By Brooklynn Johnson
Photo courtesy of Alpenfire Cider
Alpenfire Cider is known as Washington’s first all organic hard apple cider. Cider maker and owners Nancy and Steve Bishop have longtime cider lovers. After buying a plot of land in the 90s, the couple traveled to Europe to check out the cider scene and returned to take a cider making class through Washington State University. From there, they ordered 900 French and English cider variety trees and that was the beginning.
The first year making the Alpenfire Glow Rosé Cider, the Bishops only made a little bit of it, using no more than a couple hundred pounds of apples, Nancy Bishop says. Heading to a barbecue at some of their fishermen friend’s house, they grabbed some Glow cider to bring over.
“We took it over there and they were taking their salmon off the barbecue and we were pouring this stuff and it was magic,” Bishop says. “It was the perfect pairing.” She then translated the dish from barbecuing the fish to poaching it.
Bishop thinks that the high acid and unusual apple flavor balance out the richness of the salmon.
“The colors were so beautiful, and then my idea was to make everything pink—pink peppercorns, the pink sea salt, the shallots,” Bishop says. She took the pink, and rolled with it. Take a look at her recipe and try out this perfectly pink light dish for two.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of butter
½-pound skin-on salmon fillet
1 cup Glow cider
1 clove of garlic, sliced
1 shallot, sliced
Pink sea salt (to taste)
Pink pepper (to taste)
Directions:
Take the skin off of the salmon fillet and crisp it in a pan or under the broiler. Once it’s nice and crispy, let it cool off and crumble it.
Melt 1 ½ tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan on the stove and slowly sauté the sliced garlic and shallot, but be careful to avoid browning.
Remove the garlic and shallot slices and add in the salmon fillet. Immediately pour the cider over the salmon, reduce the heat and cover. Poach the salmon slowly until it is just barely flakey.
Once ready, take the salmon out and place it on a warm plate. Turn up the heat again to reduce the cider until just a few tablespoons remain, and then take it off the heat. Add and melt in the last ½ tablespoon of butter, as well as any additional herbs or spices to your taste. Pour the glaze over the salmon. Season the dish with as much of the pink sea salt and pink pepper as you wish, and enjoy!
