Pan-Seared Salmon
Overview
A salmon steak seasoned with Cajun spice and paprika, then cooked in butter until the outside colours and the inside stays just short of firm. No country is claimed and none applies: pan-searing is a technique rather than a tradition, and salmon is a cold-water North Atlantic and Pacific fish with no African tradition attached to it. The contributor is South African, and the Cajun seasoning is the giveaway that this is a contemporary home-cooking recipe rather than an inherited one. Cajun spice blends are Louisiana in origin and reached South African kitchens through the same route as most global pantry seasonings. There is one technical point worth stating clearly, because the source gets it slightly wrong. It has you melt the butter over low heat, then sear. Searing needs high heat, and butter alone burns before it gets there, because its milk solids scorch well below searing temperature. A neutral oil to start, with butter added towards the end for flavour and basting, is the standard way round this. Left as written, you will steam the fish rather than sear it. This page carries the traffic on this dish, so it is the one being kept even though its slug ends in a duplicate suffix.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Pat the salmon dry with kitchen paper. A wet surface will steam rather than colour.
- 2
Rub both sides with the salt, Cajun spice, fish seasoning and paprika.
- 3
Get a non-stick or heavy-based pan properly hot and pour in the neutral oil.
- 4
Lay the salmon in the pan and leave it undisturbed for about 4 to 5 minutes, until a crust has formed and it releases from the pan on its own.
- 5
Turn it over, drop in the butter, the crushed garlic and the thyme, and cook for a further 4 to 5 minutes, spooning the foaming butter over the fish as it goes.
- 6
Take the pan off the heat while the centre is still slightly translucent, salmon carries on cooking once it leaves the pan.
- 7
Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice and serve.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Cedukwazi Nhlengethwa- Dry the fish thoroughly first. This matters more than anything else in the method: moisture on the surface prevents a crust forming.
- Start in oil, not butter. Butter alone burns before the pan is hot enough to sear, and butter added later gives the flavour without the scorching.
- Leave it alone once it is in the pan. Moving the fish repeatedly is the main reason home-cooked salmon has no crust.
- Take it off slightly under-done. Residual heat finishes it, and salmon goes from moist to dry very quickly.
- Skin-on fillets do well here, start skin side down and press gently for the first few seconds so it stays flat and crisps evenly.
- Cajun spice blends vary in salt content, so taste before adding the extra pinch.
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