30 Before 30: Salmon Meuniere (#1)

I love, love, LOVE sockeye salmon. It makes for delicious lox. It makes for delicious dinners. It basically makes for delicious everything. I usually just bake it with lemon and butter and call it good, but since I'm doing my 30 before 30, I wanted to try something new. Well new resulted in very similar flavors. It was fun anyway, as are most Alton Brown recipes.

Very rarely do I have to double a recipe. The one posted below is for one. Double everything and turn up the heat a bit.

Salmon Meuniere via Good Eats – The Early Years:

1 8 oz. skin-on sockeye fillet (or trout, if you're into river fish)

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 Tb. canola oil

2 Tb. unsalted butter, divided

1 Tb. capers, drained but not rinsed

1/2 medium lemon, juiced

2 Tb. finely chopped parsley

Put a 12-inch skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat, avoiding non-stick.

Season flesh side of salmon with salt and pepper. Dredge fish with all-purpose flour. I followed Alton's tip here to put a 1/2 cup per fillet into a lidded rectangular container, cover with the lid, and gently shake it. Shake off the excess flour and move along. So much easier than regular dredging!

Add oil and 1 tablespoon of butter to hot pan. The butter will melt, then foam, then turn light brown. My pan was a wee bit too hot and the butter proceeded almost immediately to medium brown. It was a nuttier flavor and good, but not my intention.

Add fish to pan, flesh side down. Gently jiggle the pan to make sure there's not sticking. Cook until a golden crust forms on the fish, about 2 minutes. If the fat in the pan starts smoking around the edges, drop the heat a bit.

Using a slotted spatula or fish turner, flip the fish away from you and jiggle a little harder than before and cook another 2 minutes or until the meat facing up starts to flake or separate.

Remove fish to a plate. Add the remaining butter to the pan and when it melts, add the capers. Fry them for 30 seconds, then kill the heat and squeeze in the lemon juice. Swirl until sauce thickens slightly from the flour.

Pour the sauce over the salmon and garnish with parsley.

The one big benefit to this recipe as opposed to my old stand-by was how much faster it was. Oh, and who can say no to crispy salmon skin?

Recipes Complete: 1

Recipes to Go: 29

Homemade Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Dill Cream Sauce

What do you do when you are gifted some of the best smoked salmon in the world? You put it on everything you can find. And then you take the rest of the filet and you make delicious, delicious pasta with it.

This past holiday season Aaron gave me something I have always wanted: a pasta maker. Not just any pasta maker either – an Atlas, the same kind my parents have had for years. It is wonderful and easy to use. The recipe I used for this batch was done by hand, but can also be done in the food processor (and it's easier too). It says pasta for 2-3 and I think it can be more 3-4 depending on what you put in it. If you have super amazing smoked salmon, I recommend this. Even if I never seem to measure anything. You can make a roux, right?

Homemade Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Dill Cream Sauce:

Serves 3-4

Pasta-

1 1/4 c. Flour

2 eggs, room temperature

Pinch of salt

Sauce-

At least 1/2 filet smoked salmon, flaked and bones removed

Roux

Half-and-half or heavy cream

Dill

Salt

Pepper

To make the pasta, either buzz the flour and the salt together in a food processor and then add the eggs one at a time or put the flour on a cutting board or clean counter and make a concave space in the center. Using a fork, mix in the eggs and slowly drag in more flour until you make a dough. In both cases, knead out the dough for a few minutes and set aside to dry.

Using your pasta maker, roll the dough through the widest setting. Fold in half and do this again 8 more times. Then roll the dough through each setting progressively until you reach the thickness you want. Mine is at setting 8. You may need to cut the dough in half as you roll it through as it becomes quite long. Set aside and allow it to try for about 15-20 minutes before rolling it through the cutters.

Once you roll the pasta through the cutters and you have gorgeous noodles, everything else comes together really quickly. You'll want to have your sauce ready to go before you get the noodles boiling as it takes no time at all to cook fresh egg pasta.

To make the sauce, prepare a roux. I like to brown the butter a bit for that slightly nutty flavor. Add in enough half-and-half or cream to make a nice, thick sauce. Add in a good handful of fresh dill or a decent amount of dried. Add in salt and pepper to taste. Add in smoked salmon. Set aside and keep warm.

Get the water boiling and get those noodles in there. They'll be done really, really fast. Add them to the sauce and serve immediately.

This is a dynamite dish and it sounds much more complicated than it actually is. Plus it tastes really, really good.

