We venture into Tabantha for this dish. Made with hearty salmon and flour ground down from the Tabantha wheat, this is a favorite of the Rito in Rito Village.
“Restores your health and temporarily increases your maximum hearts. The crispy skin of this fried hearty salmon puts its texture in a class all its own.”
This Meunière strays a bit from the traditional French dish. Salmon steaks are used rather than salmon filets (although you could use filets if that’s what you have). The sauce in the picture looks closer to a Beurre Blanc sauce than a Meunière sauce. Beurre Blanc is obviously not the traditional sauce for this dish, but it can be thickened so that it can be poured over the salmon in a manner that matches the in game picture. So, I have included a recipe for this sauce as well as a traditional Meunière sauce. Choose the route you would prefer to go with your sauce!
Ingredients
Salmon
4-6 salmon steaks (or filets)
½ - 1 cup flour
2 - 4 tbsp ghee (or butter)
Salt and Pepper
In-Game Meunière Sauce
1 shallot, minced
Juice of 1 lemon (approximately ¼ cup)
¼ cup white wine
½ cup heavy cream
6 tbsp cold butter
Handful of parsley, chopped
¼ tsp salt
Traditional Meunière Sauce
4 tbsp butter
Juice of ½ lemon (approximately 2 tbsp)
Handful of parsley, chopped
Before we do anything else, we need to debone the salmon steaks. The steak will likely have a piece of the spine in the center along with some rib bone extending down the inside of the belly flaps. You want to lay the steak on it’s side and slide your knife between the flesh and the rib bone close to the spine; then, slowly work the knife outward while pressing the knife against the bone. After doing this on both belly flaps, work the knife around both sides of the spine and then cut it off at the soft joint in the back. After doing this, take tweezers and remove the eight or so pin bones left in the meat. The picture below shows where to cut away the rib bones and spine in black and where to locate the pin bones in white.
Once the bones are removed, will will roll the belly flats in to create a more circular steak. This will not only help to match the in-game photo better, but it will also help to cook the fish more evenly. To do this, push the tip of your knife between the skin and the flesh of the salmon where one of the belly flaps meets the larger portion of the salmon steak. Run your knife between the skin and flesh down the full length of the flap until the skin is fully separated from the flesh. Do this only for one of the flaps.
With the skin separated, fold the flesh part of the flap inward and tuck it into the center gap. Wrap the other skin on belly flap around that one, and then wrap the loose separated skin around the outside of the skin on flap, sticking ot to the other skin. You will have now have a circular (or ovular) salmon steak. You can use a piece of kitchen twine to tie the circle right so the flaps don’t move, but I just carefully season, flour, and place it in the pan to avoid it coming undone.
Ok, steaks are prepped, time to cook them! Salt and pepper both sides of the steaks, and add the flour into a bowl to dredge the salmon. Dredge each salmon steak in flour, shaking off the excess. Place a pan over medium heat and then add in 2 tbsp of ghee or butter. Once it has melted, lay on your salmon steaks. Cook them 4-5 minutes on the first side, and then flip and cook 3-4 minutes on the other side. If the pan gets too hot, turn the heat down a little. Cook the steaks in batches if needed, adding another 2 tbsp of ghee or butter before cooking the second batch. Keep the salmon warm on a baking sheet in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven.
Once the fish is done, it’s time to make the sauce.
In-Game Meunière Sauce
Add the minced shallot, white wine, and lemon juice to a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk the contents together. Allow it to simmer for about 8-10 minutes until the wine and lemon juice thicken. Once they thicken, add the cream and whisk. Allow the mixture to come back to a simmer and then lower the heat to low. At this point, add the cold butter to the cream mixture one tablespoon at a time, whisking until each tablespoon of butter melts. Once all of the butter has been melted in, remove the sauce from the heat and add the salt. Whisk to fully combine and let the sauce sit off of the heat for a few minutes to finish thickening.
Traditional Meunière Sauce
If you would prefer to make a traditional Meunière sauce instead, add the butter to the pan that you used to cook the fish. If that pan is not exactly salvageable after cooking the fish, then add the 4 additional tablespoons of butter to a new pan over medium heat. Allow the butter to cook until it darkens or turns light brown and begins to smell nutty. At this point remove the pan from the heat, add in the lemon juice, and whisk them together.
Serve the salmon steak topped with the Meunière sauce and garnished with chopped parsley. I recommend serving with an herb salad, pan fried tomato slices, and maybe some (Hylian) rice.
Learn more about Hearty Salmon Meuniere from Breath of the Wild at Zelda Dungeon.