I love mussels myself. They are great in a paella, served over rice or just by themselves. I have seen them for some pretty good prices lately and you can get them pretty much year-round now. They may a great appetizer or a great entree. Don’t shy away from them and think they are too hard to cook or tough to make. It just takes a little bit of prep work and cleaning on your part and just a bit of cooking and they will taste great. Williams-Sonoma posted this on their blog about, cleaning, serving and storing mussels along with a few simple recipes. Check it out!
Category Archives: Seafood
Quick Skillet Salmon
Since Michelle and I both have pretty busy schedules, I am always looking for meals that can be prepared easily and quickly. One of the cookbooks I got this Christmas is from America’s Test Kitchen called the “Quick Family Cookbook,” with recipes that can be prepared in under 45 minutes and are perfect for families who need some weeknight meals without having a lot of unusual ingredients that you may not typically have around the house. It seems like a really good book and since I love the cookbooks from them I am sure I will use it a lot.
That being said, this recipe for Skillet Salmon is actually from the Food Network. I came across it a few days ago and we just happened to pick up some wild salmon, which was on sale for a really good price. Michelle only likes the wild salmon as the farm-raised often does not have the same good flavor that you get with wild salmon. Wild salmon, on the other hand, is often pretty expensive, except this time of year when you can often find it for a good price. I got mine here at Adams Farms for $9.99 a pound. Still pricey, but much cheaper for wild salmon. Anyway, I had everything else on hand for this recipe, so it was quick and easy.
Hoisin Skillet Salmon
One 15.5 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed (I actually used dried beans instead of canned and did a quick soak to get them ready)
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 cups broccoli florets
Four 5-ounce salmon fillets, skin removed
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh cilantro, optional
Kosher salt
Combine the beans, 3/4 cup of water, hoisin sauce, red pepper flakes and garlic in a large skillet. Top with the broccoli and nestle the salmon into the broccoli. Bring the skillet to a simmer over medium heat. Once it is simmering, cover the skillet and cook until the salmon is flaky and just cooked through and the broccoli is crisp-tender, about 5 to 6 minutes. Drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with cilantro, if using (I skipped the cilantro, my family are not big fans of it). Add salt to taste and serve.
That’s all there was to it. I did add some white rice to the meal to round it out, but you don’t really need it with the black beans. I particularly love quick meals you can do all in one pot. It makes for super easy clean up when all is done.
Just a quick recipe for today. I do have a pork tenderloin I am cooking tonight, beef stew tomorrow, and then a frenched pork roast on Thursday, so I’ll be posting some recipes for those things along the way the rest of the week. I am also scouting around for some new lunch recipes as Michelle is looking for different things to bring for lunch that are quick and healthy without using any bread, We’ll see how it goes and what I can find. If you have any suggestions, please pass them along. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal today!
Don’t Forget Your Thanksgiving Appetizers
Yesterday I covered the side dishes I am making for Thanksgiving, and on Monday it was the soup for the day, and Sunday I wrote about the turkey, stuffing and gravy. There’s not much left to write about unless you want to make some appetizers for everyone before the meal. Here’s my advice on appetizers for the holidays. You have enough going on in the oven and on the stove, so try to do things that you don’t have to cook at all if you can avoid it. It’s just one less thing you have to cook for the day and you may not have the room or time to do it anyway. You can go simple, and just do a nice selections of cheeses and crackers, maybe some sliced apples and pears, some grapes and some pepperoni or sliced dry sausage. I am trying to keep it simple by doing some shrimp cocktail and some homemade horseradish cocktail sauce.
Shrimp Cocktail
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1 pound extra-large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup Horseradish Cocktail Sauce (recipe to follow)
Bring the lemon juice, bay leaves, salt, peppercorns, Old Bay and 4 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan for 2 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and add the shrimp. Cover and steep off the heat until the shrimp are firm and pink, about 7 minutes. Drain the shrimp and plunge them immediately into ice water. Drain and refrigerate the shrimp until thoroughly chilled, about 1 hour. Arrange a platter and serve with the cocktail sauce.
