Salmon Tartare

This dish takes a popular style of sushi, the "California Roll"and re-imagines it as a tartare.  The main ingredients of a California roll are typically crab, avocado & tobiko (flying fish roe). The idea for this dish is also inspired by a tartare that Laurent Tourendel did at a Montreal Highlights Festival event at Globe Restaurant that I was lucky enough to work at. He paired raw tuna with avocado, crispy shallots and an Asian vinaigrette similar to the recipe I use here. To give the dish a Montreal twist, instead of getting my crunch from crispy shallots or ordinary croutons, I use bagel chips. The bagel chips are easy to make and are great just on their own.

              This recipe will take about 30 minutes to put together if you make the bagel chips and the avocado purée, but if you like the sound of it and would like to throw together a faster version, you can simply cut the avocado into cubes instead of making the purée, stir all the ingredients together and serve with your favorite crackers.
Start to finish: 30 minutes, serves 4

Ingredients:

600g salmon
2 avocados
1/4 can coconut milk
1  lime
1 shallot, finely diced
1 tbs freshly grated ginger
1 tbs lemon grass, finely diced or pureed (optional)
50ml soy sauce
100ml olive oil
tobiko
radish sprouts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Thinly slice the 2 bagels. You can slice them any way you like. I like to slice the bagel both into little circles for mixing into the tartare and longer ones to serve on the side for spreading.

2.Spread the bagel slices on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the oven until golden brown, about 7 minutes.

3.  Blend the avocado and coconut milk into a purée, then chill while you prepare the other ingredients.
4. To make the vinaigrette, mix the shallots, grated ginger & lemongrass with the soy sauce, lime juice and olive oil.
4. Thinly slice the salmon and then cut each slice into strips. Cut the strips into small cubes. Stir the vinaigrette into the cubed salmon.

To serve:
1. Fill a ring mold 2/3 of the way up with salmon mixture.
2. Fill remaining 1/3 of ring mold with avocado mixture, then flatten with the back of a spoon or an off set spatula.
3. Place one teaspoon of tobiko in the center of the avocdo puree, then remove the ring mold.
4. Garnish with radish sprouts, bagel chips and extra vinaigrette