Salmon Piccata

 7 November 2022

Recipe from Cook's Country, April 2021

I've had chicken piccata in restaurants and even made it at home. The simple, bright sauce of lemon, capers, wine, and butter goes well with chicken and it seems like it would go well with salmon, too. We are able to buy individual portions of frozen salmon, and other fish, which are convenient to keep on hand.  Thus it is good to have a new recipe for the fish in the freezer. Our fillets aren't as thick as what is in the recipe and this may have an affect on the results.

This was almost two separate recipes: one for cooking the salmon and one for making the sauce. The skin was removed from two salmon fillets which were patted dry with paper towels and seasoned with salt and black pepper. Olive oil was heated in a 10-inch nonstick skillet on medium-high and the salmon was added skin-side down. It was covered and cooked until browned to an internal temperature of 125° without flipping the fish. The fish was transferred to a serving dish while the sauce was prepared in the same skillet. Sliced garlic was added and cooked until fragrant. AP Flour was added and cooked for 15 seconds. White wine, water, capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and pepper were whisked into the mixture. (Having these all ready before starting to cook is necessary.) The mixture was brought to a boil and cooked for 30 seconds. Off heat butter was whisked in and chopped parsley was added. (The recipe specifies fresh dill.) Total time was about 35 minutes.

The salmon and the sauce were both good, especially given how quickly this recipe comes together. Since our fillets were thinner than those in the recipe they will either be less brown if cooked to 125° or well browned and over-cooked. Using the no-flip method in this recipe they cook in under 5 minutes. Adding fresh dill sounds appealing but I judged it wasn't worth buying the fresh herb for just one or two meals.

As a side note on a side dish, we had beets which were cooked sous vide. This method produced nicely cooked beets with a minimum effort. The recipe we used included creation of a vinaigrette but because of dirt that came off of the beets during cooking we were not able to try it.