Interesting birth of this dish. I had just spent the day with my niece and I was on my way back home to think of something to cook. I had considered just getting sushi to go, since I was told to go ahead and have something my wife wouldn't want since she was out with her friend. Then I though about cooking up something fancy. When I'm on a fancy quest of culinary, I often call Thomas. Thomas is the Executive Dinner Service Chef of a local restaurant and a solid bro. We've done some BBQ together and one of the recipes on here before. I had his stuffed grouper recently at the restaurant The Mad Hatter Tea Shop in St. Marys, GA. It had this delightful sauce called a ber blanc on it. Which is litterally in French (butter white). So I called Thomas and asked him how to create a ber blanc in a nutshell. Then I noticed he was unloading supplies at the restaurant. So I said, "I'll just come to you and help you unload." So we discussed food and what I should make. This then led to us cooking this delighful dish together. Enjoy friends.
Pan Seared Salmon with
Cucumber Buerre Blanc and Roasted Asparagus
You will need:
-
One large
filet of salmon.
-
2 cloves of
garlic finely chopped.
-
½ red onion
chopped.
-
1 ½ stick of
butter.
-
1 pack of
Arborio rice.
-
1 large can of
chicken stock.
-
1 cup of heavy
cream.
- About 1 cup of white wine, we used pinot
grigio.
-
About 4
tablespoons of olive oil.
-
Salt, pepper,
and garlic powder to taste.
-
About ½ cup of
malt vinegar.
-
1 cucumber
chopped.
-
¼ cup fresh
grated parmesan.
-
1 fresh bunch
of asparagus (trim the edges).
Begin with the prep work
of chopping your ingredients: Red onion, garlic, cucumber, and chop about a
stick of butter into cubes for quick melting, and trim the asparagus. At this time you may also want to season your
salmon. We seasoned it by a simple rub
of salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Make
sure you season both sides of the filet.
Buerre Blanc:
We recommend starting the
ber blanc first. In a small saucepan begin
sweating ½ of your pre chopped onions with the malt vinegar. Sweat this down until it is almost dry. Now add the white wine, cream, and cucumbers. With a stick blender, blend down the onions
and cucumbers in the sauce. Now reduce
this by half. Right before it comes time
to plate the dish add the butter about 2 cubes at a time and whisk well. Continue until it is nice and thick, but not
too thick. Season even further with
salt, pepper and garlic powder if you like.
Risotto:
In another small sauce pan
pour in your chicken stock and turn that burner on medium low.
In another pan, a deep
frying pan is what I use, begin sweating your garlic with ½ a stick of butter
and the rest of the red onion you have chopped.
Do this until your garlic is brown and the onions have caramelized. Now add with a ladle, one ladle full of
chicken stock to your deep frying pan with the garlic, onions and butter. Immediately add the Arborio rice to the
pan. Continue adding ladles of chicken
stock, one ladle full at a time constantly stirring the rice until it has reach
a consistency where it doesn't dissolve in your mouth but has a slight chew to
it.
If you don’t time it
perfectly for the risotto to be done at the same time as everything else, that
is ok. Just remove from heat and
cover. Once it comes time for plating
just add a few tablespoons of butter to the risotto and stir it up. This should break it apart and make it more
presentable.
Asparagus:
Preheat the oven to
350. In a baking dish season the
asparagus with a light dressing of olive oil topped with salt, pepper, and
garlic powder to taste. Then lightly
coat them with the Parmesan. Bake for
about 10 minutes.
Salmon:(Make sure you
season both sides of the filet)
In another frying pan, get
it on medium hot with the olive oil.
Place your salmon fillets down on the hot pan. Cook until the color of the fish changes
about ¾ the way up the filet. Flip and
cook for about another minute to minute and half.
To plate the dish:
We started with a generous
portion of risotto. Topped with the
salmon filet and buerre blanc sauce, then asparagus at a very appealing angle.
We really enjoyed this
one. Hope you all do too.