Asian Style Ahi

Back in January, after a long in-class weekend, I went out with a few of my classmates. This is when Kirsten and I started talking and discovered that we are both really into food and food blogs and talking about food. I love her blog, A Cilantro Color and have been meaning to try something from it since its inception. One of the reasons I love it is because of cilantro. So many people hate it and that is ridiculous! Like Kirsten, I got into it when I started eating a lot of Thai food. When my parents started making it, after a trip to Kauai, I was anti-cilantro. And then I stopped being a big baby, ate my first pad thai, and fell in love with cilantro. (If you're not into it, check out Kirsten's post about cilantro haters here.)

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I finally tried one of her recipes or rather, I used her marinade, slightly modified, for ahi instead of shrimp, which she mentions as a use in the original post.

It's fabulous. You should try it too.

Asian Style Ahi modified from Spicy Asian Style Shrimp from A Cilantro Color:

Makes 2 ahi steaks

2 medium ahi steaks
4 Tb. rice vinegar
5 Tb. soy sauce
Juice of one small lime
5 Tb. grated ginger
3 dried Thai chilis, minced
2 tsp. Asian garlic chili sauce
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tb. cilantro, chopped
2 Tb. olive oil

In medium bowl add rice vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, ginger, Thai chili peppers, garlic chili sauce, garlic, and cilantro. Mix well. Add ahi to bowl. Put in refrigerator to marinate overnight. Kirsten’s original recipe has it for 30 minutes, but as I was getting ready to prepare dinner, Aaron and I were invited out by friends, so we set it off to the next day. I think the flavor would be amazing either way.

Set your grill to a medium flame. Ahi should be served seared and rare. Grill for 3-4 minutes, until edges brown, and turn once, grilling for another 2-3 minutes. Because the marinade sunk in so much, it was hard to tell when the edges were perfect, but going off of time, it ended up being cooked perfectly.

Serve with rice and vegetables. Aaron made some awesome stir fry veggies that went perfectly with the fish. The ahi itself was amazing! It was slightly spicy, a little sweet, and had an amazing depth of flavor. It was also awesome as lunch the next day. I can’t wait to try more of Kirsten’s awesome recipes!

Fish Tacos

The problem with not writing up recipes after you make them is, of course, not really remembering what you did. So, as a result, you all get to read about my delicious fish tacos and hopefully I remember correctly what was done.

One of the thing I like most about cooking is making marinades. I think it has something to do with the way it can change the scope of a meal based on the herbs and spices you use. In this case, I used snapper because rock fishes make for great tacos. So does halibut, but snapper is much cheaper. As I know you all are very smart, I don’t have exact amounts for this recipe, but I know you can figure it out. I also know that traditionally, fish tacos are served with cabbage and white sauce, but I just didn’t feel like it this time. They are still quite fantastic.

Fish Tacos:

Serves 3-4

1 lb.–ish snapper or other rock fish
Herb vinegar
Olive oil
Fresh lemon juice
Fresh lime juice
Ground cumin
Cilantro
Mexican oregano
Flour
Panko
Eggs, beaten
Corn taco shells (hard or soft)
Whatever taco accoutrements you enjoy

Cut fish into strips, about 1” wide, on an angle. In a large container with a lid, add fish, vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, lime juice, ground cumin, cilantro, and Mexican oregano. Close and shake around. Refrigerate at least overnight. Shake it up every 12 hours or so. Mine marinated for about 2 days because other dinner plans came up. It was still good.






Heat oven to 400 degrees. Dredge fish through flour, then egg, then panko. Place fish on a greased baking sheet. Drizzle fish with additional olive oil. Cook for about 5-6 minutes, turn the fish over, and cook until done, another few minutes. Stuff into tacos. We had ours with pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and homemade guacamole and served with Mexican rice.

This makes a little or a lot, depending on how much fish you have, and I ended up also making fish nachos that same week, which was also delicious. It’s so easy and with summer coming up, you’re going to want these.

Anniversary Dinner

On February 2nd, Aaron and I celebrated nine years together. Over time our celebrations have gotten a bit smaller, especially since we also have our wedding anniversary to celebrate, and now we mostly cook for each other. I kept it fairly simple this time around and I think it was really nice.

We had baked salmon, spicy broccoli, dill Israeli couscous, and garlic crostini. I didn’t follow recipes for any of these, but it was such a fantastic dinner that I had to share.

This is what I did:

The salmon was a gorgeous about one pound piece of sockeye. I heated the oven to 350 degrees. In a big casserole dish, Aaron rubbed it down with butter. I cut the skin off of the filet and he rubbed both sides with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. We then dotted the salmon with butter, squeezed some lemon juice on it, and sprinkled it with diced garlic.

It went into the oven for about 20 minutes. You can tell when the salmon is done when it turns a much lighter pink and it just looks tasty.

