Honey-Glazed Salmon w/Garlic-Lime Sauce

I’m embarrassed to admit what I’m about to say, errrr, write… but salmon really isn’t my favorite fish. I tend to like white fish more- a personal preference I guess (which some would argue is a horrible one haha)… but that all changed when I tried this 🙂 Yes, even I scarfed this…

A friend of mine told me about a new way she’d made salmon recently… it sounded too good to not try. So I did the best I could to remember what she said and voila, created this a few days later. I wish I knew where she got the inspiration from so I could thank that person too, but as most cooking goes, recipes are created, then recreated, passed on, learned again, recreated once more, and so on… new versions of recipes are always being created- that’s what makes cooking and creating so fun!!

This is an extremely easy recipe- foolproof really. Once you make the sauce, which takes only a matter of minutes, the salmon itself couldn’t be simpler. Coat with flour, drizzle with honey, then cook. Easy right? What makes this recipe so tasty is the caramelization… the honey and flour create a nice crisp sweet coating over the fillets… mmm mmm good. If you’re eating gluten-free, you can substitute the flour for a gluten-free one (there are many available these days!). To serve, this dish goes wonderfully with grilled asparagus and rice… I’m newly obsessed with combining black rice and quinoa together (it’s delish if you’re looking to switch things up in your rice world!). Whatever you eat it with, I hope you enjoy as much as we did in my house!

Serves 2
INGREDIENTS

2 8-oz salmon fillets

4 tsp flour

2 tsp honey

1 tbsp ghee (or olive oil)

sprinkle salt & pepper

for garlic-lime sauce:

3 tbsp ghee (or butter)

1 tbsp lime juice (1/2 lime)

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

for garnish:

lime zest & fresh cilantro leaves

When choosing a fillet of salmon, choose one that’s never been frozen (if possible of course)

and if available, go with wild (and maybe even local depending on where you live of course).

Salmon season just started, so around here they’re everywhere… if you don’t live near the ocean,

local clearly doesn’t work- so in that case, get whatever you can get your hands on! But as

long as it’s affordable, fresher is always better in my opinion 🙂

I selected one large fillet- a pound- and then cut it in half at home to make two 8 oz portions

Before cooking, you want to clean the fillet and remove the skin…

you can cook it with skin on if you prefer- it’s actually preferred by many people- and makes it

so that you don’t have to bother with the skin since it easily peels off once cooked, but in this

particular recipe, the flour and honey create a nice crispy exterior that works well without the skin

To remove the skin, use a sharp knife and slice along the the fillet with the skin side down,

holding it firmly down with the palm of your hand- if you miss a little skin, you can go

back and cut it out, but what you don’t want to do is cut out chunks of fillet- that’s good fish

going to waste! If this whole process intimidates you (it’s really not that scary I promise),

you can always ask your butcher to do it for you 🙂

You also want to remove any scales on the fish…

Okay there, now you should have two beautiful pieces of ready-to-go salmon fillets!

DIRECTIONS

Begin by making the sauce…

Heat ghee (or butter) in a small saucepan over medium-high heat

Let come to a light boil and lightly brown- keep in mind that ghee doesn’t really burn, so it will

remain golden in color while butter will burn and brown quickly… you’ll need to watch it!

Regardless of which you use, you want it melted, hot, and lightly brown in color

While the ghee is melting, finely mince garlic clove and chop a lime in half

Squeeze lime juice into a bowl (I used a measuring cup) along with garlic, salt, and pepper

Add the melted ghee to the bowl

Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce until well-mixed and smooth

If you don’t have an immersion blender, use a small food processor or blender

(We like garlic A LOT in my house, so chunky is good for us- if you don’t want chunks of raw garlic,

blend it until there are none… easy fix!)

Set sauce aside until ready to use…

From here, it all goes by super quickly!

Coat both sides of the salmon fillets lightly (and evenly) with flour- about 1 tsp per side

Sprinkle each side lightly with salt and pepper

Drizzle honey over the top side of each fillet (keep in mind whichever side you cook first will be the visible “top” side)

Honey is, well… sticky, so it’s not going to spread super evenly, but do your best (I considered heating it first, but once it gets in the pan, it will heat and spread on its own, so don’t worry about it too much…

Heat 1 tbsp ghee (you an use olive oil if you prefer) in a large pan over medium heat

Add the fillets (if both don’t fit comfortably in the pan, do them in batches…

just like humans, salmon fillets don’t like to be over-crowded)

While it’s cooking, drizzle the other sides (that haven’t been “honied” yet) with honey

After a few minutes, 3-5 should be good, flip fillets and cook the other sides

You want a nice golden-brown crispy exterior, so use your judgement on the timing- if you don’t

think they’re ready, let them sit a wee longer 🙂

Just a sidenote/warning: because the honey will caramelize as it cooks, the salmon fillets will stick to the bottom of the pan very easily- when you scoop them out, use a silicon or otehr good spatula to get them in one even scoop!

(Also a warning for your dishwasher!)