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Tonight I was reminded what a blessing it is to be able to cook. Knowing how to read and execute recipes means that anything is possible in the kitchen. It means that you never have to eat the same thing twice if you choose not to - and it means you can eat the same well-executed dish over and over again if you find a recipe you really love. As I sat down to dinner tonight, I thought about how much we'd probably pay for a similar meal at a restaurant and concluded that it'd cost at least three times as much. So not only do I gain satisfaction from cooking for myself and Mr. Fritz, we also save money without sacrificing quality or taste. I realize that this revelation is nothing new, but it is good to remember why I spend time in the kitchen as well as reflect on what we gain from it. 
All that to say, tonight's meal was really good! And super easy. I adapted this recipe from the October 2009 issue of Everyday Food for Marinated Salmon Steaks with Couscous. I chose to use 6 oz salmon filets instead of salmon steaks, and I cut the rest of the recipe in half. Also, I didn't bother to marinate the salmon for 30 minutes as the recipe calls for, because ever since I read this story in the Washington Post about why there's no good reason to let something sit in a marinade, I've pretty much eliminated that resting time from every recipe I use that calls for marinating something. I slathered the salmon on both sides with the marinade, set it in a baking dish and baked it for 13 minutes at 375. And it came out perfectly. The couscous is infused with olive oil and lemon zest, and it's pretty essential for the meal, because the marinade has such a crazy kick to it thanks to the jalapeno pepper included in it. Mr. Fritz and I both liked this a lot, despite the fact that it was spicier than what we usually eat. I also appreciated that it was a new way to serve salmon (since I am always in search of new ways to serve salmon!) and really liked that it had sort of a Middle Eastern flavor to it. I will definitely make this again!
Welcome to another installment of "Feeding Mr. Fritz salmon." One might think that by now I would have run out of new ways to cook salmon. Happily, that is not the case! Tonight I tried cooking it en papillote, which is a fancy (er, French) way of saying "in a paper wrapper." Taking my cue from an article by Lucinda Scala-Quinn in the January/February issue of Everyday Food, I took each piece of salmon and set it on a piece or parchment paper. Then I covered the salmon with dill and lemon slices before wrapping it up first in the parchment paper and then in foil. Then I put each packet onto a baking sheet and roasted them at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. When I unwrapped the packets, I found wonderfully tender, nicely fragrant, fully cooked filets, with no mess whatsoever. I served the salmon along with jasmine rice and snow peas that I'd sauteed in olive oil and lemon juice. The whole meal was ready in about 20 minutes. Yay!
Hooray, the newest issue of Everyday Food arrived while Mr. Fritz and I were visiting our families for Christmas! It was a treat to come back to it, especially since it looks to be filled with a whole spate of great new recipes. As I made my grocery list for the week, I included a bunch of them, so expect to see them in this space as the week rolls along.
First up: Salmon with Escarole and Lemon. I've never cooked with escarole, as far as I can recall. A leafy green, it cooks down to have a buttery taste. For this recipe, I used a whole head of it, and I found it to be a nice change from spinach. Mr. Fritz thought it looked like seaweed (specifically, those tangled green messes that wash up on shore), but he agreed that it was edible (I thought it tasted great, personally). We both thought the salmon itself was wonderful -- essentially you top the salmon with slices of lemon, then steam it for 12-15 minutes on a bed of wilted escarole and caramelized onions and garlic. It really couldn't be simpler. My only quibble: I ended up with a burned mess on the bottom of my pot, as some of the onions and escarole apparently cooked too much during the steaming process. Not sure how I'll remedy that in the future, but I'll have to figure it out, because I definitely want to make this again. Yum!The recipe does not appear to be posted yet on Everyday Food's site; when it is, I'll link to it...
If it's Sunday, it must be salmon, right? Not really, but that has been the case for the past couple of weeks. Tonight, I tried a recipe from grilling company Fire & Flavor called Orange Glazed Salmon. Unfortunately, I can't find the recipe on the site, so I'll just explain it below. Mr. Fritz and I both really liked it. I must admit that I didn't believe that such a small amount of orange zest would make any sort of difference whatsoever, but lo and behold, the orange flavor came through clearly once the salmon was cooked.
In any case, this was very easy and I was able to pull it together with ingredients I already had in my pantry and refrigerator (except for the salmon, of course). I'll definitely make this again, possibly on a cedar plank (tonight, I just roasted it in the oven on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil). I served it with jasmine rice and snow peas that I'd sauteed with a little olive oil and lemon juice. The whole meal was ready to go in 15 minutes. ORANGE GLAZED SALMONSource: Fire & FlavorPrep time: 5 minutes + soak
Cook time: 15 minutes
Serves: 43 Tbs. Dijon mustard3 Tbs. maple syrup1 Tb. balsamic vinegar2 tsps. fresh orange zest4 6-oz salmon filets, skin removed1 cedar grilling plank, soakedPreheat grill (or oven) to medium-low heat, about 350 degrees.Combine mustard, maple syrup, vinegar and orange zest in a small bowl in set aside. Season salmon with salt and pepper and brush with desired amount of glaze.Place smoked plank on grill, close lid, and heat for 3 minutes. Using tongs, flip plank and place salmon on heated side of plank. Close lid and grill for 12-15 minutes until done to your liking. Remove plank and salmon from grill and serve.
