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A Strawberry A Day - June 7 - Salmon with Fruit Salsa

If you follow my blog, you know I'm not a big fan of cooked salmon. Yes. I love salmon raw. Salmon sashimi. Nothing better. But cooked. Not such a fan.

I do like, or at least will eat, salmon when it's covered in a nice creamy sauce that disguises that it is any way related to fish. So I wasn't prepared to like this dish. After all, it's just salmon with some fruit on top. But Mr. L pan seared the salmon fillet in a hot cast iron skillet to perfection. Even without the strawberry fruit salsa I had no problem eating the salmon as it was fork tender, had no fishy taste and, more importantly, didn't contain a single bone.

And surprise, the fruit salsa actually went really well with the pan fried salmon! Who knew?! The salsa wasn't overpowering and the salmon held up well to the fruit flavors. Not that I'll be making this dish on a regular basis, but at least if it's served to me I won't turn up my nose at it!

FOOD NETWORK INSTRUCTIONS:

Tuesday June 7, 2011

Give dinner a tropical twist: Toss diced strawberries and pineapple with lime juice and cilantro, serve over salmon.

Couldn't be simpler to make. Have your husband cook the salmon while you chop up the fruit, add some lime juice and a bit of cilantro and you have dinner.

Note: I used about a cup of strawberries and maybe half a cup of diced pineapple. I used the juice from one lime and probably a tablespoon of cilantro.

Note: I added half a diced jalapeno to this but it must have been a mild pepper as there was no heat and no real flavor transfer. I like the idea of adding a bit of heat to the salsa so next time I'll add more jalapeno to taste.

Note: The only downside to the Salmon with Fruit Salsa was in the presentation. The pineapple sort of took on a red hue from the strawberry juices which made the salsa look a bit muddy. Maybe if I use bigger chunks of fruit next time, the end result will leave the vibrant colors of the strawberries and pineapple.

Chinese Glazed Salmon

Since I'm not a huge fan of cooked salmon*, any way I can find to eat it that disguises the fact that it really is cooked salmon, works for me. When I saw that the Seduced by Bacon cookbook had a salmon recipe that incorporated bacon, I figured bacon was a great way to hide that there was actually fish on my plate. Bacon is a great leveler when it comes to dishes I might not normally try.

The first thing to say is that my finished dish was not the least bit appetizing looking. I had some gourmet type bacon that was too thick and not lean enough to wrap around the bacon as shown in the cookbooks photograph. I'd use thinner bacon next time. But I actually did eat my entire piece of salmon. Adding the bacon really helped and the taste of the Chinese type barbecue sauce that's used here gave the salmon a flavor that, although it didn't exactly rock my world, allowed me to eat the whole portion without too much fuss. Mr. L on the other hand, who is a big fan of fish in general and loves salmon, loved the dish. So there. For salmon lovers and for "bacon will get me to eat anything" lovers. If you are one of the later, it helps to cook up a bit  of extra bacon so you have a big piece of bacon with each bite of fish.

You can make the barbecue sauce the night before to make this a quick after work dinner. But since the sauce only takes about 20 minutes to make, this can still be a quick meal even if you don't prep the night before.

*I must state that I don't like 'cooked' salmon. Raw salmon? Good salmon sashimi is a favorite. And hamachi. Super albacore. Maguro tuna. I have no idea why I can eat fish raw but not cooked. Great mystery in my household that may never be answered. So when I say I'm not a fan of fish, just know I'm talking about cooked fish.

CHINESE GLAZED SALMON

FOR THE BARBECUE SAUCE:

2/3 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 cup medium sherry
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons black bean paste
1 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Pinch red pepper flakes (optional)

FOR THE FISH:

1 teaspoon oil
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, cut about 1 inch wide, blotted on paper towels
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons purchased or home-made Chinese barbecue sauce (see above)
6 slices lean bacon, cut crosswise in half
Thinly sliced scallions, including most of green parts, to garnish

To Make the Barbecue Sauce:
Combine all ingredients in a double boiler and simmer until the mixture begins to thicken, about 10-12 minutes. Store the unused portion in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator.

Broil the Fish:
Turn on the broiler. Position the rack about 4 inches from the heat.

Heat the oil in a large non-stick, oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Add the salmon, flesh-side down, and saute until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Turn, season the fish with salt and pepper to taste, spread the barbecue sauce over the flesh side, and drape three half-slices of bacon diagonally over the top of each fillet, sticking toothpicks through the ends of the strips into the salmon to hold the bacon in place.

Transfer the fish to the broiler and cook until the bacon is crisp and the salmon is just cooked through, about 10 minutes for 1-inch-thick salmon fillets. Remove, discard the toothpicks, sprinkle with scallions and serve.

Serves 4

Note: I made the barbecue sauce recipe included above (the sauce/glaze was very good).

