I had never tried pistachio salmon before and then last Fall it felt like pistachio crusted salmon was at every fancy event. I had it at Kiddushes, bridal showers, weddings. It was the culinary highlight of all of these events for me. I then began on the journey of recreating it at home. It took several tries of good but not quite right salmon dishes before I developed this recipe. It has now become a common Shabbos main dish.
I make a lot of salmon. I find since we do dairy Shabbos meals it is always nice to have a fish, especially with guests and salmon is the easiest to come by kosher wise. Guests who usually expect meat are generally happy with salmon. My go-to is a sweet chili soy glaze but recently I have begun to mix it up. This is one of my favorites of the new recipes. I have also had it at events where meat is the main dish and it goes very quickly.
Though this recipe is more complicated than some of my earlier tries (the jam is new), it is still a surprisingly easy recipe for the payoff. Even on weeks when I have a lot of more complicated dishes and I am considering downgrading the salmon to something simpler, it ends up not adding too much time making this dish. The salmon will still be tasty if you do not have the jam, but it adds moisture and flavor.
The recipe serves two. It is best on a thicker slice of salmon but it works on any. Monitor thinner slices for doneness more though as sometimes they cook very quickly and the salmon is better when moist.
Pistachio Crusted Salmon
Ingredients
- 2 pieces salmon
For Marinating
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
For the Pistachio Crust
- 2 tablespoons peach or apricot jam
- 1/2 cup shelled pistacios
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Wash the salmon and pour the lemon juice and orange juice from the marinade on top.
- Let marinate in the fridge for a few minutes to several hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375°.
- Mix the orange juice, lemon juice, maple syrup, garlic, salt, and pistachios. Place in a food processor and pulse until the bottom portion of the pistachio mixture is ground while the top still has whole pistachios.
- Place the salmon on a baking sheet.
- Spread the peach or apricot jam on the salmon.
- Starting with the smaller pieces of pistachio, press the pistachio mixture onto the salmon. Continue pressing and adding the pistachio mixture until all the pistachios are on.
- Bake for 12-18 minutes depending on the thickness of your salmon and the desired doneness. You can check the sides of the salmon to see whether the salmon has finished cooking.
