCK: THE APPEAL OF VEAL When it comes to quick dishes, there are few as expeditious as veal scallopini. Veal comes from three-to-five month old calves raised one of two ways. Formula (or milk) fed veal comes from calves fed a specific formula and raised indoors in individual small pens. This environment has raised the hackles of some folks, but veal producers insist their procedures are humane and prevent calves from infecting one another. Formula fed veal is pale and very tender, but it doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Grass-fed or free-range calves are allowed to roam a bit and feed on grass and grains once they have been weaned off mother’s milk. As a result, the meat is much redder (looking almost like beef) and a bit chewier. However, it has more flavor, particularly the scallopini. Most scallopini is cut from the leg but some producers cut it from the loin, which is more flavorful, though more expensive. Whether from the leg or loin, scallopini  isn’t cheap. But you only need about four ounces for a serving because there is no waste. And scallopini is low in fat, less than four grams of fat per serving. For quick cooking, it is important that the meat be pounded thin. It should also be dusted with flour just before being put into the pan, or it will turn gummy. Make sure the oil (or a combination of oil and butter) in the pan is hot. This enables the meat to get some color even though it cooks only a minute or so on each side. Be careful not to overcook. Scallopini lends itself to many flavors. For example, instead of deglazing the pan with white wine, you could use dry vermouth, brandy, Madeira, Marsala or broth. Mushrooms, chopped tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, and herbs such as rosemary, thyme, tarragon, or sage can be added as well. And if you have a problem with veal, for ethical or financial reasons, chicken or turkey cutlets will work just fine. The green bean and cherry tomato salad below is adapted from a recipe in my friend Janet Fletcher’s book, Fresh from the Farmers’ Market. Veal Piccata with Green Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad Salt 1 pound green beans 8 to 10 ounces small cherry tomatoes 1 shallot 1 tablespoon cider or white wine vinegar Freshly ground black pepper 6 tablespoons olive oil 2 ounces ricotta salata or good quality feta cheese 1 pound veal scallopini, about 8 pieces 1/3 cup flour 1 lemon 1 tablespoon small capers 1/2 cup dry white wine 1/2 cup fat-free, reduced sodium chicken stock 1)Run the hot water tap and add 2 quarts hot tap water to a  wide saucepan. Add 1 teaspoon salt, cover and put over high heat. Meanwhile, trim the green beans. Halve the cherry tomatoes. Peel and mince the shallot. 2)When the water has come to a boil, add the green beans and cook for 5 minutes or until barely tender. Drain in a colander, rinse briefly under cool water and let drain. 3)Meanwhile, add the minced shallot to a small mixing bowl. Add the vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and whisk in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Pat any excess moisture from the green beans with a kitchen towel and combine the beans and tomatoes in a shallow bowl. Add the dressing and toss. Shave the ricotta salata into the bowl, using the large holes of a 4-sided grater or vegetable peeler. Toss again and set aside. 4)Put the remaining oil in a 12-inch skillet over high heat. Season half the veal with salt and pepper. Put the flour on waxed paper. Dredge the seasoned veal in the flour and shake off any excess. When the oil in the skillet is hot, add the floured veal. Cook 1 minute on each side while you season and flour the remaining veal. Remove the cooked veal to a platter and repeat with the remaining veal. 5)While the veal cooks, juice the lemon and briefly rinse the capers. When all the veal is cooked, pour off all but a thin haze of oil from the skillet. Add half the lemon juice, the capers, wine, and chicken stock to the skillet. As it comes to a boil, scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen any flavorful bits. Cook just until the sauce begins to thicken, about 2 minutes. Taste and add remaining lemon if you want a more lemony sauce. Pour the sauce over the veal and serve with the bean and tomato salad. Serves 4 Per serving: 452 calories, 30 grams protein, 21 grams  carbohydrate, 26 grams fat, 5 grams saturated fat, 101 mg  cholesterol, 664 mg sodium. SAM IN PRINT My Tastes column in the July 31 issue of Wine Spectator is about  pork ribs. The August 31 issue is on artisan vinegars. My wine column in the July/August issue of Specialty Food Magazine is on wines with Mexican food. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. Cooking to Beat the Clock is a registered trademark and may not be used without permission by Sam Gugino.