Note: I used a cut of bacon that was too thick and didn't cook at the same time as the fish (the salmon was done before the bacon was cooked crisp). I'd use thinner bacon next time.

Note: I did add a pinch of red pepper flakes. The finished dish wasn't spicy to me at all.

Note: I did not use a double boiler to make the sauce. It seemed to turn out fine just carefully cooking it in a small pot on the stove.

Note: You will need the toothpicks.

Note: Mr. L loved the leftover salmon with bacon in a salad the next day.

 

 

 

Tuna With Five-Spice Soy Glaze

I found some awesome looking Ahi Tuna on sale at my local grocery store recently so I picked up some to prepare for dinner. I love a good ahi tuna, especially when it's been in a nice marinade and then just barely seared. I found this Five-Spice Soy Glaze in Cooking with Caprial. I have an entire bottle of five-spice in my spice rack that I had no idea what to do with so I was glad I found this recipe.

Simple to make, it does take more time than throwing together a simple marinade...there is cooking time and cooling time, but I thought it was worth that extra effort. The tuna had a great flavor and the glaze is definitely something we'll make on a regular basis.

TUNA WITH FIVE-SPICE SOY GLAZE

SOY GLAZE:
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped gingerroot
1/4 cup sherry
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup Fish or Chicken Stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon Asian Chili Sauce
2 teaspoons five-spice powder
Pinch Black Pepper

TO ASSEMBLE:
4 ahi tuna steaks, 6 ounces each
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

For the glaze, in a medium saute pan, heat oil until very hot. Add garlic, shallots, and gingerroot. Saute until you can smell the aroma. Add sherry and bring to a boil. Add honey and chicken stock, bring to a boil, and reduce slightly. Add soy sauce, chile sauce, five-spice powder, and black pepper. Set aside to cool. 

To assemble the dish, place tuna steaks in soy glaze. Heat oil in a very large saute pan until smoking hot. Remove steaks from glaze and place in pan. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the steaks. Tuna should be served rare. The more it cooks, the drier it will become. You may baste the tuna with the glaze as it cooks. Serve immediately.

Note: I cut the glaze recipe in half since I only had two ahi tuna steaks.

Note: I used chicken stock.

Again, the glaze is a bit time consuming but Mr. L and I both liked the flavor so the extra work didn't bother us.

 

 

 

Roasted Salmon with Crumbled Bacon and Arugula

As I've mentioned before I'm not a fish eater, but we are trying to incorporate it into our weekly menus. I find that if I have a good "sauce" to go over the fish, I can usually eat it no problem. And no bones. If it has bones, or I find one while eating, my throat tends to close up, my fork goes down and I'm finished eating.

I chose this dish out of the Williams-Sonoma Salad cookbook because it sounded healthy and didn't seem to take a lot of work to make. And it had bacon so I figured it would make the salmon easier to eat. Since I didn't have any bacon handy I ended up using some pancetta which I had. The pancetta was sliced pretty thin. Pancetta is pretty salty so regular bacon might be better. I had a little less than a third of a pound of the stuff so I put it all in.

Though I liked the spicy touch the arugula gave the salad and thought it went well with the balsamic sauce, I wouldn't go out of my way getting it next time to make this dish. I 'd just use salad greens I had on hand.

Mr. L really liked this dish. It wasn't heavy and made a perfect summer salad. We used it as a main dish. Truth be told, I really liked this too. The salmon wasn't fishy, the "sauce" went well with the lettuce. I ate the whole thing and didn't even flinch (okay, not too much anyway) when I found a bone towards the end of the meal (trust me, if there was a bone in a fish, it would end up in the fish that was on my plate).

ROASTED SALMON WITH CRUMBLED BACON AND ARUGULA

4 slices bacon
2 tablespoons minced shallot
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons chicken broth
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 salmon fillets, each about 1/2 lb and 1/2-3/4 inch thick
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups young, tender arugula (rocket) leaves
2 cups torn red-leaf lettuce leaves (bite-sized pieces)

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. In a frying pan over medium heat, fry the bacon until crisp, about 6 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Let cool, then crumble and set aside.

Pour off all but about 1 tablespoon of the Bacon drippings and return the pan to medium-low heat. Add the shallot and saute for 1-2 minutes, then raise the heat to medium-high. Add the vinegar and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from the pan bottom. Add the chicken broth, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for a minute or two. Whisk in the olive oil. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.

Cut the salmon fillets in half and rub the pieces on both sides with salt and pepper to taste. Lightly oil a baking dish large enough to accommodate the salmon fillets in a single layer and place them in the prepared dish. Roast in the oven until just opaque when pierced at the center, 13-15 minutes.

While the fish is cooking, divide the arugula and lettuce among individual salad plates, and drizzle with all but 2 tablespoons of the balsamic mixture. When the fish is ready, place a portion on each plate, drizzle with the remaining balsamic mixture, and top evenly with the crumbled bacon. Serve at once. Makes 4 servings.

