A couple tricks we have found:
1.
Always use butter. There is no alternative for this, sorry. Other
(healthier) options like many oils just don’t work because their smoking points
are different and can cause your blackened food to either just burn or not be
blackened at all.
2.
Don’t turn up the heat too high. Medium/High has
been the best for us (we have an electric stove). Many recipes call for High
heat, but every time we have followed that rule, the center isn’t cooked by the
time the outside is charred. Not to mention the smoke detector going off and
scaring the bejesus out of our dog – I think we gave her a complex for a while.
3.
Thirdly, even though we are cooking salmon
today, we wanted to share our “expertise” with blackened chicken as well. When
dealing with blackened chicken, we found 5-7 minutes on High heat left the outside
burn and the center uncooked. A trick we learned for chicken is cooking on Medium/High
heat and covering the pan with a lid. This keeps the center moist and the
outside blackened, but not burnt.
This salad was perfect for a light and tasty lunch on a hot Sunday
afternoon. We love the peppery quality
of the arugula and think it makes a perfect base for a salad. Our recipe calls for a 5oz. bag of arugula,
but that’s more for convenience purposes. Steve actually bought a fresh bunch
of arugula at the market, which was perfect for just the two of us. You can
certainly choose to use a fresh bunch as well - just eyeball what you feel is
the right amount for the number of salads you’re preparing.
All the veggies in this salad were bought at our local farmers’
market. We cooked up the corn last night on the grill and had one ear left
over, so this was a great way to use up the last bit. Wish we would have
snapped a few pics of all the goodies, but surprise, this was a very last
minute meal and didn’t think about pictures until afterwards. Oops. We’ll try
to be better next time.
Fun fact about the tomatoes – we bought them last weekend
and hadn’t gotten around to making anything with them. They were green tomatoes
when we bought them, and apparently green tomatoes will still turn to regular red
tomatoes if left out long enough. Maybe
you already knew that, but it was news to us and we thought it was pretty cool.
Ok, here it is:
Blackened Salmon over Arugula
Serves 4
Ingredients
5oz bag of Arugula
2 salmon filets, skin and bones removed
1 TBS of preferred blackened seasoning (We used Louisiana
Fish Fry)
4 TBS of unsalted butter, melted/divided
1 tomato, diced
1/2 of small red onion, thinly sliced
1 ear of grilled corn, kernels removed
Balsamic Vinaigrette (or other dressing if you have an
aversion to balsamic)
Directions
1. In a small flat bowl, melt 2 TBS of butter.
2. Place salmon fillets in bowl and coat both sides with
butter
3. Sprinkle both sides of the salmon evenly with the
blackened seasoning.
4. In a large, heavy skillet (cast iron is best) over
medium/high heat, add remaining butter to the bottom
5. Place salmon in skillet and cook until just blackened, 2
to 5 minutes per side.
6. Arrange arugula in bowl topped with tomatoes, onion,
corn, salmon, and preferred amount of dressing
