Easy Baked Salmon with Red Wine Sauce

One of the easiest ways to bake salmon is to pan fry it briefly before putting it in the oven. Baked salmon receipes cooked this way are quick and easy. An easy baked salmon recipe just right for a mid week supper after work or as part of a dinner with friends. Try this baked salmon fillet recipe served with an unusual red wine sauce.

Ingredients - serves 6

* 6 x 150g/5oz Salmon Fillets, skin on
* 2 finely diced shallots
* 450ml/14floz full bodied red wine such as a Bordeaux
* 250g/8oz unsalted butter, diced
* Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
* Olive oil

Method

Prepare the Red Wine sauce first.

Pour the wine into a pan with the diced shallots. Bring to the boil and reduce until you have about 3 tablespoons. Turn the heat down to low and whisk in the diced butter until it becomes emulsified with the red wine reduction, don' let it boil. Season with salt to taste and take off the heat.

The sauce can be reheated gently when needed.

The Salmon

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan with an ovenproof handle over a high heat.

Cut 3 diagonal slashes into the skin of each salmon fillet, brush with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Tip! Still under the influence of the aromas you've inhaled in step II, take a sip of the wine. Don't make it too big or too small.

Place the salmon skin side down in the frying pan and sear for 3 or 4 minutes. When golden brown, turn over and quickly cook for 30 seconds. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for about 6 minutes or until done to your liking. Try not to overcook the baked salmon or it will be dry and tasteless.
Tip! Meeting challenges threats more actively and invent new ideas to make Napa Wine popular.

Serve the salmon skin side up with the warm red wine sauce poured around it and a simple salad or steamed French beans on the side.

And there you have it, a healthy, quick, easy baked salmon dish with very little washing up - my kind of cooking.
Tip! Color - Take a look. View the wine, examine its color.

Cherie is a freelance cook, cookery writer and webmaster. For more great salmon recipes including how to smoke, grill, bake and poach Salmon and for quick and easy recipes using canned salmon, click here - http://www.great-salmon-recipes.com. Read more about her - http://www.great-salmon-recipes.com/Website.html

Sole Poached in White Wine: Worthy of Monet's Table

Impressionist painter Claude Monet ate his main meal at 11:30 a.m. so he could take advantage of the afternoon light. Monet would get upset if his talented cook, Marguerite, served the meal a few minutes late. Author Claire Joyes and photographer Jean-Bernard Naudin document the artist's love of food in "Monet's Table: The Cooking Journals of Claude Monet," one of the most beautiful cook books ever published.

In the 1880s nobody thought about dieting, Joyes explains, and Monet ate what he wanted and all he wanted. Photos show an aging Monet becoming a rotund Monet. He loved simple, good food and, above all, fresh food from his gardens and farm yard. Fellow artists - Whistler, Cezanne, Rodin and others - were often invited for lunch. Guests were never invited for dinner because Monet went to bed early.

Monet adored fresh fish, especially pike from his fish pond. The cook book has lots of fish recipes, including Filet de sole a la Veron. The fish sauce - egg yolks, fish broth, wine, butter and herbs - is made first. Then the fish is dredged in flour and melted butter and broiled.

Today, many of us are eating healthier and this recipe for Sole Poached in White Wine is not only healthy, it's a one-pan recipe and you can make it in 15 minutes. Pair the fish with crusty bread, a green salad, and fresh fruit and you have a fabulous French meal. Serve the meal on blue and white plates and you'll feel like you're sitting at Monet's table.
Tip! Still under the influence of the aromas you've inhaled in step II, take a sip of the wine. Don't make it too big or too small.

INGREDIENTS: 1 1/2 pounds sole, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 medium onion (chopped), 1 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon lemon pepper, 1 garlic clove (peeled), 3/4 cup chopped canned tomatoes (drained), 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, 1/4 cup dry white wine, 1/4 cup fat free half and half, 1 tablespoon soft butter, 1 tablespoon Wondra flour

METHOD: Pour olive oil into skillet. Saute onions in oil until soft. Add salt, lemon pepper, and garlic clove. Lay fish on top of onions. Scatter chopped tomatoes and parsley over fish. Pour wine around fish. Cover loosely with foil and cook over medium heat 5-10 minutes, or until fish flakes with a fork. Remove foil and garlic clove. Drizzle half and half into sauce. Work flour into butter and stir into sauce. Cook over medium heat, shaking the pan a bit, until sauce has thickened. Makes 4 servings.

Copyright 2006 by Harriet Hodgson.

http://www.healthwriter.blogspot.com
Tip! A third alternative is to pump out the air in the bottle with a “wine pump.” You can get a wine pump virtually anywhere these days, even in stores such as Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Linens and Things.

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 27 years and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Before she became a health writer she was a food writer for the former "Rochester Magazine" in her home town of Rochester, MN. Her 24th book, "Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief," written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from http://www.amazon.com A five-star review of the book is also posted on Amazon.