| Total: | 1 hr 35 min |
| Prep: | 1 hr 10 min |
| Cook: | 25 min |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 6 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, boneless and skinless
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
- Pesto, recipe follows
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup very fine bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
- 2 oranges and 2 grapefruits, peeled and segmented
- Citrus Soy Sauce, recipe follows
- Steamed Spinach Leaves, recipe follows
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 6 cups fresh basil, thoroughly washed and dried
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/8 cup garlic, peeled and sliced
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1/8 cup champagne vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 cups grapefruit juice
- 1 1/2 cups orange juice
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock, reduced to 1/2 cup
- 1 cup olive oil
- 2 pounds loose spinach leaves
- 2 large baking potatoes, like russets
- Clarified Butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Heat a 12-inch non-stick saute pan over a high flame. Season the salmon fillets with salt and pepper. Add a small amount of oil to the pan and sear both sides of the salmon quickly, just a few seconds on each side, leaving the fish very rare. Remove the pan from the heat, and place the fish on a work surface. Wipe out the pan and reserve for later use.
- Spread a 1/4-inch layer of pesto evenly over 1 side of the fillet. Sprinkle the top of the pesto with a light, thin dusting of fresh bread crumbs. Carefully invert each fillet into the pan and place it over a medium flame. Toast the bread coating, adding tiny bits of butter to the pan that will melt into the salmon underneath. Once the bread is toasted (after about 1 minute), place the pan in the oven for about 3 minutes, just to heat the fish through.
- To serve, mound 1/6 of the spinach in the center of a warm dinner plate. Invert 1 salmon fillet onto the spinach, crust-side up, and ladle citrus soy sauce around the sides. Place 1 orange segment on top of 1 grapefruit segment in the sauce at 3 different points on the plate.
- In the bowl of a food processor place, pine nuts, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add the basil and process again. With the motor running, add the oil in a stream slowly, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add bread crumbs a little at a time, just enough to make pesto spreadable. Process and repeat until the pesto is the right consistency. Remove from food processor and set aside until ready to use.
- In a non-reactive saucepan, saute the ginger in 1 tablespoon olive oil for 1 minute over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and continue cooking for 1 minute longer. Deglaze the pan with white wine, champagne vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, and all 3 fruit juices. Reduce the liquid volume down to 1 cup. Add the chicken stock, bring it to a boil, and cook another 3 minutes. Strain, pushing on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible, and place the liquid into a blender or food processor. With the motor running on low, add the remaining olive oil in a slow stream until all the oil is incorporated.
- Wash spinach thoroughly and drain, leaving some of the water clinging to the leaves. In a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat, saute the spinach in a small amount of olive oil until it is wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain excess moisture, season with salt and pepper.
- Preheat oven at 350 degrees.
- Peel potatoes and slice thin in a criss-cross cut on the zig-zag part of the mandolin. Lay out the slices on a baking sheet. Brush with clarified butter and bake until crisp, about 12 minutes.
Reviews
I had salmon and a homemade batch of pesto and searched for a recipe with those ingredients. Lo and behold I got this and found I actually had all the citrus soy sauce ingredients as well! I baked the salmon with evoo and a pesto layer, I added panko breadcrumbs for the last few minutes. I made the citrus soy sauce with no orange and anchovy paste instead of fish sauce and ground ginger as I didn’t have fresh, it paired perfectly with the salmon/pesto/panko! I also made Chinese black rice which soaked up the extra sauce wonderfully. I made a cabbage and romaine salad and cut the other half of the grapefruit on top, squeeze the excess juice and mixed with champagne vinegar and evoo for a dressing. It was the perfect accompaniment. I highly recommend!!
I had planned to make a pesto salmon dish and keep it simple, but when I tasted my pesto I felt it was a bit bitter, so I went online hunting for something inspiring that would help balance the slightly bitter pesto. Came upon this recipe and while it sounded extremely bizarre, I felt that it might offer that citrus, slightly sweet balance for my pesto salmon.
Eureka! It works. Now, I used leeks instead of shallots and pomegranite/cranberry juice instead of grapefruit. Used limes as well….the point is, any citrus can be subsituted as the sauce was really amazing. With all the ginger I thought it might taste extremely asian but it didn’t. It just complemented the pesto salmon so well. Also, I used panko to coat the pesto salmon. Thank you for the great recipe!
Used Tracy’s advice and tried it with Mahi Mahi. The meal was absolutely delicious. The Citrus Soy Sauce was well flavored. The reciepe made a lot more then I actually needed for the dish and was wasted. Next time I will cut down on sauce. Besides that fantastic!!
I have made this recipe many times, as is, but today I didn’t have any salmon in my fridge. Instead, I used Mahi Mahi. It turned out AWESOME! I’ll definitely make it both ways again.
My husband of 5 years won my heart with this recipe! He prepared this for one of our first dates and it has been prepared many times since. I don’t make any substitutions at all. The sauce is time consuming, but worth every minute! I serve over brown rice-a crowd pleaser for sure!!!
Simple to make, fun to serve and tastes great…I made a few modifications, rather than the citrus sauce I made my own with 50/50 pomergrante vinegar and rice vinegar.
Next time I’m going to encrust it in some nuts rather than bread crumbs.