Roasted salmon with a spiced-up honey-lime glaze
Pairing perfectly roasted salmon with a spiced-up honey-lime glaze required a cooking technique all its own.
Slashing the skin encouraged it to render and crisp quickly, but we also needed to give the flesh a strong, flavourful crust that would stand up to (as well as hold on to) a thick coating of glaze.
Applying a rub of cornstarch and brown sugar to the flesh and searing it in a hot skillet provided that browned crust and firm texture on the double. Once flipped, the skin side needed just a minute to crisp.
We spooned the thickened glaze over the fillets and transferred the skillet to a moderate oven where our salmon hit its target temperature in less than 10 minutes.
Glossy and appealingly sweettart, these fillets were an easy, satisfying upgrade.
To ensure uniform pieces of fish, buy a whole centre-cut fillet and cut it into four pieces. You will need a 12-inch oven-safe non-stick skillet for this recipe.
Honey Lime Glazed Roast Salmon
Makes 4 servings Honey-Lime Glaze
1⁄4 cup honey
1 teaspoon grated lime zest plus 2 tablespoons juice 1 tsp chili powder 1⁄2 tsp cornstarch 1⁄8 tsp cayenne pepper Salmon 1 tsp packed light brown sugar 1⁄4 tsp salt 1⁄4 tsp cornstarch 1⁄8 tsp pepper
1 (1 3⁄4- to 2-pound) centre-cut skin-on salmon fillet, 1 1⁄2 inches thick
1 tsp vegetable oil
Start to finish: 40 minutes For the honey-lime glaze:
Whisk all ingredients together in small saucepan and simmer over medium-high heat until thickened, about one minute; remove from heat and cover.
For the salmon: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 F. Combine sugar, salt, cornstarch and pepper in bowl. Cut salmon crosswise into four fillets. Make three or four shallow slashes diagonally, about 1 inch apart, on skin side of each fillet, being careful not to cut into flesh.
Pat salmon dry with paper towels, and rub sugar mixture evenly over flesh side of salmon.
Heat oil in 12-inch oven-safe non-stick skillet over mediumhigh heat until just smoking. Lay salmon flesh side down in skillet and cook until well browned, about one minute. Carefully flip salmon and cook on skin side for one minute.
Off heat, spoon glaze over salmon fillets. Transfer skillet to oven and roast until centre is still translucent when checked with tip of paring knife and registers 125 F (for medium-rare), seven to 10 minutes. Serve.
Per serving: 364 calories (34 per cent from fat); 14 grams fat (2 g saturated); 109 milligrams cholesterol; 254 mg sodium; 20 g carbohydrate; 19 g sugar; 39 g protein.