Salmon Toast

Mom, when I was little I remember sitting at our dining table eating salmon all mixed into buttery, salty rice on those black and green marbled plates. I also remember running up and down the house, finding little warm nooks, tucking away bread to rise, punching it, and baking it.

I made this recently and it reminded me of you. It is nourishing and rich and fun, and there are a million ways you could dress it up.

I love you so much, and could not be more grateful to have you as my mother. Happy birthday!

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp Sourdough starter
• 150g whole wheat flour + 150g water
• 250g water + 1 tsp active dry yeast + 350g bread flour + 12g salt
• 1 piece nice salmon, good peppercorns, a lemon, and olive oil.

Instructions

1. Mix sourdough, whole wheat and water. Let sit at least 1 day. You might mix this on Monday night and begin making the bread on Wednesday morning for dinner that night.
2. Mix the preferment, water, bread flour, yeast, and salt.
3. Fold 3-5 times over the next hour.
4. An hour before you want to eat, or whenever is convenient, shape the dough into a log and put it in a loaf pan. You don't have to shape it if you don't feel like it.
5. Preheat the oven to 475F and get the salmon out.
6. Bake for about 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the crust is dark, burnished gold.
7. Put the salmon into a cold skillet. Drizzle around the salmon with olive oil. Cover liberally with salt and heavily with pepper. Lots of pepper. It is a star of this show.
8. Ensure you have lots of ground pepper in the oil to fry.
9. Turn the heat to medium low and let the salmon cook until the skin is crispy and the fish is rare. Halfway through, squeeze a lemon over the fish and put it into the pan too. I let it rest on top of the fish.
10. When the bread is done, without feeling any need to let it rest, cut thick slices, roughly one inch.
11. Cut a steak of salmon to fit over the top of the bread. Shmear it down to cover the bread entirely. Spoon over the lemon pepper pan sauce. Enjoy!