Sunday, June 28, 2015

Salmon with Mustard Sauce and Cantaloupe Salad

Tuesday 16 June
Kroger's had a sale on "silverbrite," a.k.a. chum, salmon.  Apparently it's not named for the fish bits you dump in the water to attract other fish, but from a Chinook word for "spotted."  It is not the choicest, but these fillets looked firm and red, so we gave them a try using a Trader Joe's recipe.

We melted a Tablespoon of olive oil and another of butter in a skillet, and mixed in a Tablespoon each of Dijon and our own grain mustard.  When it got hot, we added the salmon fillet pieces (totaling about a pound) and cooked them about 3 minutes per side.  Holt also did that cheffy thing where you spoon up the hot oil and throw it on the food to cook it evenly.
The recipe says you then add a Tablespoon of honey; we used the chestnut honey our friend K. von S. gave us, as we're out of the regular stuff.  Then you're supposed to cover the pan for five minutes to complete the cooking.  When that's done, you plate the fish, add 1/8 cup water (wine, to us) to the pan to deglaze and reduce by half, and pour the result over the fish.
Our verdict: if you put mustard in the pan that early and cook it over heat high enough to crisp the salmon skin, it tends to burn.  Better to crisp the fish first and add the mustard later, along with the honey.
For a side, we cut up a cantaloupe and made a nicely-seasoned and herbaceous melon and mint salad.  We left out the sugar (melon is sweet enough) and again used chestnut honey, and it was scrumptious. 

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