Salmon Fillets cooked in peppercorns and red wine (Fish)

Member Name: maria14

Product:	Fish
Date:	12/01/09 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple but sophisticated enough for a dinner party

Disadvantages: Perhaps too spicy for children

This is a delicious and fail safe salmon recipe is a spin on steak on poivre. It is sophisticated enough for a dinner party, but is easy enough just to do for a mid week dinner.

The salmon is coated in a crust of crushed peppercorns and then pan fried. This makes the fish easier to cook without burning it on the outside. A sauce is made by deglazing the pan with red wine and adding creme fraiche.

Children may not be keen as the pepper corns are quite spicy.

Ingredients

I salmon fillet per person

Black pepper corns - enough to cover the fish so at least 1 tablespoon per person

Red wine - about 100 ml if cooking for two people

Small tub of creme fraiche (Use full fat. Half fat can curdle when heated)

Method

1. Crush the peppercorns - best done in a pestle and mortar so you can control how fine you crush them. They are better cracked than powdered - the finer they are, the hotter they will taste

2. Coat each salmon fillet with the peppercorns, so all sides are covered.

3. Heat some oil in a pan, and cook the salmon as you normally wood. You may have to break into one of the pieces to check it is cooked through, depending on how confident you are cooking fish.

4. Put the cooked salmon on a warmed plate and keep warm. Pour in the wine and bring it to a bubble, scraping up the scraps from the pan and mix in. The wine will start to thicken until it is glossy. (This is called deglazing the pan.)

5. Spoon in the creme fraiche. Usually a fat tablespoon for each person is enough and mix in, to make a pink sauce. Add a bit of salt if you want, then pour over the salmon to serve.

I serve this with watercress salad and roasted new potatoes. Delicious.

Summary: Fantastic fish recipe