Pan Seared Salmon with Corn Risotto and Peach Salsa

corn and squash risotto with seared salmon

For dinner, we decided to make risotto with some corn and butternut squash we got locally, and topped it off with pan seared salmon. (Sorry for the poor quality photo, my camera battery was dead and I had to use my cell phone.)

Pat actually made the risotto, I helped a little, but I was working on making the salsa and something else.

So, to start, I peeled and cubed a butternut squash, tossed it in a little olive oil, and roasted it at 350 for about a half hour. While that was roasting, I put 2 ears of corn (leave on husks, but get them damp) on the grill for about 12 minutes, then cut the kernels off the cob.

For the risotto itself, we heated about 5 cups of veggie stock in a small pot. In a deep pan, we heated some olive oil, then added about half of an onion and about a cup (maybe a cup and a half) arborio rice, toasting it until the rice started to turn translucent, then added about a half cup of dry white wine, and started adding the stock, stirring constantly, slowly adding stock until it was all incorporated.

After about a 25 minutes, we mixed in the corn, butternut squash, a little butter, pepper, and parmesan cheese.

While we were finishing the risotto, we started the salmon, citing it into probably 3oz portions (so it would cook more evenly), adding a little pepper and salt, and cooking it, skin side down, flipping it to the flesh side once I could see that it was cooked about halfway up on the side. I only seared it on the flesh side because I like my salmon cooked to medium rare (or even a little less).

After we plated dinner, we decided it needed something else, so that's why we added the peach and corn salsa from my last post.