Favorite - This is an all time favorite
This is basically the generic fish and nuts recipe where you chop up some nuts, toast them, add oil and green herbs and a bit of salt and pepper. Then you cook the fish and serve it with the nut herb mix.
We've used salmon, halibut, or ling cod; hazelnuts, walnuts, or pecans; coriander, parsley, or basil; olive oil or butter or both. Feel free to improvise.
Salmon and Hazelnuts
Here is our recipe for salmon and hazelnuts. I don't know your level of comfort in the kitchen or what kind of salmon you can get, so I've added lots of conditional stuff that might help, but probably won't. I've even worked in the culinary classic, "cook until done".
What you will need:
- salmon steaks - about 12 oz per person
We recommend king salmon if you can get it; otherwise silver, chinook or just plain old salmon works
We estimate 1 steak per person - salmon steaks vary in size, so you might want to estimate about 12 ounces
per person if that works better
If you can't find salmon steaks, get a similar weight of salmon filets.
- hazelnuts - about a cup, chopped
They sell chopped ones in many baking sections. You want at least a cup. That's two of the little packets.
Obviously you can buy whole hazelnuts and chop them up yourself.
If you can't find hazelnuts, get pecans.
- flat leaf parsley or chervil or basil or tarragon - a big handful
Chervil is our favorite. Basil is pretty good too. Flat leaf parsley is better than the stuff with little curly leaves.
If you use tarragon, you might want to mix it half and half with parsley.
- salt and black pepper - to taste
- butter - several tablespoons
Try to make sure you have about a half a stick of butter in the house.
Don't use margarine.
First, make the topping:
1) Put a tablespoon or two of butter in a frying pan and turn it up past medium to medium high heat so that the butter melts.
2) Dump in the chopped nuts. Stir them around a bit. Brown them lightly. They'll start smelling warm and nutty.
3) Chop and add the herb(s). Coarse chopping will do. You just don't want to have entire plants in the pan.
4) Turn off the heat and stir the herbs with the cooked nuts. Add a pinch or salt and a pinch of pepper.
5) Put everything in the pan into a bowl.
Then, cook the fish:
1) Put the pan back on the stove and turn the burner back on to medium high.
2) Add and melt a tablespoon of butter. (You don't usually need this for king salmon, but it won't hurt).
3) Add the fish and cook until done. This is usually about 5 minutes a side, but it varies a lot. Fattier fish and thicker cuts of fish need more heat to cook. Some people like their salmon a bit rare in the middle. In general, cooked salmon sort of flakes apart so you can cut it with a fork. Raw salmon is a flexible solid. If the outside is cooked, perhaps even browned a bit, and the inside is not cooked enough, turn the heat down to medium low or low and let it cook slowly.
Assemble the dish:
1) Pour the nut and herb mixture over the fish and serve.