Salade de Saumon

Salade de Saumon (cold salmon salad) teaches the discipline of dressing a rich ingredient lightly. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is this: the salmon must meet the vinaigrette (oil-and-vinegar dressing) fully cold and dry. Warm fish drinks oil unevenly; wet fish loosens the dressing and wilts the lettuce.

The original entry assumed a cold larder with cooked salmon, washed lettuce, boiled eggs, and its little decorating garnishes already waiting. At home, one center-cut fillet poached in a wide saucepan replaces the fish kettle, and four plates replace the brigade platter. Precise symmetry is service scaffolding and can go. What stays is the dish itself: salmon in generous flakes, lettuce seasoned like an ordinary salad, no mayonnaise, and the garnish laid directly on the fish.

One cook, one stove, one evening. Keep the poach below a boil, chill the fish before flaking, and reserve enough vinaigrette to season the lettuce and salmon separately. Cooling and drying the fish is the step that matters most; once that is right, composing the platter is pleasure.