Sep 7, 2013

Simple White Sauce and Pan Seared Salmon

I decided to have salmon with fresh small green beans, broccoli with cheese sauce &  tossed salad





Do you Sometimes tire of plain vegetables?  I do and like an easy to make sauce on them..  I don't make these old favorites as often as I used to but they can be so delicious and so easy to make.


SIMPLE THIN WHITE SAUCE

In a medium saucepan on medium heat:
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter
Add 1 tablespoon flour
Stirring until mixed and heated through about a minute or so
Add 1 cup whole milk stirring until mixture begins to boil and thickens
Boiling and stirring 1 minute
Season with a little salt and white pepper to taste
This is when you will add 1/2 to 1 cup grated cheddar cheese for CHEESE SAUCE & 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard.
Stir until melted and smooth. 
See it is very simple

Medium Sauce
 For a medium sauce: Double the flour and butter in your sauce.
For a thick sauce: 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour
*Then add rest of ingredients listed above and cook the same.
I like the thin sauce for the cheese because it is smoother and coats your vegetables better.


DILL SAUCE
Make the medium sauce 
*Add dash of nutmeg with flour when making sauce
Add 1 teaspoon minced fresh dill or 1/2 teaspoon dill weed
This is great with fish




 SIMPLE PAN FRIED SALMON
I want to thank my Carly she cooks salmon a lot and has inspired me to cook it more often.
I love a brown crispy crust on mine and have finally learned to cook it that way. Crispy on the outside and moist tender on the inside.
 Wash & Dry 
Look for bones and remove with tweezers.  Leave skin on, you will remove that later.  Cut your Salmon so that your pieces will be evenly thick when possible.  Have salmon at room temperature
Season with salt and cracked pepper.  I also added minced fresh dill & a little lemon or lime juice.


Use a great frying pan.  Heat your pan on medium high heat.  Add a tiny bit of olive oil
Heat oil.   Add salmon skin side down first*
Watch it will cook quickly
Depending on the thickness of your salmon (my thickest pieces shown above I cooked 2 minutes on each side)
DO NOT TOUCH OR TURN 
If your pan is hot enough salmon will not stick to pan.  Watch, you can see how far up salmon is cooking by color.  Turn and cook for another 2 minutes or so watching until center of salmon still has a slight pinker color because you don't want to overcook it.  *If it has a skin now is the time to easily remove it.*  Remove from pan and eat immediately!










5 comments:

  1. This looks so delicious, Dolly! We eat a lot of salmon over here and have been even boiling it lately. Sounds weird, I know. But it tastes just like crab meat if you drizzle a bit of butter over the top! :) I can remember my grandmother making baked salmon with simple white sauce over the top. The best ever! :) Thanks for some great recipes!

    xoxo laurie

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    1. Sounds good Laurie! I'll bet it is good and adding melted butter in my book on just about anything is great! I have really come to love Dill lately and that is great when added to the sauce with fish..Thank you beautiful friend for the visit! Have a great weekend!

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  2. That looks good. We haven't had fish here in a while, I just may have to buy some salmon.

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    1. You know Kristina I think that I am liking it better and will have more! You know here in the South we have fish frys and don't get me wrong I love a good fresh fried fish but need to add more to our menu like Salmon. I love Grouper too it is such a nice white flaky fish isn't it? Good to hear from you.

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  3. I really do enjoy a good white sauce There's one that I use from my reproduction Betty Crocker picture cookbook. It's fabulous ;) :) Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather :)

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