Easy Baked Salmon

Easy Baked Salmon
salmon fillets
kosher salt
cracked black pepper
brown sugar

Arrange the fillets on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle the fillets liberally with the salt, pepper, and brown sugar. Bake at 350◦F for about 10 minutes. The salmon will cook very quickly this way, depending on the size of the fillets of course, but the oven temperature may also be increased or decreased. 

This salmon has a great, simple and uncomplicated flavor. It can be served as is with side dishes, or flaked into sandwiches, pastas, casseroles, and much more. It is a great alternative for grilling in colder weather. 

Seafood Linguini

Seafood linguini with white wine cream sauce with chanterelles, cherry tomatoes. beet greens, and fresh herbs.

• Linguini noodles, cooked al dente (homemade if you are feeling ambitious)
• White wine chanterelle cream sauce
• Local mussels
• Baked cracked pepper brown sugar salmon
• Local cherry tomatoes
• Baby beet greens
• Fresh tarragon
• Fresh dill

Salmon Mousse

Salmon Mousse
500 grams salmon fillets/scraps, poached in red wine, water, star anise, cloves, parsley
1 cup fish veloute (fish stock thickened with a white roux and seasoned with salt and pepper)
2 leaves of gelatin, softened
5 Tablespoons hot stock
1 cup cold whipped cream
salt, pepper, and dill to taste
aspic
mussels

Poach the salmon in the liquid until just cooked. Strain, break into pieces and place in a food processor with the veloute (both can be hot). Process until combined.
Dissolve the gelatin in the hot stock, then stir into the salmon mixture. Fold in the cream. Season to taste.
Pour a thin layer of aspic in the bottom of each mold, and place two mussels in. Top with the salmon mousse. Chill until firm, then unmold.

Trio of Fennel Pollen Dusted Salmon

Poached Salmon Fillet with Fennel Pollen Butter, Fennel Pollen and Salmon Mousse, Crispy Fennel-Scented Salmon Croquette, Caramelized Onion Compote.

Here is the hot appetizer I made for my black box exam. I used salmon and fennel pollen in all three main components of this trio. I had never really heard of, let alone worked with or tasted, fennel pollen before. Upon research, I could not nail down a major flavor profile for it, but I knew it is one of those expensive ingredients that should be used sparingly.
First Salmon Component: I butter-poached the salmon in butter flavored with fennel pollen.
Second Salmon Component: A salmon mousse flavored with salmon pollen, lemon, and dill.
Third Salmon Component: A fried salmon cornmeal croquette sprinkled with fennel pollen salt.
Accompaniments: caramelized onion compote, and pickled celery allumette. 

Basic Crêpes and Salmon Roll

Happy Pancake Tuesday! Today I am going to share my basic crêpe (thin pancake) recipe and a good use for it!

Basic Crêpe Batter
2 cups milk
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon granulated (white) sugar, for sweet crêpes, optional
Add dry spices or finely chopped fresh herbs, as desired 

Whisk together the milk and eggs, then whisk in the dry ingredients. Batter may seem lumpy, even if you sift the flour before hand. I nthis case, you can use a handheld immersion blender to smooth it out, or pass it through a sieve. You can also use it as is, if you don't mind a few lumps. It may seem thin, but crêpe batter should be thinner than pancake batter. If you think it is too thin, add a little more flour.

To cook, use a well-greased skillet, being sure to wipe out any excess oil. You should not need to grease it between each crêpe, just at the beginning. Pour one tablespoon to 1/4 cup batter in the skillet (depending on the size skillet and how big of a crêpe you would like). Cook until set, flip, and cook briefly again. Like all crêpe recipes, the first crêpe usually doesn't turn out great - use it to test the flavor!

For the appetizer pictured here, I combined some poached salmon with mayo, whole grain mustard, chopped dill, and a little lemon juice. I spread it on the crêpes, rolled them up, and sliced thinly, sort of like a jelly roll. I served it with some cucumber spaghetti, sweet mayo, and a sprig of dill.

Beets

Here is a quick beet appetizer dish I made for myself not too long ago.
I started by roasting some beets in the oven, then shocking them to cool them.
Once cool, I peeled them, and sliced them into thin slices on the mandolin. I also roasted some cloves of garlic, which did not take nearly as long in the oven as the beets. Alternately this could be done as pan-roasted garlic, which will develop lots of surface flavor but perhaps not as much flavor penetrated throughout the garlic. 

