(AKA Pecan Crusted Salmon)
This recipe has made it into the category of "one of our standby recipes". The only problem is that we rarely make it. I'm not sure why, except for the fact that shortly after we discovered it, we bought a grill and started cooking almost all of our meals on that. Mmmmm, BBQ. But when it's cold and rainy outside, you don't want to spend any more time outside than you absolutely have to.
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard (Moutarde de Dijon)
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 5 teaspoons honey (we use Agave nectar for a lower glycemic index)
- 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
- 3 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
- 6 fillets of salmon (4 oz each)
- Salt and Pepper
- Lemon wedges (optional)
So examining our success at local shopping... it seems that we were quite unsuccessful today. The Dijon mustard is from France. The only organic and local ingredient is the butter. But, you could make this recipe with more local and organic ingredients, especially in the spring and summer when salmon is fresh.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In one bowl, mix the mustard, melted butter, and honey. In a second bowl, mix the bread crumbs, pecans, and the parsley.
(Here are the chopped pecans and our Alaskan ULU)
Place the salmon fillets in a greased baking dish. Season them with salt and pepper. Don't these fillets look good? I did give a quick thought to scraping the recipe and just cooking the salmon plain.
But, a calmer head prevailed as J started brushing the salmon with the mustard/honey/butter mixture.
Cover the top of each fillet with the bread crumb mixture.
Bake for 10 minutes or until salmon is done. A good guideline is for every inch of thickness, bake the salmon for 10 minutes.
We served this with a side of roasted hazelnut squash. We bought the squash from the University District Farmer's Market. We quartered it, scraped out the seeds, and roasted it for about an hour at 400 degrees.
Our plan was to take the squash out of the oven and cut it out of it's peel. Once I picked up a piece of the squash however, that plan flew out the window. I basically had to scrape the squash out as best I could. We brushed it with melted butter.
By then the salmon was ready. Here's our out of focus dinner! Look Mom! I ate squash. Willingly!
