Ten Lords a' Leaping

This was another brain tenderizer. For the life of me I couldn’t think of anything that could represent leaping Lords. My mom thought of venison and Bambi. I thought, How cruel! No I didn’t. Actually, I thought that was a good idea. But, seeing as how many of my recipes so far have had ingredients that have proven difficult to find unless you are a hunter.

Then I saw a show on PBS and it gave me an idea. I don’t remember what kind of show it was, but I think it was a nature show about bears. The idea came to me when I saw a huge Grizzly sitting in the middle of a water fall trying to catch salmon. He just sat there waiting and a salmon jumped right into his mouth. No wonder they’re towards the bottom of the food chain. The fish, that is. Migrating logistics aside, salmon are majestic fish. It’s flavor is unique and powerful and not for the novice fish eater.

Reading (I believe it’s pronounced Red-ing) sauce is something I came across while reading Around the World in 80 Days. It’s another book full of good English cuisine. However, I had to ask my English neighbor about this sauce and another in the same book called Royal British Sauce. She had never heard of either before. It’s possible it was made up by Jules Verne but highly unlikely as his expertise was science fiction and futuristic engineering, not the culinary arts. More than likely, they are sauces that were known by other names 150 years ago and has evolved into something entirely different today.

As far as I can tell, Reading Sauce is the precursor to today’s Worcestershire sauce and was the inspiration to our American A1® Sauce. I was able to find only one product online called Cock’s Reading Sauce. Unfortunately, they don’t ship to the US. My English neighbor told me that I could buy something in our neighborhood grocer called English Pub Sauce and that it’s similar to A1®. I tried it and it was excellent! I can’t imagine A1® on fish, let alone salmon, but that English Pub Sauce goes on just about anything, including a big basket of fish and chips.

A few months ago, while I was still trying to think of what do for this tenth day, a customer came in and ordered our salmon, but wanted it a little different. He wanted the salmon plain, but topped with garlic and Worcestershire sauce. I figured he had to be English.


Ten Lords a’ Leaping

Poached Salmon with Reading Sauce

4 8 oz skinless Salmon filets
1 can vegetable stock
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup white wine or ½ cup white grape juice and 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
4 whole dry bay leaves

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon minced fresh garlic

Or

¼ cup A1® sauce

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix the vegetable stock, the lemon juice and white wine or grape juice together. Place the salmon filets in a casserole dish and cover with the liquids. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.

Place the Worcestershire sauce and garlic, or the A1® sauce, in a small metal bowl. When the salmon is done, leave the salmon in the oven, turn the oven off and place the sauce in the oven to warm, about 10 minutes.

Plate the salmon with your favorite vegetables and some rice, perhaps, and gently drizzle the sauce over the salmon.