Quick and Easy Crispy-Skin Salmon with Honey-Dijon Glaze and Spaghettini Aglio e Olio
For our first night with a fully stocked pantry, we chose to make Salmon. We bought a whole side of salmon and portioned it into 3 meals for the two of us, the first two pieces we separated and stored in the fridge, while the others we vaccuum sealed and froze for future use. So, while the first portion was still fresh, we made a nice meal out of it.
For this recipe you will need one small pot, one medium pot, and one cast iron skillet (you can use just a regular frying pan if a skillet is not available, just make sure you can expose it to very high temperatures).
To start, fill up a medium pot with water and about a tablespoon of salt and bring it to a boil. In a small bowl, mix your Dijon Mustard, Honey and freshly squeezed Lime Juice, reserve it. In the small pot on medium heat, fry finely chopped garlic in a drizzle on canola oil. Stir it constantly with a spatula and watch carefully as the garlic can burn very quickly.
Once the garlic is mostly golden and toasted, reduce the heat to low-medium and add the butter away from the heat. Melt the butter slowly to not burn it and add Italian Seasoning. Once the butter is fully melted, let it cook on low heat for another 2 minutes watching it closely for the flavours to infuse without adding burned butter flavour. Reserve.
Add vegetable oil to a dry skillet, turn the heat to high and let it heat up until you start seeing white smoke on the sides of it. If this is your first time using a skillet, at this point do not touch the skillet without an oven glove and a rag. If you are using a metal frying pan, just let it get hot until the oil shimmers. This will take a few minutes. Turn your hood fan on high and open your windows.
On a clean cutting board, pat your salmon dry with a piece of paper towel, then use a very sharp knife to slightly cut the skin of the salmon three times the long way. You want to make three slits so the skin gets crispier. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the Salmon and reserve.
Once the water boils, add your pasta to the salted water and make sure to stir it slowly until all the pasta is covered with water. You should stir it so all the pieces don`t stick together. Cook it for 3/4 of the time on your package instructions. We used Spaghettini, which means that the pasta is very thin and cooks very quickly, it took about 5 minutes to get it to almost fully cooked.
Once your skillet is very very hot, make sure you have enough oil covering the bottom of the pan (if not, add another tablespoon and let it heat up again,) place the salmon skin down, press it onto the skillet lightly and firmly so all of the skin touches the hot pan and listen for the sizzle.
Let it cook for 2-4 minutes depending on how thick your cut is and flip to cook the top side of the salmon for another 2-4 minutes. On thicker pieces, sear both sides as well for about a minute each. The internal temperature of your fish should be 145F for a moist and fully cooked salmon.
Use a spoon or a pastry brush to glaze the skin-less side of the salmon and let it rest on an uncovered plate with the skin facing up. If the skin is on the plate or if the plate is covered, the steam will soften the crispy skin.
Reserve 4 Tablespoon of your pasta water before draining the 70-80% cooked pasta. Put the pasta back in the, now empty, pot and drizzle a dash of olive oil; mix it. Warm up the butter mix on low heat and add the pasta water slowly mixing constantly. Once fully mixed, add the butter mix to the pasta and stir it on low-medium heat until the pasta is fully cooked. Add salt, pepper. more Italian Seasoning and freshly grated parm to taste.
Your meal is ready! Slice fresh lemons and parsley and use the remaining of the Honey-Dijon to make your plate prettier and impart even more flavour.
Crispy-Skin Salmon with Honey-Dijon Glaze and Spaghettini Aglio e Olio
Servings: 2
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the Salmon
2 Pieces of Salmon (Fresh or Fully Thawed Out)
4 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
2 Tbsp Honey
½ Lemon (Freshly Squeezed)
Salt and Pepper
2+ Tbsp Canola Oil (or other oils with a high smoking point, do not use olive oil or butter because they will burn)
For the Pasta
300g Spaghettini (Dry Pasta)
4 Tbsp Butter (unsalted)
2 Large Garlic Cloves
2 tsp Mallia Seasoning (or your storebought Italian Seasoning)
Salt and Pepper
Freshly Grated Parmesan
½ Lemon and Parsley for serving.
Step by Step
1. Mix all the Dijon, Honey and freshly squeezed Lemon until fully emulsified. Reserve.
2. Slice both garlic cloves finely and fry it in a little bit of canola oil on medium-high heat until they become golden. Watch it closely as it can quickly burn. Lower the heat to low-medium and add the butter and Mallia/Italian Seasoning away from the heat. Stir it and let it melt slowly on low-medium heat. Turn the heat off and reserve it in the same pan.
3. Boil salted water and add your pasta. Stir it until fully submerged. Cook it to 70-80% doneness.
4. Put the skillet on high with 2 tablespoons of canola oil and let it get to a smoking point – you should be able to see smoke coming from the pan itself.
5. Pat salmon dry with a paper towel. With a very sharp knife, slice the skin without going too far into the meat three times – long way. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
6. Once the skillet is hot enough (check if there is enough oil covering the bottom, if not add one more tablespoon and let it get hot for another couple of minutes,) place the salmon skin down and gently press it onto the skillet so all of the skin touched the pan. Cook for about 2-4 minutes. Sear the top side of the salmon for about 2-4 minutes or until internal temperature is above 145F.
7. Remove Salmon from heat and glaze the meat side with the Honey-Dijon Glaze. Let it rest.
8. Once done, drain the pasta but reserve 4 tablespoons of the pasta water.
9. Put the butter mixture back on low heat and add pasta water slowly while mixing.
10. Add the new butter mix to the pasta and cook on medium heat for another 3-4 minutes (until the pasta finishes cooking). Add salt, pepper, more Italian seasoning, fresh parsley and freshly grated parmesan to taste. Serve with extra Honey-Dijon glaze and slices of lemon.
Enjoy!
