This is Marie, contributing a new recipe we tried out just to shake things up a bit. I had gotten some balsamic vinegar for my birthday that was begging to be used, as was a partial bottle of white wine from Florence’s Wine Seller that had been gifted by the generous folks from Florence Restaurant Week. So I spent a little while searching marinade and glaze recipes with both items. This one jumped out even though it only called for a tablespoon of wine because I wanted some salmon anyway. I’m not in a mood for fish very often, best to take hold of it when it comes! Especially when sockeye is on sale. Can’t pass up something like that.
1.5 lbs salmon, cut into filets
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp white wine
1 tbsp honey
1/3 c balsamic vinegar
4-6 tsp mustard (Dijon if you have it)
Salt & pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Coat the bottom of a small skillet with a thin layer of olive oil (c.1 tbsp). Over medium heat, cook and stir garlic until soft, about 3 minutes. Mix in white wine, honey, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, for about 3 minutes, or until slightly thickened.
Arrange salmon fillets on foil-lined baking sheet. Brush fillets with balsamic glaze.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 14 minutes, or until flesh flakes easily with a fork. Brush fillets with remaining glaze, and season with salt and pepper. Use a spatula to transfer fillets to serving platter, leaving the skin behind on the foil.
I started out with the minced garlic, softening it in some olive oil. I added the other wet ingredients, had a small accident with the mustard, and put in about twice as much as was needed. However, on tasting it still didn’t seem excessively mustardy, so I just added another couple of tablespoons of vinegar and a tiny dribble of extra of honey; at that point I could hardly taste the mustard at all any more, though the cooking steam was decidedly sharp.
The glaze cooked down beautifully in a very short time and was glossy and ready to brush onto the filets almost before the oven finished preheating. I had plenty of glaze left over, even allowing for the added volume of ingredients, though that had something to do with a girlchild who is unaccountably anti-mustard and claimed the cooking fumes were destroying her sinuses or something crazy like that. Psychological, I am sure (she demanded her piece be kept separate and just covered in lemon pepper). I don’t like naked mustard myself, preferring it mixed into egg salad or similar use as a flavoring agent rather than a direct condiment. Grant, who I am sure would brush his teeth with mustard if he could, expressed proper admiration for the cooking aromas, especially when the fish went into the oven. Lovely.
While the resulting glaze is not particularly photogenic and the photos taken while actually in the cooking process are a complete loss due to the darkness of the subject matter and my less than stellar photography skills, this is easy enough that I should hope step-by-step instructions are hardly needed. Clearly it’s a forgiving sort of recipe, or my measuring fail would have required a restart. I would definitely try it again. Perhaps next time I will pick up some white balsamic and see how that looks. The fish was served with some rice and sauteed vegetables. I’d used just a hint of some blood orange infused olive oil on the squash and peppers, and it went beautifully with the glazed fish.
Here is the link to the original recipe if you think you’d prefer it or just want to look at a better photo: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/balsamic-glazed-salmon-fillets/
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Marie, Let's Eat! 