Restaurant (Re)creation: Terzo's Roasted Salmon with Farro, White Corn + Cherry Tomatoes

I always love dining at Terzo, but on my most recent visit, I had one dish in particular that I could not stop thinking about.  It was a perfectly roasted salmon over a bed of sweet corn, tomatoes and farro.  It was mild, buttery, and disappeared within minutes.  I looked across the table at my friend, Courtney, and she said, "you must recreate this."  You ask and you shall receive!  Luckily, I was able to find a great recipe from Bon Appétit to use as a starting point.  Then I swapped out the couscous for farro, and added sautéed white corn.  Though this dish does have a few moving pieces going on at once, it's a relatively simple one-dish meal and is both healthy and totally delicious.  Plus, you'll have plenty of corn and tomato farro for leftovers the next day.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

For yogurt raita:

• 1/2 cup greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp. chopped dill
• 1 tbsp. chives
• 1/2 tbsp. lemon zest

For salmon:

• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 bunch dill fronds
• 1/4 bunch thyme sprigs
• 1 lb. wild king salmon
• Kosher salt
• 4 oz. cherry tomatoes

For farro:

• 8 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tbsp. za'atar
• 1 1/2 tbsp. butter
• 2 ears white corn, cut off cob
• 1 cup farro
• Kosher salt

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 325 F and begin mixing the yogurt raita ingredients in a small bowl.

-Next, pour 2 tbsp. olive oil in a small roasting pan and top with a bed of herbs.

-Place salmon on the herbs and drizzle with the remaining oil.

-Season with salt, top with tomatoes, and roast in the oven for 25 minutes.

-Meanwhile, sauté the corn in 1/2 tbsp. butter and remove from heat.

-Mix the tomatoes, parsley, za'atar, corn, 1 tbsp. oil and salt in a medium sized bowl.

-Bring a pot of salted water to boil, add farro, and cook for 20 minutes.

-Drain farro, transfer to a large bowl, and stir in the remaining oil and butter.  

-Add the tomato and corn mixture to the farro and season with salt.

-Check the salmon and broil for 1-2 additional minutes, or until tender. 

-Cut the salmon and serve on mounds of farro topped with a generous dollop of raita.

Terzo

3011 Steiner Street

San Francisco, CA

(415) 441-3200

www.terzosf.com

Recipe (Re)creation: Roasted Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce

~ From top: roasted eggplant,
close-up of (re)creation, finished and plated (re)creation ~

This is another recipe (re)creation from the Plenty cookbook, which has become a staple in my kitchen.  I highly recommend the cookbook- so many great recipes to choose from!  This recipe is incredibly easy and looks absolutely beautiful (almost too beautiful to eat).  Its a great starter that you can make for yourself any weeknight.  Its also sure to impress if you make it for a dinner party.  The elegant combination of the tender eggplant, creamy sauce, and garnish of pomegranate seeds is pretty ingenious.   Thank you chef Ottolenghi for creating this one!

Serves 4-5 as a starter

Ingredients:

2 large eggplants

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tsp thyme leaves, plus a few whole sprigs to garnish

Maldon sea salt & black pepper

1 pomegranate

1 tsp za'atar (or dried oregano)

8 tbsp buttermilk

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 small garlic clove, crushed

pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut each eggplant in half lengthwise and make 4 cuts in the flesh of the eggplant in the shape of a diamond.  

Place the eggplant slices, cut-side up, on a baking sheet.  Brush them with olive oil and keep on brushing more oil on until the eggplant absorbs most of the oil.

Sprinkle the eggplant with thyme leaves and salt and pepper and roast for 35-40 minutes (or until flesh is soft and nicely browned).

Meanwhile cut the pomegranate and break it apart, releasing the seeds into a bowl.  Remove any bits of white skin from the pomegranate seeds.  

To make the sauce: whisk together all of the ingredients and keep cold until needed.

Serve each eggplant slice with a generous drizzle of buttermilk sauce, and garnish with za'atar, thyme and pomegranate seeds.  Finish with a drizzle of olive oil.

Enjoy!