This is one of my favorite ways to eat salmon. It is a little bit harder than poaching and you will have to spend a little bit more time but trust me, it is worth every minute of it. With the Scale Up blend, the flavor of the fish will be accented and sure to make mouths water and have your friends clamoring over who gets to come over for dinner.
Ingredients:
Seared Salmon
4 x 6 oz salmon fillet with the skin on
2 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Lemon Parmesan Risotto
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup of white wine (cheap is fine, dry (not sweet) is best, as we are using it to cook with)
1 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly shredded
3 cloves of garlic
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 cup of butter
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh chives, minced
Zest of 1 lemon, plus 1 teaspoon juice
Salt
Pepper
Scale Up (Optional)
Asparagus
1 bunch of asparagus (about 1 pound)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
Directions:
Ok so because this is a bit more labor intensive in the kitchen I would say start off by getting your beer I would recommend a night light beer to go with the fish like a hefeweizen or blond ale. Now to start the risotto as it will take the longest to prepare.
The Risotto
In a saucepan on med to high heat bring your stock to a boil and turn down to a low heat to keep warm while we cook the rice.
In a separate, non stick frying pan melt 2 Tablespoons of the butter and add garlic and onions. Allow to cook till the flavors are infused in the butter and translucent, about 5 - 7 mid on medium heat. Then add the rice, stirring until golden brown.
Wine time! Add wine to the pan and cook until evaporated, stirring constantly. This will take about 2-4 minutes.
Add the warm stock, one ladle at a time and continuing to stir, until absorbed. Repeat, adding one ladle at a time until the rice is al dente. It will look translucent around the edges and a bit more opaque in the center. The mixture will start to look creamy after about 20 minutes. Don't worry if you have stock leftover, the rice will absorb what it needs to!
Once al dente, remove from the heat. Stir in the parmesan, half of the chives, half of the lemon zest and the lemon juice. Stir in remaining butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You can even throw in a little of the Scale Up to pump up the flavour!
When you're ready to serve, divide on your plates and top with remaining chives and lemon zest to fancy it up.
Seared Salmon Pat salmon filets until dry with paper towel. Coat the flesh side of the salmon with Jerry's Faves Scale Up so it's evenly covered.
Preheat oven to 350 and make sure your rack is in the lower 1/3 of the oven.
Pull out your best oven safe frying pan. On medium high heat, add the butter and olive oil and heat until the butter is melted and oil is hot. Add filets, skin side down and hard sear them. You'll see the flesh cook about 1/3 of the way up on the sides of the filets. At that point, flip to the flesh side until it cooks 1/3 of the way up. Flip back to the skin side (the flesh side should have a beautiful golden brown crust on it) and put the entire pan into the oven. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. The salmon is done when the edges flake when touched with a spatula. Pull the pan out - they're ready to serve!
*Important note: The salmon will continue to cook in the pan after you pull it out of the oven and even on the plate as it cools. Make sure you remove from the pan and serve immediately.
Asparagus Last step! While the salmon is in the oven, get a saucepan with salted water boiling and get the asparagus prepped.
Rinse your asparagus. To get rid of the woody parts, bend each piece until it snaps - wherever it snaps is where it was woody. You can either choose to cut your spears into 2 inch sections or leave them as spears.
Now it's time to blanch. Lower the burner so the water is simmering and toss in the asparagus. This is a parboil stage. You want the asparagus to start turning a bright green. This will take about 2 minutes. Drain the hot water and put it in an ice bath to stop the cooking process so they stay nice and crisp.
Heat olive oil in a pan on high then add the drained asparagus in with the lemon and salt and pepper. Toss for 1 minute to reheat and infuse the flavours.
Time to plate everything and enjoy your hard work! Cheers!