Because nothing balances fat like more of it.
I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I concocted dinner for last Sunday. Pan-seared salmon with cheese risotto, a beurre blanc sauce, and caramelized fennel sounds great. And it was, absolutely. It was also extremely filling. Melissa didn't even feel like eating ice cream later that night, which may be the first time in the five-and-a-half years I've known her that she hasn't been able to fit a little ice cream "between the cracks".
I made the beurre blanc sauce by tossing some minced shallots into a pot with a heady dose of vinegar, and then I reduced the vinegar to a glaze. Then I took about seven tablespoons of butter and added it a tablespoon at a time, whisking after each one to get it well fluffed and incorporated. Finally I added some chopped tarragon. Beurre blanc can be tricky, or at least I sometimes find it so, because if the pot is too warm, the butter melts too fast and is difficult to turn into a sauce. And once it's made, you can't leave it over a burner or it will break. I have found the best thing to do is to put it on the stove between the two back burners while I'm using the front burners, whisking it every now and again and passing it briefly over a flame if it gets too hard.
The risotto was very standard, though the only condiment I used was a heap of Parmiggiano. The caramelized fennel was a snap; I made it pretty much the same way you'd make caramelized onions, with a tablespoon or so of butter and cooking slowly over a low flame. I wasn't terribly happy with them, though. I think next time I might fry the fennel and see how it takes to that treatment.
For the salmon, I dredged the fillets in flour and let them sit in the fridge as I heated my skillet over low heat for several minutes, cranking up the heat to high for another couple of minutes to get the pot well and evenly heated. I dropped in the salmon and then pan-seared it. In truth, the interior was somewhat undercooked. Not quite raw, but not as perfectly cooked as the outside.
For wine, I pulled out a Chardonnay from Dunning Vineyards in western Paso Robles. The wine isn't a normal California-style chardonnay, redolent with oak and butter, but I thought it might work well with the increasingly rich dinner I had planned. Alas, the wine was overwhelmed by the richness of the food, though it was still enjoyable.
I plated the whole ensemble by scooping some risotto into the middle of a heated plate, laying the salmon on that, spooning the sauce over the top, and garnishing with the caramelized fennel. I wiped down the plates to get rid of the stray grains of rice which dribbled onto the plate as I arranged the hill of risotto, and served.
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