I arranged the beet slices artistically on a rectangular plate. Then I placed a thin slice of gravalox in the center, topped with pickled onions, a gourmet soft cheese mixture, capers, and a sprig of dill, and garnished the beets with the roasted garlic cloves. 

This makes a light and tasty appetizer that is easy to put together, stunning, but also easy to prep in advance. It combines vegetables with some protein and cheese to satisfy any appetite until the main course comes.

Salmon En Papillote

 Salmon En Papillote
salmon portions (any salmon will do - fresh or frozen thawed, portions, steaks, or fillets)
salt
ground black pepper
olive oil
freshly squeezed orange juice
julienne of carrots
julienne of red onions
julienne of chives

Place each salmon portion on a piece of parchment paper. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and juice. Arrange a few pieces of carrot, onion, and chives over each portion. Seal the parchment paper closed. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 400◦F for 12-15 minutes until cooked. Fish will remain moist but will flake easily with a fork. Do not overcook, especially if serving in the parchment, because carryover cooking will occur.

En papillote is a French cooking term meaning in parchment. It refers to food, most often meat, but it can be vegetables and starches as well. Sometimes entire meals are cooked in parchment paper, and then delivered to each diner at the table so they can open the package and have an entire meal in paper. Cooking en papillote allows food to cook in it's own steam - keeping it moist and flavorful. The ideal way is to cut half-heart shaped from doubles rectangles of parchment paper, placing the food in the middle, and then sealing the edges tight. However, as long as the parchment package is fully sealed, it should cook properly. 

Salmon Burgers

Burgers. A classic summer food. I love veggie burgers. I am not a fan of meat burgers. I can tolerate chicken burgers. Time to try something different - fish burgers. Although not typical, these can be really tasty when done right. It is possible to use a fillet of fish, either plain or breaded or battered and fried, but you can also use "ground" fish as well, formed into patties. It is much like chicken burgers, where you could use a chicken breast or ground chicken. There are many different types of fish burgers - crab, haddock, even scallop burgers. This is a salmon burger. Fish burgers may be made with canned fish, but the flavor is so much better with real fish fillets, even if they are frozen. There burgers are tasty and moist.

Salmon Burgers
1 pound salmon pieces or fillets, skin and bones removed (we used frozen wild Pacific)
1 small onion, grated
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons dry bread crumbs
salt and pepper, to taste

Grease grill and preheat to medium-high.
Cut salmon into chunks. Pulse it in a food processor along with the remaining ingredients. Shape into four 2 cm thick patties. 
Place patties on the grill, close lid, and cook for about ten minutes, turning once. A thermometer should register 158◦F.

Notes: You may add a little minced parsley, a squirt of lemon juice, a dash or hot pepper sauce, or other flavor enhancers to the patties.
This recipe is evenly multiplied. We used three pounds of salmon to make 12 patties.
These patties are fairly soft and crumbly, more like veggie burgers, since they are fish patties and not meat patties. They should be handled gently and carefully so they will stay together. 

Cajun Coated Salmon

Here is a tasty supper from not too long ago. As I recently stated in another blog post, I love seafood but I also like to switch things up a little. So to jazz up a nice salmon portion, I whipped up a quick and flavorful spice rub. Spice rubs are usually reserved for heavier meats, such as ribs, steaks, pork chops, lamb, and sometimes chicken. But there is no rule saying you can't also use one on delicate seafood, it is just important to be extra cautious in ensuring that the flavors balance well with the type of fish being prepared, and that you use the rub liberally, as to not overpower the delicate flavor of the fish. Ginger and honey always seem to pair well with salmon. So does freshly ground black pepper. I also remember once having a spicy cajun salmon at a fish restaurant, flavored with red pepper and other spices. And a little does of garlic goes with pretty much anything, right? So I kind of combined these four flavors to make my own spice rub. A word of cation: combining several flavors that all pair well with one common food is not always necessarily a good idea. Think about it; peanut butter goes well on bread, jam goes well on bread, cheese goes well on bread, and hummus goes well on bread - but peanut butter, jam, cheese, and hummus is probably not a good mix (although maybe it is, I've never actually tried it). Luckily, in this case, it actually did work, as there aren't very many cases where spices themselves greatly clash with each other. Though it was not my intention, this spice rub really did remind me of that cajun salmon I had, so it turned out really delicious, and flavorful, without hiding the salmon. I will have to think of some other clever combinations like this one.

My cajun salmon spice rub:
equal parts of red paprika, ground ginger, garlic powder, and freshly ground black pepper.
The amounts of course depend on how many salmon portions you are preparing, but extra spice rub can also be saved for next time, as long as it hasn't come into contact with the raw fish. I also eyeballed amounts, and didn't exactly measure them, so I'm sure a quantity of one spice was slightly greater than the other, but certainly not significantly.

