Balthazar's Mustard Crusted Salmon Over Lentils

On Friday night, after we had a chance to adjust to being back, I thought I'd try a more ambitious recipe to get us back on our Friday night ritual of a great meal with a nice bottle of wine. I hit up Publix and Costco earlier in the day to restock. At Costco I was able to buy a great piece of salmon, so I decided to check out The Balthazar Cookbook for a salmon recipe.

I settled on the Mustard-Crusted Salmon because it sounded fairly easy -- and let's face it, not all the recipes in the cookbook are that simple. It also suggested serving the salmon with lentils which I had been wanting to try and make since they could also be a great addition to Baz's diet.

It went really well. There were couple of kitchen limitations I encountered. I just hate my stove and oven. Gas would make it much easier to control the temperature and I probably could have achieved the beautiful golden crust like the photograph they use. Instead, I got a slightly darker, almost burned look to my salmon crust. Then of course with my new fear of the smoke detector in our building, I was a little tense about setting my smoky oven to 500 degrees. But, I positioned Damien just under then alarm waving a dish towel and in the end not a peep was heard.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe:

Mustard-Crusted Salmon over Lentils (adapted from The Balthazar Cookbook)

Cook the lentils first:
1 cup lentils (the cookbook suggests French green du Puy lentils)
2 slices of bacon, diced
4 sprigs of thyme
1/2 medium onions, diced
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1/4 teaspoon white pepper (I used black pepper because I didn't have white pepper)

Rinse the lentils in cold water and then place them in a medium saucepan and cover with 4 cups of water. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the bacon with the thyme in a saute pan. When the bacon starts to brown and the fat has liquefied, add the onion, garlic and salt. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the butter, carrots, celery, pepper and 1 cup of water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 more minutes.

Drain the lentils and put them back into the pot. Add the bacon and vegetable mixture to the lentils and stir. Simmer for 7 to 10 minutes or until the lentils are very tender.

Mustard-Crusted Salmon
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 salmon fillets, about 7 ounces each, skinned
2 teaspoons dijon mustard (I used 1 teaspoon of honey dijon mixed with 1 teaspoon of regular dijon)
2 teaspoons bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Rinse and dry the salmon fillets. Mix the two dijon mustards if you are using both honey and regular. Spread one teaspoon of the mustard on the side of the salmon that was skinless to start. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of bread crumbs over each fillet. Use your fingers to press the bread crumbs evenly into the mustard.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large overproof saute pan over high heat. When the oil begins to smoke, place the fillets in the oil, mustard side down. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the fish for 2 minutes. Flip the fillet over and cook the other side for one more minute.

Move the pan into the preheated oven and finish cooking for 3 or 4 more minutes depending on the thickness of the fillets.

I think it would probably okay to keep the fish on the stovetop and simply cover the pan to cook for the additional 3 or 4 minutes, but I went with the original recipe.

To serve, place a bed of lentils in a shallow bowl and arrange the fish on top of them. It looks and tastes beautiful.



We ate it outside on our balcony looking out at the nearly full moon over the calm ocean while the baby slept soundly downstairs. Paired with a nice bottle of South African sauvignon blanc, it was a memorable meal. We topped it off with some delicious cupcakes Damien picked up at Books and Books and a glass of port. Then we slipped away to the television to watch an episode of the first season of Mad Men, which is a really great show : )