Growing up, we ate salmon patties from a can. There was absolutely NOTHING wrong with that, and I really enjoyed it. TBH, I would probably still enjoy a good ole’ salmon patty for dinner. It wasn’t until I met my husband that I realized this wasn’t a normal occurrence. Salmon comes in big fillets, dying to be cooked with some butter. It helps that we’re on the west coast, and can get some really amazing King Salmon. For this meal, we went to Trader Joes, which I noticed a couple weeks ago had really great salmon fillets. Since we can walk to Trader Joes, we ran down there and got them really quickly after work to make sure we had nice fresh ones! This salmon is served with a really crisp apple and celery root slaw on top. I learned that celery root is not as watery as the stems itself, but still packs all the flavor with more of a concentrated flavor. The apples really balance that out with their sweetness and crispness.

Apple and Celery Root Slaw

• 2 lemons (and hold on to your hats, they require some prep)
• 1/2 c mayo
• 1/4 c skim milk
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds (next time I’ll use less, it was just a little too much!)
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 celery root, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
• 2 Fuji apples, thinly sliced
• 1/2 c chopped parsley
• Salt

I mentioned that those lemons required some work, and I wasn’t lying! Cut off both ends of the lemon so that it stands upright on your cutting board. Take a paring knife and cut off the yellow outside and white insides of the lemon, essentially leaving the wedges of lemon. Then take the paring knife and cut out each individual wedge from its white fibrous pieces, removing seeds as you go. Place those wedges in a small bowl, and squeeze any extra liquid out of the lemon remnants.

In a big bowl whisk together the mayo, milk, poppy seeds, and red pepper flakes. Add in the celery root, apple slices, lemon sections, and parsley. Salt to taste, then cover and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat.

We used our food processor to grind the celery root and slice the apples. This was mostly because the Mandolin was at the new house and I didn’t have it. So the celery root was smaller than it should have been, and the apple slices a bit bigger. It worked.

Salmon

• Salmon fillets (we used 2, but adjust to your needs)
• 1 tbsp salted butter
• Ground white pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 500 F. Place the salmon fillets in a cast iron (or oven proof) skillet, skin side down. Divide the butter between the fillets, placing on top (if you use more fillets, use more butter) and then sprinkle the white pepper over. Cook for 8 minutes (medium rare) or up to well done (13 minutes). Serve with the slaw on top and enjoy!

Muscadet

My first thought with this wine was “oh, it’s going to be sweet because it sounds like Moscato.” I was wrong. It was a little sweet, but nothing to overwhelming. It smelled like crisp green apples, which was perfect for the slaw. It was pretty mineraly, it definitely tasted a little like what I would imagine limestone would taste like. It had some sea water tastes to it as well. It reminded me a lot of an Albarino, which is why I liked it! However, I found this wine to be a little bit blah and it didn’t stand out to me the way an Albarino or a good Sav Blanc would. It drank super easily, and was perfect with the salmon and slaw. It would not do well paired with something bland and unremarkable.

The Muscadet is usually produced in France, but has some small USA presence. They are typically aged 2-3 years for a really good one. Fun fact, Muscadet was the original wine in the white wine butter sauce, because it is so mild and acidic that the when combined with the fatty butter it created a sauce similar to an egg based sauce!