Slow Oven-Cooked Salmon with Rosé Sauce

an original recipefrom the Herbfarm in Woodinville, Washington 

adapted by Kathy Lindenbaum 

serves 4

Rosé Sauce

2/3 cup chopped shallots 1 tablespoon butter

2 cups rose wine

1/2 cup mayonnaise or aioli lemon juice or fruit vinegar (optional)

1 pound salmon filet, cut into 4 pieces

olive oil

sea salt and pepper

3/4 cup chopped fresh herbs, such as sorrel, tarragon, dill or chives

Sauté shallots in a deep non-reactive pot. Add the rosé wine and cook over high heat until reduced to about 1/2 cup. Cool. Add mayonnaise. This will be the consistency of a pourable sauce. Add lemon juice or fruit vinegar if the sauce is not tart or loose enough, and salt and pepper to taste.

Wash and pat salmon dry. Remove any salmon bones with pliers. Pour a little olive oil in a dish big enough to hold the salmon in one layer. Place skin-side down in a casserole and pour more olive oil over the filets to about halfway up the sides. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper and leave "marinating" for 30 to 45 minutes. Heat oven to 225 degrees!

Remove to a shallow roasting pan (skin-side down again), leaving a small amount of the oil in the roasting pan; there is no need to drain the oil from the salmon itself. Sprinkle the fish with half of the herb mixture and roast in the oven. Check at 15 minutes, and if almost done (slightly pink still) take out and let sit 5 to 10 minutes.

Remove skin, and serve on a bed of greens, drizzled with the rosé sauce and sprinkle lightly with sea salt and the other half of herb mixture.

This recipe produces a very rich-tasting fish. But it is not successful with a less firm fish such as cod, which produced a mushy result.