Variation Tip: For an Italian accent, instead of bacon, use snippets of crisp prosciutto, accomplished by barely sauteing thing strips in a little olive oil.

Note: I used Coho wild caught salmon which was about $12.99 a pound. I used pancetta instead of bacon.

This was actually very good and would make a nice summer brunch salad.

Pan Seared Salmon with Avocado Remoulade ala Simply Recipes

I am not a big fan of fish, unless it's in disguise. And by disguise I mean smothered in butter or some sort of sauce or breading. Lots of sauce. So you don't taste the fish. For someone who grew up with fish sticks being almost a daily meal, I know some of my relatives find my fish aversion amusing. These days I'll eat fish and chips as long as I can drown the fish in tarter sauce. But Mr. L is a big fish fan and fish is supposed to be good for you so I do eat it every now and then. And (though I would never admit this in public) some of it's not bad (the bland white fish type stuff). Salmon on the other hand, not terribly fond of. It doesn't taste fishy, it tastes salmony.

When I came across this recipe on Simply Recipes my first thought was "yahoo, I love avocados, it will totally disguise the salmon taste!". And since we had a huge fillet of salmon in the freezer, I thought I'd give this dish a try.

This was actually pretty damn good. Don't tell anyone, but I actually took some of the leftover dish and had it cold for lunch the next day. Simple to make. Mr. L had to guide me a bit with the pan searing of the salmon as I wasn't quite sure how to tell when it was done. The entire dish came together pretty quick so this makes a great easy meal for a weeknight. Do check out the recipe from Simply Recipes here as there are good hints in the comments and Elise's photo is way better than mine (plus it's an awesome blog for recipes).

In discussing if the recipe worked or not, Mr. L made the following comment: "I feel like I'm on Iron Chef...telling one of the chefs 'I wouldn't have thought that avocados and salmon would go together but this tastes pretty good'." High praise indeed.

PAN SEARED SALMON WITH AVOCADO REMOULADE

2 large avocados, cut and peeled
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (can substitute lemon)
3-4 tablespoons light olive oil (light refers to flavor and color, not calories)
1 tablespoon minced shallots or green onion
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 to 1 1/2 pounds of salmon fillets
Grapeseed or canola oil

Put avocado pieces and lime juice into a food processor or blender and pulse until blended. Slowly add olive oil, pulsing, until you reach desired consistency of sauce. Add minced shallots (or green onions) and parsley, pulse just until combined. Remove to a bowl, add mustard, salt and pepper to taste.

Coat the bottom of a saute pan with oil, heat on medium high until almost smoking. Season both sides of the salmon fillets with salt and pepper, carefully lay the salmon into the pan, skin side down. Cook the salmon until about medium doneness, about 3-4 minutes per side.

Serve salmon with avocado remoulade sauce. Serves 4.

Notes: I used fresh lime juice not lemon, extra virgin olive oil not light, green onions not shallots and canola oil not grapeseed.

Herb-Crusted Snapper

Mr. L and I have been trying to eat healthier (to combat all these desserts I'm making!)...that means more fish and chicken. Personally, I am not that fond of fish. If it smells fishy or I hit a bone, that's it, can't eat it. So when I went to the store and checked out red snapper for this dish...nope, not gonna happen. The fish guy said they were not fillets and they had bones. Having no clue what was a good substitute for snapper I picked out a nice  halibut fillet to use in this recipe. And it was only three times more expensive than the snapper...sigh.

I didn't get the herbs as "finely chopped" as I would have liked and, as you can tell by the photo, they needed to be chopped finer. I thought, just looking at the dish, that the herbs would be overpowering, but they weren't. This actually tasted pretty good.

The recipe came from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast which comes from Martha Stewart Living Magazine. Most of the recipes seem straight forward. Recipes are divided by season and prep times seem minimal. You also get a nice color photo with each recipe which makes it easy to see what the dish is supposed to look like.

Herb-Crusted Snapper

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
4 Snapper fillets (6 to 8 ounces each)
  Course salt and fresh ground pepper
2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup finely chopped assorted fresh herbs
Couscous, for serving

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Brush a baking sheet with the olive oil. Place the snapper fillets, skin side down, on a work surface; season with salt and pepper and spread each with 1 1/2 teaspoons of the mustard.
Place the herbs on a plate; press the mustard-coated side of the fillets in the herbs to coat evenly.
Bake the fish on the baking sheet, skin side down, until opaque throughout, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately with couscous if desired. Serves 4.

Notes: I used fresh thyme, flat leaf parsley and I think tarragon and sage (heavy on the parsley as that's what I had a lot of). Had to adjust the time for the halibut as it was a pretty thick piece. Added a bit more mustard than called for but I thought with such a thick piece of halibut that would be okay. Didn't bother with the couscous of course.