For the Israeli couscous, I put it in a pot with water, mixed in dill, pepper, garlic, and kosher salt and brought the water to a boil. It’s a similar ratio of couscous to water like rice to water. I reduced to a simmer and covered it while it cooked for another eight minutes or so. The consistency is a lot more like pasta, but it cooks like rice. I love it.

While the couscous was going and the salmon was in the oven, I heated olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, tossed in broccoli florets, crushed red pepper, my ubiquitous garlic, salt, and pepper, and cooked that for about 30-45 seconds. When the broccoli was still bright green, but a little toasty, I turned the heat down, added about ½ a cup of water, and covered until the broccoli was cooked through, about 4-5 minutes.

Finally, while the salmon was cooking, I cut up a couple of pieces of rosemary loaf, brushed them with garlic olive oil, and put them in the oven with the salmon until they were crispy and browned. While the salmon was resting, I pulled them out and rubbed them with a cut clove of garlic.



Overall, the dinner was delicious and it was a great way to celebrate another year with my baby.

Grilled Salmon

It has been very hot in Portland. Very, very hot. There were rumors that it might get to 108 degrees in some parts of Portland yesterday. I also heard 111. As a result, I have not been cooking very much. Or at all, really. Aaron's been cooking and grilling, but now it's just too hot for any of that nonsense. So rather than bore you with what I've been eating (mostly Otter Pops), I've got a short post about grilling salmon and why it is wonderful.

I love salmon. It's not just being from Alaska, although that does have a lot to do with my love, salmon is just wonderful. Correction, WILD salmon is wonderful. I don't eat farmed and I eat Pacific only and Alaskan when I can. Grilling salmon is so fantastic and it really lets the fish shine through. All you really need is a piece of fish, some butter, salt and pepper. I went an extra step last time and added basil and sage from my own garden (I love saying that!). It was delicious. Heck, you don’t even need that stuff if you don’t want to. Salmon is delicious in and of itself.



Either way, go get some delicious, tasty, wild salmon. And, if you feel like it, dot it with butter, a bit of salt and pepper and some herbs if you feel like it. Wrap it up in foil. Throw it on the grill and wait until it is cooked through and a beautiful light pink. You'll know when. It will be moist and delicious and you'll thank goodness for fish and summer. Unless it's like right now and you just wish you were a fish and could swim around all day.

Did I mention it's hot?

I've got some things up my sleeve for when it cools down, some of which involve my oven. I'm not touching that thing until I'm not on a steady diet of Poncho Punch and Sir Isaac Lime. See you on the other side.

Roasted Halibut with Aioli

I am awesome at blogging about food. Aaron and I made this dish on Wednesday and I’m just getting to it now. I actually have been fairly busy, my friend was in town, and the weather this weekend has been gorgeous! So yeah, no time for blogging. And laziness. That too.

The point though is that this halibut dish was AWESOME! I love halibut. Like love love love. I’m Alaskan, what can I say? The problem is that it is often prohibitively expensive. However, when doing some grocery shopping we noticed that halibut had dropped from $14-15/lb. to about $8-9/lb. Uhm, yeah! So we picked up a couple of hefty halibut steaks and searched for the best way to eat them. Aaron found this recipe and I was all onboard except for the sauce. It’s cheater aioli and regular aioli is so easy to make, I just decided to do that. You can check the aioli recipe I have mentally filed away here.

Roasted Halibut with Aioli (formally Garlic Sauce) from Gourmet via epicurious.com:

Serves 2

Halibut fillet or steak
Aioli (garlic, egg yolk, and olive oil)
Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper

We also used:
Lemon
5-6 garlic cloves, peeled
Olive oil
Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in middle.

Make aioli.



Put fish in an oiled shallow baking dish and sprinkle with teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Spread aioli over top of fish. Cut up lemon wedges and place in dish with fish. Pierce garlic cloves in dish and sprinkle with a bit more olive oil.
Bake, uncovered, until fish is just cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes. The cook time will depend on how thick your fish is. The original recipe has them at 1½. Ours were quite a bit thicker and took about 15 minutes.



Serve with rice, cooked lemon wedges, roasted garlic, and fresh lemon wedges. We also had steamed broccoli. I also rocked out some quick bruschetta. This was so, so, so good! Aaron cooked this fish perfectly! My aioli rocked (duh) and it kept the halibut moist and flaky. I won’t give it all to the aioli. Aaron really did an amazing job with this. I was so impressed. The cooked lemon was perfect to spread over the fish and the bruschetta. It’s such a cool texture when it’s cooked. I wish I had more of this meal to eat now. Gaaah! Halibut!