David Ferguson, Le Jolifou, Montreal
For much of his training, David Ferguson, chef-owner of Le Jolifou, a popular high-end Montreal eatery, worked in classic French kitchens in which salt was used generously. But he learned a different approach during a stint cooking in New Mexico, where flavours were piqued by adding peppers, spices and citrus instead. The menu at Le Jolifou blends the two traditions. Duck confit, for example, is flavoured with a pasilla negra sauce; beef hanger steak is matched with chipotle peppers.
And lobster salad on homemade pappardelle gets a whole new twist with basil oil, mango and a pineapple reduction.
“The sweetness of the mango is balanced by the bitterness of the greens, the sourness of the pineapple and the natural salt and sweet of the lobster,” Mr. Ferguson says. “It works without adding much salt.”
When creating a dish, Mr. Ferguson looks to fresh herbs and products with strong flavours that diners experience through their noses.
“You experience the tastes sweet, salt, sour and bitter on your tongue,” he says. “Your brain also experiences flavour through the perfume of the basil and the fragrance of the pineapple.”
His advice to home chefs looking to reduce salt is to use flavourful, fresh produce that stimulates the tongue's other three senses. He calls prepackaged salad mixes “tasteless,” for example, and creates salads at Le Jolifou with peppery and bitter greens such as chicory and watercress.
Fats and proteins require salt, he says – but these foods can be salted directly instead of adding it to the whole dish. He advises, for example, salting only the eggs in a niçoise salad instead everything.
But even the saltiest restaurant dishes require less sodium than packaged supermarket fare. Duck confit calls for 12 grams of salt for each kilogram of duck – and this is wiped away after marinating overnight.
“I'd be shocked if you could find me a kilo of processed foods that only used 12 grams of salt.”
Grilled salmon with mango and avocado salsa
Ingredients
Salsa:
1 avocado
lime juice to taste
1 mango, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 green onion
fresh coriander
1 serrano pepper, finely chopped
1 cucumber, diced
olive oil to taste
Salmon:
700 grams fresh salmon
olive oil extra virgin
Method
For the salsa, cut avocado and cover with lime juice. Add all other ingredients and adjust to taste.
For the salmon, season the fish with olive oil. Grill over medium-high heat for three minutes. Turn and grill for three minutes longer or until firm and springy when pressed with finger.
Serve with the salsa and enjoy.
Nancy Hinton, Jardins Sauvages, Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan, Que.
Like most chefs, Nancy Hinton cannot imagine giving up salt. “I would have to be on my death bed,” she says. “With a knife to my throat.”
Ms. Hinton and her boyfriend, François Brouillard, own Jardins Sauvages, a rambling country table outside Montreal. The couple call their cuisine gastronomie forestière because of its use of wild plants and mushrooms.
She picks wild garlic, ginger, dandelion and milk weeds from the forest surrounding the restaurant, while he leaves for days at a time to pick mushrooms in northern Quebec.
Ms. Hinton says this sort of cooking involves much less salt consumption than buying packaged goods.
“When you cook with fresh produce and quality ingredients, the amount of salt you add for flavour is not harmful,” she says.
And often she uses products such as marine asparagus and other wild greens that pick up the saltiness of the St. Lawrence.
She just made a soup of sea spinach with corn and homemade bacon.
“Wild greens are so flavourful, they almost have a meaty taste,” she says. “You don't have to work as hard to bring out the flavour.”
