About a month ago I celebrated my birthday with some of my dear friends. One of the gifts I received that day was a whole salmon. It was pretty big and I was thrilled, as I like salmon.

The next day I got busy cleaning and filleting the fish. Once the salmon was cut and ready to go, I decided to make pan fried salmon with beurre blanc sauce.

I am not using anything besides salt and pepper on the fish as the sauce is pretty rich.

When you make the sauce, timing is crucial, since the sauce cannot sit too long. To make things go smoothly try doing the first step of the sauce, while prepping the salmon for frying.

Finish cooking the sauce while you are frying the fish!

I serve this over simple garlic fried rice and sauteed chard. Another great option could be steamed vegetable with risotto.

This is an excellent recipe to serve for a special dinner party. The sauce is very unique and sophisticated!

I hope you try this recipe and let me know your thoughts!

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1 cup white wine (I used WVV chardonnay)
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup shallots, minced
• 1 clove garlic, smashed
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 12 tbsp. unsalted chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Salmon

• 6 (5 oz) center-cut salmon fillet, about 1-inch thick, skin on or off
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp. canola oil
• 3-4 small sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 1/3 tsp. salt
• 1/3 tsp. ground black pepper

Instructions

Sauce

Note: When you make the sauce, timing is crucial, since the sauce cannot sit too long. To make things go smoothly try doing the first step of the sauce, while prepping the salmon for frying. Finish cooking the sauce while you are frying the fish!

First step: Place wine, vinegar, garlic, and shallots in a small sauce pan and bring to boil over medium-heat. Reduce the heat and simmer until the mixture reduced down to about three quarters of the original amount. It could take somewhere between 7-10 minutes.

Stir in cream, salt, and pepper.

Second step: Remove the sauce from the heat. Add a few pieces of butter at a time while whisking constantly.

If the temperature cools down, place the pan back on the stove on low heat just long enough to incorporate all the butter.

Make absolutely sure not to boil the butter, this will make the sauce separate and becoming greasy.

Add couple more splashes of wine during the whisking part if you want to cut the butter taste.

Salmon

Make sure to bring the salmon to room temperature 30 minutes before cooking. 

Season the fish with salt and pepper, then set aside.

Heat large non-stick electric skillet or regular non-stick with butter and oil over medium-high heat. Add thyme and place the salmon, skin-side up on to the skillet.

Cook the salmon until golden brown on 1 side, about 4-5 minutes. Turn the fish over with a spatula gently, and cook until the skin is crisp and feels firm to the touch, about 3-5 minutes more.

Transfer the salmon to a plate and serve with beurre blanc sauce.

Serves 6

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like, share, and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram. If you would like to be notified of upcoming posts, please consider subscribing to my blog!