Mix all spices together, then spoon or sprinkle over rinsed salmon portions that are prepared for cooking. Gently pat the rub down with a spoon, then cook salmon as desired. This salmon was prepared on a grill pan in the oven, so I certainly didn't lose any of that spicy flavor!

Salmon Steaks

Yesterday we tried grilling some salmon steaks. By we, I mean my father, he is the grill master in the house! Usually when we eat salmon we buy salmon portions - they are the perfect size, easy to do, cook quickly, and have no bones (supposedly anyway). This time we decided to try salmon steaks. We prepared them the same way - grilled on the barbecue on maple planks with a little brown sugar. Overall though, the reviews were not as good as they are for salmon portions. I did not mind the steaks myself, although I must say I do prefer portions because they are a bit tastier, an easier shape to deal with, and usually have no bones to pick out. Steaks have skin that needs to be peeled off too, though this isn't difficult at all, but portions already have the thick skin removed. The steaks seemed to lack a bit in flavor. Maybe this was just an off batch of steaks, but usually we do not have any problems with portions, so I think we will stick to them. These were nice to try for a change, but fresh salmon can be expensive, even when on sale, and these didn't really live up to their price tag. I personally love pretty much any type of salmon, or all seafood for that matter, so I enjoyed these too, just not quite as much as the portions.

You can see the brown sugar melting into the steaks here.

Salmon Strips

The other night for supper we had some salmon strips. we got these little packages of salmon strips free when we bought so many fresh salmon portions. We put these packages in the freezer for another time, and finally decided to try them. They are more like gourmet salmon strips used for appetizers, but they are also good in sandwiches, pasta dishes, and salads. We ate them cold with stir-fry and rice. we had two different flavors: maple and cracked black pepper. I thought I would prefer the maple, as I like sweets and I love the flavor of maple, and I am used to having brown sugar on my salmon. The maple was good, however I actually preferred the cracked black pepper. Neither flavor was overwhelmingly strong, but I liked both the flavor and the texture of the cracked black pepper better, as it was a bit firmer. I always find packaged salmon strips too salty, and these were no exception. I think the flavor would still be very good without so much salt. Other than that, they were quite tasty, although I do prefer fresh salmon portions that you can cook yourself and add any flavor you like to it! 

PHOTO CREDIT:"sh1b05_teriyaki_salmon_lg (1)"  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/teriyaki-salmon-strips-recipe/index.html. Food Network, n.d. Thursday, November 29, 2012.

Risotto Dinner

I think I have featured risotto here once before only briefly, but it is worth another mention. Risotto is one of my signature dishes, one I can now make without the recipe, and using my own senses to judge cooking times and ingredient amounts. It is also always a hit with my family. We like to enjoy it as a main course sometimes, but it also goes well with a variety of dishes including salmon, chicken, and stir-fry. I usually just make plain risotto, but it can be varied in an endless number of ways from this simple recipe. I know I have added fresh peas, caramelized onion, lobster, and Parmesan cheese to my risotto before, but there are many more common recipes out there that I would like to try, such as butternut squash risotto. Risotto has a reputation of a time-consuming, difficult dish, but it really isn't, especially once you have made it as many times as I have. It does require a lot of stirring and constant attention, but this allows you to get other things in the kitchen done as well. This time, I made risotto to go with our salmon. Our salmon was smoked on the barbecue, just the way we like it, despite the fact it is nearly December! (Remember my September 18th post entitled "Last Barbecue Of The Season?", it definitely wasn't true). We also had a nice stir-fry with our meal as well. This is one of my favorite meal combinations; salmon, stir-fry, and either risotto or homemade hashbrowns. 

Cajun Salmon (Restaurant Food)

