Grand Marnier and Salmon are two things I always wanted to combine. Oranges work so well with this fatty fish and Grand Marnier adds glam and elegance to a festive dinner. You can serve this sauce with other kinds of fish. You can, of course, omit the Grand Marnier if you plan to serve minors. The sauce would still be delicious. This sauce is very similar to «beurre blanc» a divine butter based sauce, therefore cannot be reheated. In this case I replaced half the butter with cream. This allowed me to make the sauce one hour in advance, which means more time with my guests. Keep to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Ingredients

• One large Salmon fillet (from half a Salmon), without skin
• 2 oranges
• 1 lemon
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 cup dry white wine
• ¼ cup Grand Marnier or other orange flavoured liqeur
• ½ cup cream
• 125 grams unsalted butter, divided in 8 pieces
• a few tarragon leaves to garnish

Method

Preheat oven to 175 C (350 F). Put salmon in a baking pan, skin side down. Zest the oranges (keep zest in a small bowl until needed) and juice them. Keep ¼ cup juice and pour the rest over the salmon. Juice the lemon and pour over salmon too.. Season with salt and pepper. Bake salmon for 20 minutes. Take pan out of the oven and tent with foil until ready to serve.

Make sauce while samon bakes. In a small saucepan add the shallots and wine over high heat. Boil for 1 minute. Add the ¼ cup orange juice and the Grand Marnier, boil until reduced to about 2-3 tablespoons. Stain mixture, pressing the shallots with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as you can. Discard shallots and return liquid to saucepan, over low heat. Add the cream and stir with a whisk until everything is smooth. Add butter, one piece at a time (wait until each piece is almost incorporated before you add the next), whisking constantly, until your have a sauce with the consistency of thin mayonaise. Put sauce in a bowl for up to one hour, stirring ocasionally to keep it from thickening too much.

Place salmon in a serving platter. Spoon some sauce over it and garnish with finely chopped tarragon (parsley is also fine) and the orange zest. Serve with the extra sauce on the side, for your guests to help themselves.