Horseradish Cocktail Sauce
1 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, plus extra for seasoning
2 teaspoons Tabasco or other hot sauce, plus extra for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Stir all of the ingredients together in a small bowl. Season with additional horseradish and hot sauce as desired.
The cooked shrimp and the cocktail sauce can be refrigerated separately for up to 1 day, so you can make them ahead if you want to. If you get uncooked shrimp that is already peeled and deveined, you can save yourself some extra work and make things a little quicker for yourself.
You’re likely to have some people who don’t like shrimp cocktail, so you’ll need to have some other things available too. You can always put out an array of different chips and snacks or vegetables and have some dip for them. Instead of using the soup packet for your onion dip this year (I have nothing against it, I do it a lot, but it is often a little stale and always very salty), how about making a simple onion dip on your own. It’s not really any work and it tastes a lot fresher. You can just use straight sour cream or try this dip base and add the onions to it.
Simple Onion Dip
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup caramelized onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Stir all of the ingredients together and season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate the dip for at least 1 hour so all of the flavors can blend together nicely. The prepared dip can keep covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days.
For the caramelized onions, if you have never done it before, simply melt 1 tablespoon of butter with a tablespoon of vegetable oil over high heat. Add about 4 onions, halved and sliced thin, 1 teaspoon of light brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cook until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are deep brown, about 40 minutes. Take them off the heat, stir in 1 tablespoon of water, season with salt and pepper, and you’re done.
Yes, it takes some planning ahead if you are going to use caramelized onions, but they are so tasty, not just for dips but as a condiment for nearly anything.
If you want to make something ahead of time and like nuts, you can try this recipe for spiced nuts. I tried this with some mixed nuts and a spice blend I got from PepperMary’s Spice Blends and boy was it good. I used the Cajun Blend for the nuts, but Mary was kind enough to send me samples of her other spices, which I plan to try after Thanksgiving on some fish that I got. Thanks Mary, they are awesome. I also used the Mesquite Blend on a London broil I marinated last night for dinner and it had a nice taste and kick to it. Give her stuff a try if you get the chance.
Spiced Nuts
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound of mixed nuts, unsalted
2 tablespoons sugar, maple syrup or honey
4 teaspoons PepperMary Cajun Spice blend (or other spice blend you like) or:
2 teaspoons cumin, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1 teaspoon paprika
Adjust 2 oven racks to the upper and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 275 degrees. Whisk the egg white, water and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the nuts and toss to coat. Drain in a colander for 5 minutes.
Toss the sugar, maple syrup or honey with the spice blend or desired spices with the nuts. Spread the nuts evenly on two parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake until the nuts are dry and crisp, about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally and rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Remove from the oven and let the nuts cool completely on the baking sheet, about 30 minutes. Break the nuts apart and serve.
These can also be made ahead and stored at room temperature wrapped tightly in plastic wrap for up to 1 week.
If you still aren’t sure what to make, you can always try going for an antipasto platter. This lets you put out a variety of meats, cheeses, olives and vegetables that people like and you can pretty much choose what suits your crowd the best. I put together just a few ideas in this one.
Antipasto Platter
1/2 pound soppressata salami or other dry sausage, skin removed and sliced thin
2 cups mixed olives, black and green, marinated, such as Kalamata, Nicoise or others
1 jar marinated roasted red peppers
1 jar marinated artichoke hearts
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella, sliced thin
Arrange all the items on a platter for people to choose as finger foods. You could always add other cheeses, like marinated mozzarella, or other meats like ham, or even some marinated and grilled vegetables like eggplant, asparagus or zucchini, and some sliced tomato. The options are endless with this. Have some good extra-virgin olive oil on hand if you want to do any marinating of anything.
Okay, I think that covers the appetizers. There are a lot of other choices out there, that I didn’t go into, but I could be here all day writing suggestions and I still have prep work myself to do. Later on today, I will post a couple of dessert options if you are still looking for ideas. Check back and see what I have. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day!
