Salmon with Orange Buerre Blanc, and Glazed Vegetables (with a bonus lime and mint sorbet)

First, some thoughts on how this turned out

• The orange beurre blanc was amazing. I guess a stick of butter will make anything better
• I’ll definitely try the glazed vegetables again (carrots were a little overcooked this time), but I wouldn’t do it again when there’s already a hearty butter sauce on the plate
• I thought this would look fancier. One of these days I’ll figure out how to plate food properly.
• The lime mint sorbet started to melt with the quickness. Though it was like 85 in my apartment.
• Speaking of the sorbet, it needed something else. Just the lime and mint made it taste like lime-ade (with a hint of mint). Maybe some watermelon would work.
• Fava beans are more of a pain than they’re worth

Recipe:

Orange Beurre Blanc (from: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/orange_beurre_blanc_sauce_for_seafood/)

Juice of 1 orange (about 3/8 cup)

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 teaspoon minced shallots

¼ cup white wine (I actually used Vermouth)

1 stick (1/4 lb.) butter

Salt

Pepper

Add the orange juice, zest, shallots, and wine in a small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer, cook over medium high and reduce until the sauce is nearly a glaze (took me ~10 minutes). Add in the butter in 4 additions, whisking continuously as you do so to emulsify the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Glazed Vegetables

3 carrots, halved, then quartered

Fava Beans (like 8 stalks I think?)

½ - ¾ cup chicken stock

2 Tablespoons butter, divided

Lime juice

Lime zest

Salt

For the fava beans: remove the beans from the stalks. Parcook the beans (I was lazy and microwaved them) until the outer layer shrivels. Remove the inner, edible part.

Place the carrots in a medium sauté pan, and cover halfway with chicken stock. Add 1 Tbsp butter. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook on medium-low, until carrots start to get tender. Add the fava beans, the remaining 1 tbsp of butter, and raise the heat to medium-high. Stir until the liquid reduced to practically nothing, tossing the vegetables to cover them in glaze. Squeeze in a bit of lime juice, and add some lime zest.

Salmon:

Score the filet along the skin (so it doesn’t curl up in the pan), and season with salt on both sides. Heat a skillet over high heat. Pour a little vegetable oil on the fish, coating both sides. Place the fish in the pan, skin down. Reduce heat to medium, and cook for ~3 minutes. Flip and cook for another minute. Times will vary based on how thick the fish is, the filet I used wasn’t very thick.

Lime and Mint Sorbet:

4 Limes, halved and skin removed

Leaves from 1 sprig of mint, roughly chopped

2 Tbsp sugar

4 cups ice

Add the ingredients to your Vitamix in the order listed. Turn the blender on, and increase the speed from 1 to 10. Blend for 45 seconds, tampering down with the big black tampering thingamajiggy that they give you. The sorbet is done when the blade makes a whirring sound. Serve with lime zest.