RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Chef James Laird of Restaurant Serenade in New Jersey prepared a fillet of salmon at the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival July 7 as a video screen showed off his technique.

Gentle cooking

A chef goes as far as "cooking" in the
fridge to ensure good flavor

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By Betty Shimabukuro
bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

KAPALUA, MAUI >> James Laird has a nonaggression pact with food. Treat your ingredients gently, and they will reward you with natural sweetness and full flavor, goes the pact.

This does not rule out knives, flame or eventual eating of the food, but it does encourage long, slow cooking at low heat.

"We cook everything gentle," Laird says. "It takes more time, but it's worth it. There's no al dente here."

Laird is the chef/owner of Restaurant Serenade, a nationally acclaimed contemporary French restaurant in Chatham, N.J. At 31, Laird has collected a number of enviable titles, including the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star award of 1999 and the Robert Mondavi Winery Culinary Award of Excellence in 2000.

He demonstrated his gentle-cooking style at the recent Kapalua Wine & Food Festival on Maui.

"People think French food is lots of heavy cream, lots of butter, expensive ingredients," Laird says. "You can find French chefs who cook that way, but it doesn't have to be."

He works instead to draw out sweetness and preserve moisture, leading to succulence without a heavy reliance on cream and butter.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM With "cold poaching," salmon slices were covered in hot broth, then refrigerated. They cooked as the broth cooled. The dish was served with Cain Musqué Savignon Blanc from Napa Valley.

For example, Laird's Cold-Poached King Salmon, a dish cooked "off the heat" -- in the refrigerator, actually -- after simmering bouillon is poured over the fish. Or cubes of pork oven-braised in a sea of liquid, bolstered with prunes, onions and two bottles of Riesling.

Root vegetables were slow-roasted at 275 degrees, green vegetables simmered in lots of water -- always uncovered to allow the escape of chlorophyll gases that cause bitterness.

Temperatures do rise above 300 degrees at Serenade. Meat will be seared at times to caramelize the surface, and boiling does have its place. Overall, though, Laird says, he relies on his gentle approach.

His cold-poached salmon is built on the classic technique of poaching in simmering water on the stovetop, except that the salmon never experiences direct heat.

It's an ideal make-ahead dish for busy weekdays: Make a simple broth, then pour it over the fish and refrigerate. The salmon will cook through in the 45 minutes or so it takes the broth to cool, but you could let the flavors infuse longer and serve it the next day.

Cold-poaching is ideal for an oily fish such as salmon, Laird says, and would also work well with thick cuts of opah, halibut, sea bass, swordfish, even shrimp or lobster. "The fat stays inside," he says. "It's never going to overcook. It's going to absorb all these flavors from the bouillon."

The salmon's internal temperature should rise to just above body temperature, he says, the flesh remaining soft, moist and deep pink. That white curd-looking substance that seeps from salmon when it's grilled or otherwise exposed to high heat is protein escaping, he says, and is a clear sign that your salmon is overcooked.

"When you make things tough, it's like elastic bands, and that's what happens when you throw salmon into a hot pan."

Cold-Poached King Salmon

20 ounces king salmon fillet
>> Court Bouillon
3 quarts water
2 carrots, peeled
2 medium onions, peeled and diced
10 parsley stems
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon crushed peppercorns
1 cup dry white wine
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf

To make bouillon: Bring water to a simmer, then add carrots and onions. Cook 10 minutes. Add parsley stems, salt and pepper; simmer 45 minutes. Add wine, thyme and bay leaf; simmer 10 more minutes. Strain.

Slice fish into 1-inch-wide pieces and lay flat in a nonreactive container. Pour hot bouillon over fish. Cover and refrigerate until cool. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 270 calories, 16 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 80 mg cholesterol, greater than 850 mg sodium, no carbohydrate, 28 g protein.*

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