Let’s (Bacon) Wrap It Up
I wanted to make something easy today and just use what we already had in the house since I have a bit of a cold and didn’t feel like going out. I checked in the freezer and we had some tilapia, so that’s what I am going with today. I found a great recipe idea from Mark Bittman in this weeks New York Times Sunday Magazine that makes some great use of fish and everybody’s favorite, bacon. It’s quick, easy and destined to taste great. I mean, it has bacon in it, it has to be great, right?
Bacon Wrapped Tilapia
6 slices bacon
1 pound firm whitefish, like tilapia or cod, cut into 4 filets
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Parsley, to garnish
In a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and warm until shimmering. Add in the red onion and saute until they are just starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, wrap the bacon slices tightly around the fish fillets and lightly season with salt and pepper. Add this fish to the pan and saute until the fish and bacon are done and the bacon is starting to crisp, turning halfway through cooking, about 8 minutes. Garnish with parsley ans serve.
That’s all there is to this one. You get the smoky flavor of the bacon added to the fish along with the bite of the red onion and you have a nice meal. I served this with plain white rice, but I also had some acorn squash on hand, so I decided to bake that and have it as our vegetable. I love the way acorn squash tastes when it has been baked or roasted, and it tastes even better when you add in a little brown sugar and maple syrup.
Baked Acorn Squash
1 acorn squash, cut in 1/2
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Scoop the seeds and stringy pulp out of the squash cavities and discard. In a small mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, butter, syrup and salt and pepper, to taste. Rub the squash cavities and cut sides of the squash with the butter mixture and place them on a baking sheet, cut side up. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour until the squash is tender when pierced with a fork. Serve 1 half per person.
There you have it, a quick meal for a Sunday, or any day, for that matter. There’s not a lot of clean up involved for this one either, and I plan to use the leftover rice with some turkey chili that I also made today to have for dinner tomorrow and lunches this week.
That’s all I have for tonight. I do have a few recipes that I plan to try this week, including a shrimp dish that I picked up this week that looks pretty tasty. We’re also heading into the soups and stews time of year, so I plan to be making more things like that in the coming weeks, so we’ll have to check for some recipes for them as well. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
A Taste of Dublin, Part 5
So this is all I have left from our trip to Dublin as far as the food goes. We ate a small breakfast on our last down, took one last walk around the city and we actually had hamburgers for lunch at the Jasmine Bar at the hotel before we headed for Dublin airport to come home. I did get some recipes from Guinness while we were there at the Storehouse. They do have a whole display of how Guinness has been incorporated into many food dishes in Ireland and the world. I picked up three separate recipes while we were there that all looked good. The first one is Irish mussels in a Guinness cream sauce. Keep in mind that all these recipe measurements are in metric so you may have to convert them when you give them a try.
Irish Mussels in Guinness Cream Sauce
1 kg fresh Irish Mussels
300 ml cream
200 ml fish stock
330 ml Guinness extra stout
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
Juice of half a lemon
In a saucepan over medium heat, place the butter, onion, carrot and celery and fry for 2-3 minutes until tender but not browned. Add the Guinness, fish stock and bay leaf and simmer until reduced by half. Add the cream and reduce by half again. Add the mussels and cook for 2-3 minutes until all the shells of the mussels have opened. Add the dill and sprinkle with lemon juice.
I think this one will make a great appetizer for a group of 4 or 6 people. I’m not sure you can find Irish mussels easily, but I would try substituting mussels you can get at your local fish market and see how it goes.
For an entrée, I picked this recipe, one we actually saw on a number of menus in places we were at in Dublin. Beef & Guinness stew seems to be a favorite, and it just plain looks like it would taste awesome.
