Salmon with pistachio crust on pearl barley salad

I love coming up with new flavour combinations, especially for healthy salads.  This dish was a winner for a recent special occasion.  It looks amazing but wasn’t difficult to cook at all in the combi although the salmon does need to be cooked separately.

Use your favourite combination of ingredients for the salad making sure that you have a variety of textures.  As the pearl barley takes the same cooking time in the steam oven as brown rice you can substitute this if you prefer and especially if you are gluten free.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

4 small fillets of salmon or ocean trout, skinned and pin boned
60g butter, softened
½ cup chopped pistachio nuts
½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Grated rind of 1 lemon
salt & pepper to taste

Salad:
1 cup pearl barley, washed and drained
1¼ cups vegetable stock
1 bunch asparagus, cut into thirds
3 small, fresh radish washed
¼ cup chopped, fresh parsley
¼ cup pomegranate seeds
Dressing:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon pomegranate molases
1 tsp honey or to taste
pinch sea salt

Method:

1. Firstly, cook the pearl barley in the steam oven with the stock on 100°C for 40 minutes.
   When there is two minutes to go on the timer, add the asparagus.  Close the door and let it finish cooking.
   Remove and set aside to cool.  Wipe out the steam oven.
2. Now combine the softened butter with remaining ingredients for the salmon topping and set aside.  It should be a spreadable consistency.
   Lay a piece of baking paper in a solid steam oven tray, add salmon and spread butter mixture over the top of the fillets. Do this 10 minutes before so to let the salmon come to room temperature.
   Preheat combi oven to 170°C Fan Plus while you prepare the salad.
   Slice the radish with a mandolin or slice very thinly.
   Place all the ingredients for the dressing in a jar and shake to combine.
   Add other salad ingredients now to the cooled barley, stir in half the dressing and set aside.  Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
3. Now to cook the salmon; Select Combination Mode 170°C + 90% moisture add salmon and cook for 8-10 minutes until cooked to your liking.  Obviously the size of the fillets will determine the cooking time.
4. Plate up the salad and serve with the pistachio nut topped salmon.  Drizzle with a little dressing and garnish.  Yum!