Pistachio Crusted Salmon
Thee first thing that struck me when my KOL Foods shipment arrived was the vibrant pink color of the salmon. I could tell that this was a high quality product before opening or defrosting it. KOL Foods take pride and care in selling organic, grass fed meat and poultry and this farm-raised Alaskan salmon is held to a similarly high standard.
Freshwater salmon are free to find nutrition from plankton or other small fish which provide them with the nutrients they need to stay healthy. Farm-raised salmon, the cheap frozen stuff from the grocery store, is fed a diet of corn or soybeans which leads to larger, malnourished fish. The beautiful color of a KOL Foods Atlantic Salmon is the sign of a healthy fish — not one that has been pumped with red food dyes to appear pink before hitting the stores.
I wanted to do something special with this fish and knowing how popular my Dukkah Crusted Salmon is with you guys, I thought creating a crust using another nut. My mind drifted back to a dish that I haven’t had since the Shabbat (Saturday) afternoons of my teenage years. Each week, our core group of friends would hang out at the same friend’s home, and I remember her mom’s salmon with a nut crust being delicious.
Jumping onto Facebook, I emailed my friend to ask for her mother’s recipe. It turns out I was wrong about two things.
- It was likely walnuts, not pistachios
- There really wasn’t much of a recipe at all
The best advice I got — advice from a true cook — was “see what’s in the cupboard and play with it!” So I did.
This is an excellent dish, served room temperature or straight from the oven. Best of all, it reconnected me with friends that I don’t speak to anywhere near often enough. The most time consuming part of it all was shelling the pistachios!
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Using salted pistachios adds great flavor to the salmon.
Pistachio Crusted Salmon
- 1 1.5lb KOL Foods Salmon
- 1/2lb salted pistachio nuts, shelled
- Olive Oil
Leave the skin on the salon and pat the top dry with a towel.
Shell the pistachios and combine them with olive oil in a 4-cup food processor (or my favorite kitchen toy) to create a paste then cover the salmon with you paste to create an outer shell.
Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. For this recipe you really do want to pre-heat the oven!
Once the oven is hot, drizzle some coconut oil or olive oil on the bottom of a baking tray, place the salmon on top, then bake for 9 minutes.
When the timer rings, put the broiler on for two minutes to toast the pistachio nut crust. Remove from the oven and serve warm or at room temperature.
