Photo: I forgot the chives, so had to sprinkle a few green onions on top 🙂

The recipe below is for four 5oz salmon steaks. These days though, I cook for one. So I make the Lemon-Ginger-Chive-Butter, using what I need for one serving, and keeping the other three portions in the freezer for the next time 🙂

The Lemon-Ginger-Chive-Butter is absolutely, positively, out-of-this world delicious! There are two problems with it though. One: it’s soooo delicious that you want a lot of it. You want to swirl that bite of salmon in a big ole’ puddle of it. Then you want to do it again. Two: the original recipe states ‘Stir the butter, lemon juice, ginger and chives together until well blended‘—good luck with that. The lemon juice will splash out of the bowl before it incorporates into the butter. The fix is simple though—don’t struggle—use an electric mixer!

The Salmon is sear-roasted, which is a restaurant trick that also works well at home. Start the salmon in an oven proof pan on the stove on high heat, just for minute, and just to get a bit of color and sear one side of the salmon. Flip the salmon over and slip the whole thing, pan and all, into a 500° oven for a few minutes. Perfectly done salmon with very little fuss, and ready to eat in 5 minutes!

This recipe is from Fine Cooking’s 101 Favorite Quick Recipes.

Seared Salmon with Lemon Ginger Chive Butter

INGREDIENTS

• 6 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice—microwave for 10 seconds to warm up slightly when needed
• 2 Tablespoons grated fresh ginger
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh chives
• 4 5oz salmon fillets, at room temperature, patted dry with a paper towel
• Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 500°.
2. Zap the lemon juice in the microwave for 10 seconds.
3. Using an eclectic mixer, beat the butter, lemon juice, ginger and chives together until well blended. This might take a few minutes, but don’t worry. It will happen. Set aside until serving time.
4. Pat the salmon filets dry with a paper towel and then season with salt and pepper, to taste
5. Heat a large oven proof pan, with just a tiny bit of oil in the bottom, over medium high heat. When the pan and the oil are very hot, add the salmon-skin side UP-and sear for just one minute.
6. Flip the fillets over and immediately put the pan with into the hot oven.
7. Roast for 4 minutes
8. Protect your hands! With a good oven mitt, remove the hot pan from the oven.
9. Transfer the salmon to serving plates and add a small scoop of that to-die-for lemon-ginger-chive-butter to the top of each fillet.

Yum! What do you think? Was it a good day to stop by my kitchen?