Herb-Crusted Salmon

Sometimes I know a dish is going to taste better than it looks, and I take a photo of some of the ingredients at a photogenic moment in the preparations. I failed to do that in the case of this salmon dish -- and I'm not quite certain there was such a moment -- but I a leading with this record shot in hopes that some will find it inspiring.

The full title of this recipe if Herb-Crusted Salmon with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce, which I made with fairly close to the directions found under that title in Bonnie Jesseph's W.I.N.O.S.: Cook with Wine, a 2006 spiral-bound volume whose acronymic name refers to Women In Need Of Sanity. The book has a bit of a silly presentation, but at heart is rather a comprehensive collection of ways to use wine in the preparation of many kinds of dishes.

In this case, we had decided to do something new with seafood for the weekend, so before I headed to our favorite fishmonger (Kyler's Catch in New Bedford), Pam and I each thumbed through a different wine-themed cookbook. (She poached cod in chablis a couple days later.) I had been thinking recently about sun-dried tomatoes, so this title caught my eye immediately. It took me as long to find those (not packed in oil) hidden in our local grocer's produce aisle as it did for me ultimately to cook the fish!

This is a fairly simple dish with just a few components. Because I knew each part of it would be needed quickly, I took the instructions somewhat out of order. 

I turned the oven on to 400F, convection. Then I started on the crustiness: I blended panko and cornmeal with dried basil, oregano, and rosemary -- just a small amount on a plate. Then I removed the skin from a perfect salmon fillet -- this was fairly easy, though I know the folks at Kyler's have the skills and knives to do this almost effortlessly. I usually just cook salmon with skin-side down, but breading this would make that weird, I supposed.

I then minced both a shallot and the equivalent of five sun-dried tomatoes (actually dried, not in oil). In a. small, indispensable cast-iron skillet, I sautéed the shallot for just a minute or two and then added the tomato, some lemon juice, and just 1/4 cup dry white wine all at once. I stirred this until reduced, and then left it warming on the lowest possible heat. (The recipe suggests reducing, allowing to cool, and then reheating; this made no sense to me.) 

Meanwhile, I sprayed Pam (the spray, not my spouse) in a casserole dish; I probably should have just used a little oil. I then dredged the salmon in the crumb/herb mix and simply placed it in the pan. This recipe would easily work for up to 4 smaller fillets; I had a single one-pounder. The crumb adhered better than I expected after pressing it a bit on both sides.

Side note: I had boiled a pan of water previously and now returned it to heat so that I could make some simple Aunt Annie's mac & cheese. Sometimes even a foodie wants a simple side of comfort food. I prepared it in my usual way, which is to add a generous shredding of cheddar to the mix-made cheddar it comes with. 

Back to the fish -- at 10 minutes, I noticed it was a bit dry, so I decided to spoon the sauce (which was rather thickened at this point) onto the fish for the final minutes of baking. Cutting the fillet in half a couple minutes later, I noticed it was not quite flaky in the middle, so I did give it another 1 minute.

The result: savory, sweet, delicious. As is our wont, I cooked it with good wine, which we paired with the meal, rather than using purpose-bought "cooking" wine. In this case, it is was Löss & Lehm, an Austrian Grüner Veltliner that I first bought because the name is perfect for a soils nerd who has also studied German. But it turned out to be such good wine that we do pick it up frequently at our local purveyor.