Maple Glazed Salmon with Pistachio Crust

I’m excited Troy is starting to have more fish in his diet. It opens up so many more dinner options for me! For Christmas, my sister gave me a box full of local DC products, like Sloppy Mama’s BBQ sauce and Langdon Wood maple syrup. Tonight, I found the perfect use for the latter. On the menu: maple glazed salmon with a pistachio crust.

Originally, I planned on making this Thursday night. However, some chaos ensued in the kitchen. For some reason the sealed salmon package leaked a bit, all of a sudden my burners wouldn’t light no matter what we did, a package of peanuts burst open and fell everywhere, and a mason jar in my cabinet over the sink fell onto another glass which exploded into a bunch of tiny pieces.

We took it as a sign to just eat out instead. 

I had already started making my glaze, so I ended up tossing this in a plastic bag and marinating overnight. It was intensely fragrant and I couldn’t wait to try it. Ginger would be a great addition, as well as maybe mustard, but I chose to keep mine super simple. 

What you’ll need
Salmon fillets – mine were skinless
Maple syrup – I have Langdon Wood
Soy sauce
Lemon juice
Green onion
4 garlic cloves – mashed 
Pistachios
Crispy onions – something like French’s French fried onions

Preheat your oven to 350° 

Grab a small bowl and pour about 1/4 cup maple syrup and 1/4 soy sauce in. You’re going to end up using more soy sauce than maple syrup, but per usual I didn’t measure. Squeeze in a good amount of lemon juice and grab a garlic press to mash in the cloves. Toss in green onion. From here, whisk and just keep tasting! 

I love Langdon Wood maple syrup because they age the syrup in a barrel which was used to age Rye whiskey. It’s not your typical sweetness. When you first taste it, it has the normal sweetness you’d expect, but then it’s followed up with a deep, full-bodied flavor of a whiskey. 

To start, bake for 10 minutes. Then, crush some pistachios and mix with crispy onions. Once the 10 minutes is up, baste the salmon with the glaze and top each piece with the pistachio and onion mix. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until the salmon is flaky. 

Turns out, marinating overnight worked really well. Just don’t overcook it! I probably did a little closer to 30 minutes, and while it still tasted delicious, the salmon was too dry for my taste 🙁 I love glazed salmon, so I’ll definitely make this again! 

The next fish on deck to try? Atlantic cod…share your favorite recipes with me!