Monday, March 10, 2008

Never again! Stop me if you sense me heading that direction.

About every three years, I see an intriguing recipe and decide that it would be a good idea to pan-sear salmon. And then somehow I magically forget how messy it is, and how the smell lingers in the downdraft vent until it gets thoroughly degreased. I guess it's like childbirth that way, except that the end product (NPI) is more temporal.

So Saturday night I decided to try a pan-seared salmon recipe from Cook's Country (to which I subscribed for a year, until I decided my recipe inflow was insanely excessive; this recipe came from a recent free issue they sent me trying to get me to resubscribe). The thing was, I was in a hurry to get the salmon into the pan because the oil was smoking, and I splattered grease on my face and right hand. I don't recommend doing this. I managed to finish preparing dinner while spending as much time as possible holding my hand under cool running water (it blistered anyway) and pressing a cool wet dishtowel to my face (it didn't blister, but I am looking considerably more blotchy than is usual). I hope you'll understand why I didn't manage to take any pictures. I'm just glad I was wearing glasses, as a couple of big blobs hit smack in the middle of the lenses. I shudder to think.

Anyway, the pan-seared salmon was good, as usual, but not really worth the extra trouble, as usual, not to mention the injuries. The glaze was pretty tasty, though, and I'll probably make it to go with salmon prepared another way.
Balsamic Glaze

1/4 C balsamic vinegar
1/4 C orange juice (I used the juice of half of a large navel)
2 T honey
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 T cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
salt and pepper to taste

Mix vinegar, juice and honey to dissolve honey, then put in a small skillet with rosemary. Simmer and reduce until it's syrupy and only a couple of tablespoons remain. Turn off heat, leaving pan on warm burner, and stir in butter. Season with salt and pepper and serve over salmon.

5 comments:

Skye said...

You're so funny. Thanks for sharing your kitchen drama with us. It makes you seem almost human.

Anonymous said...

Ha! When you saw me Sunday the burns on my face were hardly showing, but now I've got 7 or 8 quarter-to-three-eighths-inch diameter red scabby patches scattered across my face. Nice. I am the queen of minor kitchen injuries--Mavis long ago ceased being even the slightest bit surprised.

The Laundry Queen said...

I am here to testify that JaneAnne is speaking the truth. She also seems to have trouble with irons and doors at Nordstrom Rack. ; )

Swizzies said...

Heh...I thought you were going to have us talk you down from your salmon habit generally. Not bloody likely! :-)

Do you eat wild salmon mostly?

(Yes, I did just read WIMFD, why do you ask? ;-)

I just read another Cook's Illustrated thing about no-knead bread, and their latest thing was that if you need it for like 15 seconds (!!) it turns out even better. 15 seconds!? Wow.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, a lot of the no-knead recipes I've seen call for about that much kneading, though they're careful not to call it such. They'll just say, turn the dough on itself four or five times, which is about the same thing as Cook's 15-second knead. The trouble with the Cook's recipe is that a) it calls for instant yeast, and I have a ton of regular already on hand, and b) it calls for a less-than-one-bottle amount of beer, and since I don't drink beer I i) don't have any on hand and ii) feel bad about pouring the rest of the bottle down the sink. You see my dilemma.

As for the salmon, when it comes to my own purchases, whether at the fish market or in a restaurant, it's strictly wild-caught (which can be either wild or hatchery-spawned). My parents regularly serve the Costco farm-raised Atlantic stuff, and I'll eat it (but almost always lecture them on how they should spend a little more for the better stuff--and to its credit, I think Costco has sold wild Alaskan Copper River salmon the last couple of years).