Beef & Guinness Stew
200 ml of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout
400 g stew beef, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large stalk of celery, diced
1 large parsnip, diced
1 liter beef stock
Sprigs of fresh thyme & rosemary
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the stew beef and brown on all sides, 4-5 minutes. Add the vegetables and cook until tender then pour the Guinness and reduce by half. Add the beef stock and the herbs and simmer very slowly for between an hours and an hour and a half.
They serve the stew with mashed potatoes served on the side of the bowl of the stew. It looks like it has a great dark color to it. It sounds very simple to make and does not have a lot of ingredients, so you can easily make it on a weeknight.
Of course, there needs to be a dessert using Guinness as well. They had a few different ones to choose from, including some cakes, but I chose this recipe for Guinness chocolate truffles instead. It looks simple and should taste great.
Guinness Chocolate Truffles
1 kg dark chocolate, cut into small chunks
400 ml cream
100 ml Guinness
Zest of 1 orange
Cocoa powder
Add the cream and Guinness to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the chocolate and grated orange zest. Mix together until the chocolate is fully melted. Leave the chocolate mix until it is cool to the touch, but not set. Take a generous teaspoon of the mixture and roll it in your hands to form small round truffles. Dust each with the cocoa powder. Set in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
A simple fast, chocolatey dessert to finish off a Guinness meal.
So that covers all of the Dublin meals. It was a wonderful trip and we hope to get back to Ireland again and see more of the country than just Dublin. it was a great experience and I would recommend to anyone that they go and enjoy it.
Back to real world cooking for me now though. I do have a backlog of some recipes we have tried recently that I plan to post, including one I just tried from Cook’s Illustrated the other night. Check back and see which one I display first. Until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!
Sunday Scallops and Ratatouille
It’s a beautiful Sunday here In New York and even though I should be doing some work, I feel like blogging instead. We went and got a load of great fresh vegetables at the farmer’s market in Goshen on Friday and then went to Adams Farms and got some meat and seafood so we are all set for meals this week. For tonight, I decided to make a couple of new recipes for us. I picked up some bay scallops that were on sale this week. They are the smaller scallops, and less expensive than the sea scallops. I don’t normally buy them because they usually aren’t chemical free, but these were so I decided to go for them. I found a good-looking recipe from Ina Garten for this one and decided to use that with some slight modifications. I cut this recipe in half from what is shown since there are only 3 of us for dinner tonight.
Bay Scallop Gratin
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
6 large garlic cloves, minced
2 medium shallots, minced
2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, minced (I am actually using bacon instead, fried and minced)
4 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, plus extra for garnish
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons Pernod (I am using vermouth instead)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (homemade or panko work best for this recipe)
6 tablespoons dry white wine
2 pounds bay scallops
Lemon, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place 6 gratin dishes on a sheet pan (I personally don’t own any gratin dishes, but I do have small ramekins I have used for pot pies, creme brulee, etc and I think these would work just as well, just make sure what you have is broiler safe if you plan to use the broiler later in the recipe).
To make the topping, place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (you can also use a hand mixer, which I am using because I didn’t want to lug out the Kitchen Aid). With the mixer on low-speed, add the garlic, shallot, prosciutto, parsley, lemon juice, Pernod, salt and pepper and mix until well combined. When the mixer is still on low, add the olive oil slowly as though you were making mayonnaise, until combined. Fold the breadcrumbs in with a rubber spatula and set aside.
Place one tablespoon of the white wine in the bottom of each gratin dish. Pat the scallops dry with a paper towel and distribute them evenly among the dishes. Spoon the garlic butter mixture evenly over the top of the scallops. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the topping is golden and sizzling and the scallops are barely done. If you want a crustier top, place the dishes under the broiler for 2 minutes until browned to your liking. Finish the dish with a squeeze of lemon juice and sprinkle with fresh parsley.
