Hey, after last week's root canal and having to empty my entire kitchen for pest control, I needed a good relaxing weekend. I hung out with my best friend in the whole world and we continued planning our spring convention/crazy stuff we do for fun lineup. This one's gonna be a doozy, but I'm excited for it. WE got Ushicon, North Texas Irish Festival, AwesomeCon, Scarborough Faire, and Texas Frightmare Weekend coming up here. We're saving our money as much as possible, so there will be more cheap meals prepared at home for me. Not that I eat out a ton, but I'm being more conscious of how much I'm spending. So, it's appropriate that this week, I'm going to do a guide on how to make a restaurant-level meal at home!
Salmon is one of my favorite foods. Even if you've dined with me, you may not know that unless I've mentioned it. This is because normally salmon is one of the most expensive things on the menu, and unless a place is known for good seafood, it's not generally worth the cost. My absolute favorite way to have salmon is smoked or raw in sushi, but I'll save messing with raw fish to the experts here. Seeing a sale on frozen salmon fillets at my local grocery store, I decided that now was as good a time as any to learn something new: I decided to teach myself how to pan-sear a salmon. A properly seared salmon is a delicious main course that I would not mind having more often. After a bit of research, I found that though it is a very touchy process, it can be done! And it can be done deliciously. With this knowledge, I can make this very restaurant-quality meal for less than $5.
Here is my process in making this beautiful meal:
1. Let the salmon thaw in the fridge and preferably to room temperature. I've done this from fridge temp, and it's also fine, it just takes a bit longer
2. If you plan on making rice or roasting potatoes to go with your salmon, get that started first. This doesn't take long, and you want everything to be ready around the same time Pro tip: for a flavorful rice pilaf, add some broth base to the cooking water.
3. Get your pan nice and hot. Let it heat over medium-high heat for a few minutes until water skitters when you flick it across the pan. Heat up some olive oil (if you want to avoid smoke, use another oil) in the pan.
4. Place salmon skin-side down onto hot pan for NOT VERY LONG. This depends on your stove. Everything I saw online said 3-4 minutes, but I got the optimum skin crispiness with more like two. Babysit your salmon, watch the edges, and right before the skin starts to burn...
5. Flip salmon (I used a wide spatula, but tongs also work) and turn off heat. Cover the pan and just let the residual heat do it's thing for a few minutes. For me this was about ten because I was steaming my green beans and making my topping. I topped this bad boy with olive oil, minced garlic, dill, and salt and pepper all mixed together. If you're not sure your salmon is done, just give the sides a lil' squeeze. It should feel like it's about to flake apart.
6. Plate that beautiful meal up like a Michelin-star chef and enjoy!
One reason I decided to learn how to cook well was that I wanted to be able to enjoy nice food whenever I wanted without having to shell out the dough and go to the work of acquiring it. This meal does require the foresight to defrost the fish, but the active hands-on time is less than 30 mins, which I can totally get behind when I'm home from work and hungry.
No comments:
Post a Comment