thebigfatnoodle

Pan-seared salmon in a ginger and garlic infused oil

Standard · Posted by thebigfatnoodle on March 27, 2012 · 15 Comments 

Our ornamental cherry tree is just outside our living room window, so I can easily see it bloom before my eyes as I sit typing or watching telly.

In a pink frame of mind

As you may know, I’m fending for myself at the moment.

I spent Sunday making some spaggie boll sauce (as you do), most of which I will freeze but some which I’ll keep to re-heat quickly during this week. However, just because I had to cook for myself this weekend didn’t mean I had to forego cooking something special for myself, like a Sunday roast for one.

I don’t know what is going on with my taste buds but I’ve been obsessed with roasted vegetables at the moment. This is the fourth time I’ve made roasted vegetables in the last two months, and I made some more again this weekend to have with my Sunday meal of choice – this pan-seared salmon which I’m writing about today. I made this pan-seared salmon on Saturday, and the coral pink salmon seemed particularly fitting as the colours perfectly match the fragile pink/white flowers that have burst forth from our ornamental cherry tree.

I’ve spent the weekend looking out onto our cherry tree watching it literally bloom before my very eyes…

I took another picture the next day and there are much more blooms but it's hard to see from these pictures.

The first cherry blossoms this weekend. Spring has definitely arrived now :))

With this unseasonally gorgeous weather, I should have been out in the garden clearing away the dead plants (that I should have done last Autumn but didn’t) but it’s been so lovely that I’ve not really done much apart from sit in the sun, play with the cats and read my book. It’s been exactly the kind of chilled out weekend I wanted. I have at least watered the garden, which from the look of my shrivelled hedge was long overdue.

Wild flowers are popping up everywhere in my garden.

I can’t really call today’s post a recipe, because there’s very little I’ve done to it. Good fish should be left alone as much as possible and I didn’t want to slather it in sauce, so I decided to infuse some butter and oil with lots of fresh ginger and garlic before searing my salmon in the fragrant oil.

I made a double portion so I just need to re-heat it on Monday for my lonely working week supper for me.

My roasted vegetables were simply a combo of 1 red onion, half a red pepper, half an orange pepper, some mushrooms, 5 baby courgettes, 4 baby aubergines and a handful of baby new potatoes which I tossed in some olive oil, cumin seeds (2 teaspoons) and sweet smoked paprika. After seasoning the vegetables with some salt and pepper, I roasted these in a 180 degree (celsius) oven for about 40 minutes.

Searing it in the infused oil provided just the right amount of flavour so you got a hint of ginger and garlic without them overpowering the salmon.

For the salmon, I infused 2 tablespoons of olive oil and about 10 grams of butter with 1 tablespoon of peeled and finely sliced ginger and 1 large clove of garlic, which I’d peeled and sliced very thinly. I heated the oil and butter on a low-medium heat, and gently fried the ginger and garlic for about 5 minutes before removing them with a slotted spoon.

To sear your salmon, whack the heat back up and place your salmon skin side down into the infused oil and fry for about 4-5 minutes (depends on the thickness of your fish), seasoning the flesh side with some salt and pepper while the skin is crisping up. You then turn the salmon over for another 2 minutes. A thick wedge of lime freshly squeezed over my fish and roasted vegetables was all I needed to make this one of the yummiest meals for one I’ve had in a while.

Pan-seared salmon - yum, yum!

Just needed a fork to slice through the salmon and show it's lovely, coral pink meat.

Have a great week!

Wherever you are, I hope you’re enjoying this last week in March!

Lots of love

thebigfatnoodle