Citrus Marinated Salmon with Orange, Caviar, and Pea Shoots

Not in love with salmon, but I still eat it because I know its good for me. But this... I could eat it any day, any meals (the oranges even make it breakfast appropriate!).  This was seriously the best salmon I have ever eaten.  It turns out citrus gets rid of all of the fishy part of salmon that I don't like.  Who knew.  On the other hand, given that it is poached in oil, its probably not all that good for me... (then again, compared to the stick of butter in other things, maybe I should take that back).

First up, the citrus powder.  I zested different citrus - lime, lemon, orange, grapefruit:

Then dehydrated it in my oven.  Luckily, this did not take 3 tries like the tomato powder!

This is the fun part.... "grinding" it in my vitamix.  Woooo!!  See the awesome hurricane that it makes?  I sat and stared at it for the 3 minutes the mixer was going, just watching the air patterns (and no, I wasn't on anything.... but I bet it would be even more fascinating if I was)

Ta-da!  Citrus powder:

Now for the actual salmon part!  First, more zest.  Lots more zest, of all kinds.

So that I could make the citrus dry rub - zest, more zest, more zest, salt, and pepper:

All mashed together

After patting that only the giant slab of salmon that I had trimmed, I made orange confit.  This was basically oranges, sugar, and water (apparently the secret way to make salmon delicious)!

I sectioned all of the oranges, which took a while.  By the way, helpful hint for anyone that makes this: just get an extra orange, and don't worry about what you are wasting when you cut away the pith and skin.  Makes things SO much faster!

Finally, the pea coulis, which consisted of blanched pea shoots, blended with some water until it was a coulis.

At this point, I poached the salmon in olive oil... a very large amount of olive oil.  The temperature is supposed to be exactly 118 degrees, which I struggled with, since my oil got too hot, then too cold... then too hot.  I'm sure its user error, but i'm blaming this on my inconsistent burners until proven otherwise!  Because of the temperature variation, the salmon pieces weren't as 'bendy' as they should have been, I think.  I (wisely) determined that serving squares was a much better idea than breaking them up by trying to make circles with caviar in the middle.  I think it worked out ok.

No pea shoot coulis in the picture - I served it in the gravy boat like the book says - but oh my goodness, together, it was perfection.  Without any doubt, this is my favorite non-dessert course i've made so far.  And with salmon!