A couple of notes on this recipe. Substituting bacon for the prosciutto is a convenience thing for me. I didn’t have any prosciutto and it can be kind of expensive, so I went with what I had. If you want the taste you get from the prosciutto, go for it. I also did not have any Pernod, which is a licorice-tasting liqueur. I couldn’t see buying a bottle just for 2 tablespoons, so I asked around on Twitter to some chefs on Food Network. Scott Conant replied to me to either leave it out completely or you can substitute in some vermouth instead. Amanda Freitag suggested using Sambuca instead, but warned it could be too sweet. I decided to go with the vermouth, but I think you could just as easily not use anything at all.
With all these fresh veggies I bought on Friday, I wanted to make something with them. I decided to go for a ratatouille. Now, ratatouille seems to be somewhat of an old-fashioned recipe and a lot of the time, it just doesn’t turn out well. The veggies get too soggy and it can be a bit of pain to saute a bunch of vegetables separately and then combine everything. I found a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen that recommends roasting the ratatouille, which sounded ideal to me, so I gave it a try.
Roasted Ratatouille
1 eggplant, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 medium zucchini or summer squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained, with 1/2 cup juice reserved
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the eggplant, squash, onion, tomatoes with reserved juice, oil, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix well. Spread the mixture into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Roast until the vegetables have softened and are browned in spots, about 1 hour, stirring thoroughly halfway through the cooking time. Sprinkle with the vinegar before serving.
Again, I cut this recipe in half so it would fit just the 3 of us and it all worked out well. Normally, roasting vegetables doesn’t always work out too well since each can roast at different speeds. The temperature of the oven and length of cooking time seemed just right to keep everything from getting soggy and I didn’t have to spend a lot of time at the stove watching the vegetables, which was nice. This makes a great vegetarian dinner dish on its own if you wanted to do that.
We also had some rice with meal to round things out. Michelle made a small batch of her Potato Leek Soup, which was great also.
Tomorrow I am planning to make the yellowfin tuna I bought. I’m not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but I am sure it will be something simple. Check back and see what I come up with. Until then, enjoy your day and enjoy your meal!
Weekend Entertaining: Spanish Tapas Feast
Weekend Entertaining: Spanish Tapas Feast.
This is a great party idea from Willams-Sonoma. Tapas is an excellent idea for a summer party. Lots of tasty dishes and finger foods. Try the paella recipe too and don’t forget to make some sangria. It’s a great way to spend a summer afternoon with friends. Check it out!
Scrumptious Shrimp Po’Boys
I had some shrimp to cook and Sean just wanted some simple fried shrimp. I, on the other hand, wanted to jazz things up a little bit and decided to make some po’boys. Well, they are about as close as I can get to it anyway, since I don’t have the bread from Louisiana, but the recipe was pretty darn good anyway. If you’re going to go through the effort to do the shrimp, you absolutely need to make your own remoulade. It tastes awesome, takes minutes to do and is completely worth it, trust me.
Shrimp Po’Boy Sandwiches
1 pound medium shrimp, shelled, deveined and with tails removed
3/4 cup fine cornmeal
3/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
Vegetable oil for frying
1/2 head lettuce, shredded
2-3 tomatoes, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
4 small French sandwich rolls
Remoulade
1/4 cup mustard, preferably Creole mustard
1 1/4 cups mayo
1 teaspoon pickle juice or vinegar
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 large garlic clove, minced and smashed
1 Tbsp sweet paprika
1-2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
For the remoulade, mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl until they are well blended. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving so the flavors meld.
Pour 1/4 inch of oil in a deep-frying pan or Dutch oven and heat the oil over medium high until a candy thermometer inserted reads 375 degrees.
Meanwhile, mix the cornmeal, flour, Cajun seasoning and salt in a large bowl. Working with several shrimp at a time, place the shrimp in the beaten egg and then in the cornmeal mixture. Shake off any excess and place the shrimp in the hot oil, frying until golden on both sides, about 2-3 minutes total. Remove the shrimp to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Repeat the process with the remaining shrimp.
To assemble the sandwiches, slice the rolls and smear the remoulade on the insides of both halves. Lay a layer of lettuce over the remoulade on the bottom of the sandwich, then place a few shrimp over the lettuce. Cover the shrimp with two or three slices of tomato and press the top of the roll down on the bottom to compress the sandwich a little. Repeat with the remaining rolls, accompaniments and shrimp and serve.