Our dear friend Mr. Corbin is visiting from Austin, Texas, and we had the pleasure of hosting him for dinner this evening. Since it's a rare treat to see him, I wanted to be sure to make a special meal. So I decided to try something new (to me, anyway): roasted salmon atop a cedar plank that had been soaked in water. I was inspired by the January issue of Real Simple, where the editors published some of the magazine's all-time favorite recipes, including this one for Cedar-Plank Salmon.
It's super easy: You soak a special cedar board (I picked mine up at the grocery store) in water for at least an hour. (This is essential, so that the wood doesn't catch on fire in your oven) Then set the salmon on the plank (I used 6 oz salmon filets and as usual asked the fishmonger to remove the skin for me), then topped each piece with a mixture of brown sugar, dried thyme, cayenne pepper and vegetable oil. Then I set the plank on top of a rimmed baking sheet and put the whole thing into a 350 degree oven. Twenty minutes later, the salmon was perfectly roasted and wonderfully fragrant, as the scent of cedar had essentially smoked the fish. The brown sugar mixture had kind of hardened on top of the fish, sort of like the top layer of creme brulee.
I served the salmon alongside couscous studded with dried cherries and a salad of greens, feta, cucumber, cilantro and a lemon-white wine vinaigrette. Mr. Corbin seemed to like the meal, noting that the sweetness to the salmon rub was especially pleasing. For my part, I will definitely be experimenting with roasting on a cedar plank again in the future. Oh, and Mr. Fritz, who made it home safely from the tropical place, enjoyed the meal, too!
Another Tuesday, another new-to-us salmon recipe. This time, I tried a recipe from the Complete Cooking Light Cookbook, Grilled Salmon with Ginger-Orange Mustard Glaze. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it in the CookingLight.com database, so I've included it below, adding in my own notes. If you happen to have this cookbook (the one with the purple cover), you can find it on page 225. It was worth typing in because it was really tasty - enough that Mr. Fritz remarked about its tastiness without provocation. (Always a good sign!) I paired it with sugar snap peas sauteed in a little olive oil, sesame oil and sesame seeds. And I rounded out the meal with dilled orzo. The whole thing came together in around 25 minutes, and clean up was pretty snappy, too, since I broiled the salmon on a baking sheet covered with foil.
GRILLED SALMON WITH GINGER-ORANGE MUSTARD GLAZE
Source: The Complete Cooking Light CookbookPrep: 5 minutes
Marinate: 30 minutes (I skipped this step and just brushed it on before broiling)
Cook: 10 minutes
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/4 cup cream sherry (I skipped this because I didn't have any)
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 Tbs grated peeled fresh ginger (I used the bottled kind)
2 Tbs honey
4 (6-ounce) salmon filets (about 1 inch thick), silver skin removedCooking sprayGreen onions and lemon slices (optional)
Combine first six ingredients in a large ziptop plastic bag. Add fish to bag, seal and marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Remove fish from bag, reserve marinade.
Prepare grill or broiler.Place fish on grill rack or broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Cook 5 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork, basting frequently with reserved marinade (note, I didn't turn the fish over -- just let it broil the whole time on the same side and it worked just fine. I also didn't bother to baste while cooking. Instead, I spooned the marinade over the fish after I'd set the fish on the baking sheet and moved on.)
Place reserved marinade ino a saucepan; bring to a boil. (I skipped this step as well, because I didn't allow the rest of the marinade to come in contact with the raw fish. Since no contact means no worries about bacteria contamination, I was able to just pour the reserved marinade into a couple of sake cups and serve it as it was.) Serve with fish; garnish with green onions and lemon slices if desired. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet and 3 Tb of glaze)
Wow. That's the word that comes to mind regarding tonight's meal. As I was making my meal plan for the week, I flipped through my Everyday Food Cookbook to see if it offered any inspiring salmon recipes. I found this one for Roasted Salmon with Lemon Relish and decided to give it a try. And I'm so glad I did! It is exceptional. And it's ridiculously simple to pull together, an essential on a night when I need to get dinner on the table in a flash.
The recipe has just a few steps. First, I toasted some pine nuts under the broiler on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. While they were toasting away, I peeled and sliced some lemon zest, and put it, along with some golden raisins in a bowl, then covered that mixture with water I'd boiled in my tea kettle. Next, I pulled the pine nuts off of the cookie sheet and replaced them with two six-ounce salmon filets which went into the oven at 450 for 8 minutes (I also lowered the oven rack since I wasn't broiling them.) While the salmon was cooking, I drained the water off of the lemon-raisin mixture and added fresh lemon juice from the lemons I'd just zested, chopped parsley, olive oil and the now-toasted pine nuts to the bowl. After a dash of salt and pepper and a good stir, the lemon relish was complete. When the salmon came out of the oven, I laid each piece atop a bed of baby spinach, then topped each piece of salmon with the relish, and we sat down to eat. The flavors of the lemon zest, raisins, parsley and pine nuts, along with the tang of the lemon juice and the subtle lilt of the olive oil, worked together in the most wonderful way. It was the perfect combination of disparate ingredients, all jumbled together to make the dish sing. It is seriously going to rival the Glazed Salmon I wrote about last week for my loyalty as far as Best Salmon Preparation Ever goes. Not to mention that because it looks so pretty and tastes so good, yet is deceptively easy to make, it has great dinner party potential. In other words, I will definitely make this again!
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