Pistachio Crusted Salmon w/ Lemon

Finally, I had some time to go to the gym today and my last class of the day was canceled (how cool is that?!). I went to Body Defined at Healthworks and boy, I got my ass kicked. The instructor asked us to do one-hand pushups with weights?!?! After the one hour torture (yes, I know, no pain no game), I went to meet Nicole at Ginza in Chinatown and ordered the Bento Box. It was so filling! We had a miso soup, shumai, chicken yakitori, shrimp & vegetable tempura, maguro sashimi w/ some tobiko, and teriyaki salmon. I washed everything down with hot green tea. :D

Before my other class, I treated myself to a latte (b/c someone once told me that Italians don't drink cappuccinos after 11 AM) and this Swiss Premium yogurt. I saw it at my local grocery store and found the flavor unique so I bought it. However, I found the yogurt too sweet for my taste.



I wasn't even hungry by dinner time but cooked because one, I was in the mood and two, Peter has to eat. I made Peter take a walk with me to CVS so we could grab a tub of Ben & Jerry's. I got Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (yippee). Okay, more about the salmon. A while ago, Peter's company gave us a goodies bag and in it was this bag of pistachios. I love pistachios but these are a bit too salty to munch on and so, I haven't' done much with them. But since I picked up a nice piece of salmon steak earlier... a lightbulb went off, enjoy.

Set your oven to 400 degrees.

I imagine that these guys are probably really delicious with a nice beer. Measure about a 3-5 Ts to ground or more if you want to store the rest for use later. I grounded about a 1/2 cup of these bad boys.



I love, love this blender. I will not make fun of Peter ever again for deciding to buy us this powerful machine. It can also knead bread! Now, how awesome is that?



It only took what seems like seconds for it to get to this point. I just pulsed it.



Now chop up some shallots. You can mince if you like. I just chopped them up - medium fine, I guess.



In a small pot, turn to medium heat, and add about 1/8 T of butter, or you can do half butter half olive oil, or just olive oil. I like options. I used 1/2 butter 1/2 butter made w/ olive oil. The idea is you want the pistachios/shallots to be nicely coated and not swimming in butter. It's not a sauce!

Butter because... a buttery pistachio crust just sounds so decadent.



Throw in the shallots (when the butter is hot)... cook for about 1-2 minutes



then add the pistachios (if you made more, then measure out about 3 Ts). Combine. It should only take a few minutes.



It should look something like this... take off heat.



Take out your sharpest knife and slice a lemon as thin as you possibly can. Depending on the size of your salmon steak/fillet, slice as many as you would need to cover it w/o overlapping.



Wash and dry your salmon then place it in a baking dish. I lined mine with foil b/c I don't feel like scrubbing plus my dish has seen better days. Don't worry about coating the dish w/ butter or oil b/c the butter in the pistachio crust will melt and drip down to the pan while baking. Oh la la...

I love the marbling on this guy.



With a spoon or any other utensil/tool of choice, cover the surface with the pistachios.



Now layer the lemon slices on top. I sprinkled a bit of sugar on top of the lemon.



My salmon steak is almost 1.5 lbs and about 2 to 2.5 inches thick. I prefer my salmon slightly rare so I baked this guy for about 15 minutes uncovered at 400 degrees. It turned out just perfect.