Here is another restaurant food review post from a recent trip. This is Grilled Cajun Salmon with tropical fruit salsa, with corn on the cob and a side of roasted red pepper and tomato soup. If I could sum up this meal in just one word it would be spicy. The meal was very tasty and flavorful, but quite spicy; luckily I like a good amount of spice, though I certainly can't handle extreme spice. The main feature here is the salmon, which was rubbed generously on both sides with a dry Cajun spice rub, and grilled to perfection, with the bottom being close to blackened, but not quite as charred as most blackened fish usually is. The salmon was topped with a tropical fruit salsa that also contributed a fair amount of heat. Like most salsas, the vegetables (or fruits, in this case) are chopped and blended together with many spices and seasonings. It was difficult to determine the exact fruits used in the salsa, but I definitely did detect strawberries and a few different types of melon. I believe there was also some pineapple, some papaya, and maybe even some tomato, but I can't be sure. Whatever was in it, it was certainly tasty. The salmon came with your choice of side, including fries, salad, rice, or soup of the day. The soup of the day was roasted red pepper and tomato, which sounded pretty good to me, even if it was a fairly warm day outside. The soup was quite spicy, and the taste of roasted red pepper certainly came through. The soup wasn't extremely soupy, but not too thick either, just the right consistency. This was the only part of the meal I did not finish, not because it wasn't good, but because my tongue was already on fire from the Cajun salmon and fruit salsa, and I was already warm enough. The vegetable side that accompanies many meals is often overlooked, but considering I wasn't expecting anything with my salmon (nothing else was listed on the menu), I was pleasantly pleased. Maybe the vegetable that comes with the salmon differs depending on what is in season, but I was quite glad I got corn on the cob with mine. I'm not sure exactly how the corn was cooked, definitely not grilled, probably just boiled. It was spread with just the right amount of butter, and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a hint of garlic. The entire meal arrived piping hot, and I could not wait to dive in!

Salmon Al Fresco

I try to feature as many different things as I can on this blog, and I know I have featured salmon before, but salmon is one of my favorite foods, especially during the summertime when it can be barbecued! We had salmon for supper tonight, prepared in our favorite way: barbecued on maple planks with just a touch of brown sugar. Delicious! We also had some fresh steamed asparagus, rice, and a stir-fry with broccoli, onion, carrots, and mushrooms. We ate supper outside, or al fresco, as the Italians would say. This is not to be confused with antipasto, which is the Italian word for, before the meal, and refers to an appetizer (I actually mix these two up quite a bit). This was the first time this year, and we ate at our table in our gazebo, which was recently set up, to keep the bugs and the sun out. We don't eat outside very often, as the weather never seems to be quite right for dining; it's either too hot, or too cold, or too windy, or raining. I really enjoy eating outside though, I find it quite relaxing, and when your meal is barbecued, there is less transportation needed! While I was outside, I also picked some fresh rhubarb from our little patch, and I will bake with it soon and be sure to share the outcome with you!

Maple Planked Salmon

The weather is finally beginning to warm up, and that means it is barbecue season again! Some of our favorite things to barbecue are hamburgers, chicken drumsticks, and best of all, fresh salmon portions. Salmon is one of my absolute favorites! Here at our house, we like to keep it sweet and simple. We grill our salmon on maple planks on the barbecue, and season them with just a dash of brown sugar. The sweetness of the sugar goes very nicely with the salmon, and complements the smoked maple flavor from the planks perfectly. We like to serve our salmon with stir-fry, especially broccoli, and rice, noodles, risotto, or potatoes. Salmon is quick and easy to grill, and doesn't require to much attention. It is also really easy to prepare and handle. We have also been able to fit up to thirteen salmon portions on two planks, which both fit on the barbecue at the same time. Barbecued salmon is good as leftovers too, you can gently reheat it, but I like to eat mine cold. It is good the second or third day on its own or in sandwiches.

Salmon

Salmon is a very nutritious fish best known for its benefit of omega-3 fatty acids (the good fats). Salmon is an excellent protein choice for supper. It is relatively low in calories and the bad fats, and high in protein and the good fats. Nutritionists are always recommending we eat more fish rather than meat, and that we consume more omega-3s. Salmon is the way to go!  Fresh salmon can be a little tricky to get sometimes and can be a bit pricey, but canned salmon is always a great alternative. It is quite inexpensive, and the presence of bones (soft, perfectly edible) contributes high amounts of calcium and Vitamin D. Another tasty choice is smoked salmon, which can usually be purchased refrigerated or frozen. It has a very nice flavor and is great to make appetizers and hors d'oeuvres. Salmon can be prepared by baking, grilling, smoking, or pan-frying. My favorite preparation method for salmon is to smoke it on maple planks on the barbecue, with just a sprinkle of brown sugar for flavor. Salmon also goes well with a variety of different foods. A fool-proof choice is to pair salmon with stir-fried broccoli and rice. Salmon also pairs well with risotto and noodles, makes an excellent sandwich, and creates a delightful appetizer served atop a slice of baguette with cream cheese. I had salmon for supper tonight, and if there were leftovers, I would use them for a sandwich tomorrow. But of course, there isn't any left!