Sometimes I really wish the school year would start already. Because somehow this summer has been busier than the rest of the routine-filled school year ever has been before. Between four kids, summer camps, swim lessons, family vacations, holidays, birthdays, baking desserts for local restaurants, baking desserts for the local opera festival, sharing recipes on this blog, and an ever increasing workload in the freelance realm, I feel like I’m dog-paddling in the middle of the ocean with no life vest.
September, get over here! I need you!
I know I haven’t been posting as frequently as I normally do, but I swear I’ll get thing back to normal.
In September.
So, lets talk about this Salmon.
A few Sundays ago, I found myself with a large bag of cherries that was not getting eaten fast enough by my family. Rather than have them go to waste, I decided to use them in our dinner and this Balsamic Black Pepper Cherry Glazed Salmon was the perfect thing to do with them.
The sauce is tangy, sweet, and spicy all at once. Once you get past the pitting of the cherries it’s super easy to throw together. The sauce ingredients simmer down into a syrup-y glaze that is brushed onto salmon fillets and baked. After it’s cooked, the salmon gets another coating of sauce, full of sweet cherry pieces and spicy bits of freshly ground black pepper.
I served mine over the top of a potato/parsnip puree which complimented the salmon perfectly. Top the salmon with a sprig of fresh thyme for an elegant yet simple meal!
- 1 cup Deep Red Cherries, pitted and sliced into quarters
- ⅓ cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Coarse Salt
- ½ teaspoon Coarse Ground Black Pepper
- 1 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
- ¼ cup Dry White Wine
- 6 Salmon Fillets (about 4 ounces each)
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick mat.
- Place the cherries, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, vinegar, and wine in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium/high heat, stirring to combine ingredients and dissolve sugar.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until sauce has reduced and is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat.
- Lay the salmon fillets out on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2" from each other.
- Portion out about 2 tablespoons of the glaze into a separate cup(to avoid cross contamination or glaze touching raw fish and cooked fish) and brush the glaze on to the salmon fillets, coating each one thoroughly.
- Bake on the top rack of the preheated oven for 8-12 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Take care to not overcook. Remove from the oven. Move fish to a serving platter and spoon the remaining glaze generously over the fish.
What a lovely/delicious cherry glaze on this salmon – makes it such an elegant and upscale dinner. Beautifully presented and that glaze is a must try!
Woow! It looks amazing!
I consider myself an exceptional cook, and this recipe was a major hit! We cooked the sauce stovetop, grilled the salmon outside on grill to a med/med rare, and upon removing from Grill, drizzled the sauce over two salmon steaks. (we reduced original recipe by half; next time I will add more cherries to sauce.). We used moderately sweet cherries from our cherry tree. This recipe was easy, quick and very delicious! The flavors and layers of taste are great! When removing salmon from Grill, we drizzled cherry sauce over it, and let it sit, in a loosely covered plate, for 3-4 min before serving– fish seemed to absorb some of the sauce and flavor while sitting. We give this a FIVE STAR RATING, both for excellent taste, and ease of preparation.