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"OTCC: Pan-Roasted Salmon with Red Wine Gastrique"
Posted by frodis on 03-25-11 at 11:36 PM
LAST EDITED ON 03-26-11 AT 11:26 AM (EST)

Or Pan-Roasted Chicken with Red Wine Gastrique, for those who don't eat fish.

This recipe is from The Minimalist Cooks Dinner by Mark Bittman. I tweaked it a little. This is the first time I made it, so this OTCC is a cook-along with Frodis. It's very, very simple and there are TONS of places to tweak it to your liking.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup of sugar
2 cups pinot noir
1 sprig of rosemary + 1 teaspoon of chopped rosemary
4 salmon steaks, 6oz each
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon butter
salt and pepper
a little bit of oil (high-heat, like canola, walnut, etc.)*

* Bittman's recipe doesn't include the oil, he used a non-stick skillet for his fish. I don't have an oven-safe nonstick skillet, so I used stainless steel, and therefore used oil. If you use non-stick, you can go without the oil.

1 saucepan with a thick, heavy bottom. Nonstick is good.
1 skillet/sautee pan

Method:

1. In the saucepan, pour in the sugar and heat over medium heat until the sugar melts and turns brown. Stir as little as possible, just kind of let it melt.

You don't want to sugar to burn, so you want the heat medium and even just on low so that the sugar melts evenly. You want to to get pretty liquidey and dark honey-colored.

Careful. Melted sugar can burn so keep it away from your skin. Don't taste it.





2. When the sugar is melted, turn off the stove and then add the 2 cups of red wine to the melted sugar. Stand back while you do this - it will steam up and bubble up a lot and look a little scary for a moment but then it will calm down. Turn the heat back on to high and stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves.

When you add the wine to the melted sugar, the sugar will harden up. (Mark Bittman doesn't mention this part.) It will form sort of a hard crust in the bottom of the pot. Give it a moment, it'll start to melt again. Keep stirring.

When the sugar is all dissolved, add the rosemary sprig to the sauce. Continue to boil and stir occasionally until the sauce is thick and syrupey and is down to about 1/2 cup.

3. Once the sauce is boiling away, pre-heat your oven to 450F.

4. Season the salmon with salt and pepper on both sides. Put a bit of oil in to the sautee pan and heat until screamin' hot. Place the salmon steaks into the sautee pan, and immediately put the pan into the hot oven. Roast for 3 minutes. Remove pan, flip salmon, put it back in the oven for 3 more minutes. Remove from oven and keep warm.

5. When the sauce is reduced to about 1/2 cup, turn the heat to low. Remove the rosemary sprig. Add the 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon of butter, and season with salt and pepper. Stir gently until the butter is melted.

6. Serve salmon with sauce and garnish with chopped rosemary.


My Notes
I used Merlot. I think it would have been better with pinot noir or something spicier than merlot. Merlot, reduced down by a lot, was a little too grape-jelly-ey.

The salmon probably could've been done entirely on the stove by just putting a lid on the pan.

I served it with asparagus and some leftover brown rice/veggie blend from earlier in the week.

Mr. Fro is not a big fan of cooking fish at home. I made this because he wasn't supposed to be home in time for dinner and was going to grab dinner elsewhere. As it happened, he did make it home so he had one of the pieces of salmon. He pronounced it "pretty good" which is high praise from him for at-home-fish.

I didn't have rosemary so I used dried thyme.

My oven was at 425F because the handles on my pan are only safe up to 425F. I cooked the salmon for 4-5 minutes on each side (instead of 3) because I like my salmon a little more well-done. 3 minutes will get you a medium-rare piece of salmon.

You could easily do this with chicken.

I'm looking forward to OT will dress up this fairly simple sauteed meat & sauce dish. This one is for all of you whose recipes I've shamelessly altered.

Enjoy!

Edited to add note about the oil/non-stick skillet and add the word "sprig" to the rosemary in step 2 (don't add the chopped at this point, just the stalk) and to put in the note about the oven temp I used.

Table of contents
Messages in this discussion
"Shout Out to Boo"
Posted by frodis on 03-25-11 at 11:37 PM
Thank you, Boo, for letting me take your week since I fell off the face of the earth during my own week.

"RE: Shout Out to Boo"
Posted by samboohoo on 03-28-11 at 09:10 AM
You're welcome.

I might do salmon for the hubby and chicken for me.


Samboobree, brought to life by Arkie


"RE: OTCC: Pan-Roasted Salmon with Red Wine Gastrique"
Posted by Tummy on 03-26-11 at 09:04 AM
Yay --- pictures!

I'm a big salmon fan, can't wait to try this.

"RE: OTCC: Pan-Roasted Salmon with Red Wine Gastrique"
Posted by kingfish on 03-26-11 at 10:01 AM
That really looks/sounds good. Salmon in wine sauce...yum.

I'm betting the rest of the botle didn't go to waste either.

"RE: OTCC: Pan-Roasted Salmon with Red Wine Gastrique"
Posted by qwertypie on 03-26-11 at 12:14 PM
You? Tweak a recipe? I.AM.SHOCKED!
"Very good ! A taste adventure ..."
Posted by Karchita on 03-27-11 at 11:01 PM
I made this tonight because I had most of the ingredients on hand. I had some salmon in the freezer and a half a bottle of pinot noir and figured I could ad lib the rest. I served it with brown rice and brussels sprouts.

This came out quite tasty. The sauce was thick and almost like a barbeque sauce, but much better (imho) and with a fancy French name. Oooh la la! It complimented the flavor of the salmon well, though I liked it over the rice nearly as much. I love the taste of fresh salmon, but, sadly, that is not what I had available tonight. Personally, I would not put this sauce on delicious fresh fish, but on aged freezer fish, it made a bad thing much better. I thought the brussel sprouts were a perfect accompaniment.

Tweeks:
• I used half the sugar and twice the balsamic vinegar.
• I used a ton of garlic and no rosemary (though I did put some in the rice).
• I added 2 cups of beef broth and then had to thicken it with some corn starch.
• To cook the fish, I preheated the pan with canola oil, put the fish in, covered it, and by the time I remembered to check it, it was done perfectly.

Thanks for a culinary adventure, frofro! I'd like to try it again with chicken next time.



"YUMM!"
Posted by qwertypie on 03-31-11 at 03:04 AM
Very yummy sauce. The girls want me to make it again, but I think they want to see the sugary alien crust rising from the bubbling wine lava reduction


I think next time I would reduce the sugar and bump up the balsamic vinegar. I wonder how the sauce would taste over pears or vanilla icecream. YUMMMM!

Thanks Fro for the recipe, it was a big hit here.

"RE: OTCC: Pan-Roasted Salmon with Red Wine Gastrique"
Posted by Tummy on 04-04-11 at 08:24 PM
Made! Delish. I reduced the sugar and increased the balsamic. I would keep it this way and definitely do it again. I grilled the salmon as I hate the way it smells when cooking in the oven. Served it with grilled aspargus and yellow squash.

Would like this over chicken too!

I gave two thumbs and Rob gave one, as he's a fish purist - a squeeze of lemon and that's all he likes on his fish. Yuck!


Floating my cares away with Agman - 2011