Salmon in Cream Sauce in a Pan

The steaks go through the pan twice here: first they are fried until golden, and only then do they go into the heated cream. Put into the sauce raw, the fish will poach — cream doesn't give the temperature at which a crust forms, and the steak comes out pale and loose.

The mustard in this recipe works in the marinade, not in the sauce. Twenty minutes under a mixture of salt, pepper and mustard and the fish takes the sharpness inside; added to the cream, the same mustard would stay on the surface of the sauce and turn harsh when heated.

The steaks stand in the cream for about ten minutes. This isn't boiling but heating through: in that time the sauce thickens and the fish finishes cooking inside without losing the crust the whole thing was done for.

The crust comes first here and the cream after. In the oven the same salmon family gets its fat from sour cream and cheese instead, in baked pink salmon with potatoes in foil, while a crust with no cream in the dish at all is fried mackerel in batter in a pan.

Caloric content: 268kcal

Notes

• Blot the moisture off the steaks with paper towels. Wet fish steams in the pan and there will be no crust at all.
• Cream at 33%. Less fatty cream separates when heated, especially if juices from the fish get into the sauce.
• Sauté the onion in a separate pan. The pan the fish came out of holds burnt particles that would give the sauce a gray color.
• The cream is heated, not boiled. Boiling curdles it.
• Serve the lemon separately. Juice squeezed into the sauce curdles the cream instantly — it is squeezed over the fish on the plate.
• Serve with rice. There is more sauce here than the fish needs, and it is meant for a neutral side dish.

Questions and Answers

Why are the steaks fried separately first?

Put into the sauce raw, the fish will poach: cream doesn't give the temperature at which a crust forms, and the steak comes out pale and loose.

Why is the mustard in the marinade and not in the sauce?

Twenty minutes under a mixture of salt, pepper and mustard and the fish takes the sharpness inside. Added to the cream, the same mustard would stay on the surface of the sauce and turn harsh when heated.

Why cream at 33% in particular?

Less fatty cream separates when heated, especially if juices from the fish get into the sauce. And the cream is heated, not boiled — boiling curdles it.

Can the lemon be squeezed into the sauce?

No, the juice curdles the cream instantly. The lemon is served separately and squeezed over the fish on the plate.

Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.