It tasted great. Michelle didn’t eat a sandwich but still dipped the shrimp in the remoulade and loved it. It makes enough remoulade so you’ll have extra to use for something else later on. I served this with fries to keep it simple.
That’s what I made last night. Tonight I think is going to be a leftovers night since we have lots of them. Tomorrow is shopping day, where we will hit Adams Farms and the farmer’s market so I am not sure what we will come up with. Check back and see what we find. Until then, enjoy your day (it’s beautiful here today) and enjoy your meal!
Our Easiest Grilled Seafood Recipes | Food Republic
Our Easiest Grilled Seafood Recipes | Food Republic.
Grilled seafood can be either an awesome experience or a lesson in frustration. Follow these very simple recipes from Food Republic on their site and you can show off your grilling expertise the grilled clams and chorizo sounds really good). Check them out and give them a try!
Sock It To Me With Sockeye Salmon!
I have been eyeing up the salmon at Adams Farms for a couple of weeks now. It has looked great and this week, the price was finally low enough where I decided to get some to have for dinner this weekend. Now, Michelle is not a big fan of salmon, but what she doesn’t really care for is the Atlantic salmon. This salmon is typically farm raised and can have a distinct, fishy flavor. Wild Pacific salmon, like sockeye salmon, has a completely different flavor to it, It’s a deeper red, more delicate and doesn’t taste fishy at all. The catch, of course, is that wild salmon tends to be very expensive. It’s most abundant in the spring and summer, when the price might be lower. I got mine for $11.99 a pound. Off season, it typically approached $20.00 a pound. The great thing about wild salmon is that you practically have to do nothing to it. This recipe is fast and simple, with next to nothing included but the salmon.
Pan-Seared Wild Salmon
1-2 pounds of wild salmon, cut into fillets (about 6 ounces each is good)
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Lemon or lime wedges, for serving
Pat the salmon dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Gently lay the salmon skin side up in the skillet and cook until well browned, about 5 minutes.
Gently flip the fish skin-side down and continue to cook until all but the very center of the fish has turned from translucent to opaque, about 3 minutes. Serve with lemon or lime wedges.
A couple of notes about the fish. First, with salmon, you need to check for pin bones in the fish before you cook it. Typically, in most stores, the pin bones have already been removed for you, but it never hurts to check again to make sure they are all gone. Just run your fingers gently over the surface of the flesh. If you feel any bumps, there is a bone there that you should pull out. A pair of pliers will do the trick nicely. Second, a nonstick skillet when cooking salmon is a godsend. It will help you cook the fish all the way through without drying the fish out and leaving half the fish stuck to the pan.
I made a simple, quick sauce to put over the fish. This sauce will work for anything really – fish, chicken, rice, pasta, vegetables – you name it. It’s really just a simple vinaigrette with some herbs added to it.
Simple Sauce
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or butter
1 tablespoon minced onion
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Put the oil or butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the oil is warm or the butter is melted, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it softens (turn the heat down if the onion starts to color), 1 to 2 minutes.
Stir in two tablespoons of water and the lemon juice and sprinkle with some salt and pepper; maintain the heat so it bubbles gently for a minute or two. Taste, adjust the seasoning, and serve.
There are a lot of different ways you can go with this. Instead of using onion, try garlic, shallot or scallion. Add a couple of tablespoons of fresh herbs like basil, cilantro, oregano or mint. Add some jalapeno or a dried chile for some heat. You can pretty much do whatever you want with this. it also makes a great dipping sauce for some crunchy bread. I served the whole meal with some sweet potato, a tomato cucumber salad and some crunchy bread I got at the farmer’s market today.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow I plan to make some pulled pork indoors, so I’ll be posting the recipe for that one. It looks pretty good. Check back and see if you like it. Until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!
onedadskitchen 