Cajun Salmon

Good news! Salmon is super fast to cook and doesn't really need a whole lot of work to be delicious. I usually just cook salmon with a small pad of butter and a bunch of garlic. Today I tried something a little more involved to help shake up my routine a little bit.

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Here is what you need:

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Back Row: Chili powder (called an audible and didn't use it), Garlic Powder (0.05), Paprika (0.05), Cayenne Pepper (0.05), Black Pepper, an 8 oz salmon steak (2.02), and a pad of butter (0.10). That's a total of 2.27 for the protein portion of the meal.

Begin by melting the butter over low heat.

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Add the salmon steak and move the heat up just a little to medium-low. You don't want to burn the ingredients as this will make them bitter. You also don't want to risk oxidizing any good fats that are present.

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Here is a picture of my opinion of medium-low heat:

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Lay down a liberal amount of paprika. Paprika adds a smoky flavor, but isn't particularly strong. This layer will form a delicious crust once we flip the salmon and fry it in the butter.

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Put some cayenne pepper in one palm and sprinkle two pinches evenly over the salmon. You'll need about a tenth of what I actually poured into my palm in this picture.

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Finally, cover the paprika and cayenne with garlic powder. After about 3 minutes, it will be time to flip the salmon.

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When you flip the salmon, give it the same seasoning on the opposite side. After 3 minutes, flip it back to help form a seasoning crust on the other side.

Remove the salmon when you're happy with the Cajun crust and finish it off by pouring the butter and fish oil that was released over the top. There is a lot of flavor in there. You can add some black pepper at this point if you want.

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It should look something like this.

From Cajun Salmon

I like to eat my salmon with a wedge of fresh lime to squeeze on top. A lot more people prefer lemon, but the citric acid from either fruit will help cut through the fat and give the fish a whole new dimension of flavor. My side dish was collards with bacon, but I wasn't happy with how they turned out, so I'm going to tweak the recipe and get back to all of you on that one.

The total cooking time is about 10 minutes, so this is a standby for me when I'm in a rush. I suggest buying a bunch of salmon steaks in bulk and freezing them as they thaw quite well without any serious drawbacks.