Salmon with multi-cultural tomato sauce
First, a bit of an explanation. I cook with a lot of salmon. This blog has grown out of the habit of cooking with salmon with four ideas in mind:
1. an expression of creativity.
2. using what I have on hand.
3. using salmon for health reasons.
4. having a decent meal worthy of eating to break the monotony of my daily diet.
I have rather strict demands on my diet for health reasons. I am on a very low fat diet and during the week I eat a very disciplined diet. But one night a week I like to see what I can do when I kick up my heels. Salmon is a staple that is very healthy, and I center many of my creative endeavors on salmon. But I strongly suspect that most of the recipes here can use any fish or even chicken. At times, even beef or pork could be used.
This week I found some dried garlic chutney mix my wife bought for me on a trip a while ago. It was hiding deep inside a basket of various spice mixtures and sauces we have collected over time. It tasted like it needed some type of mixing but there were no directions on the package and I was dubious that simply mixing it with water would result in a delicious solution. Oil would probably have been a workable solution but on a low fat diet that was not an option. Instead I decided to use it basically as a spice mixture.
What fish doesn't excel with some type of citrus highlight? And certainly garlic goes well with that flavor profile. Citrus is not unknown to Indian cuisine either. So I thought a loomi would be a good option though they are middle eastern, not Indian. Loomis are dried whole limes. They add both a sour and acrid flavor to the pot. They should be pierced before being added to a pot so the sauce can flow in and out of the lime to add the flavors. Pressing the loomi with a spoon in the pot several times during the simmering process will bring more flavor out of the lime than simply letting it sit there and simmer.
The brown sugar was added as a substitution for an Indian ingredient called jaggery which can be approximated using brown sugar. The smoked paprika was used to add a base, or broader taste to the sauce.
The richness of the salmon added a lot to the sauce which I was counting on during the cooking process. Chicken might not be so effective in this experiment but beef and pork would do well in this dish, I think. Even adding some beef bullion might have broadened this dish favorably.
Ingredients:
Canned diced tomatoes
Dried Garlic Chutney
Loom
Brown Sugar
Smoked Paprika
Salmon
Pasta
Place the tomatoes, garlic chutney and loomi in a sauce pot and simmer, pressing the loom on the side of the pot several times during the cooking process. Add the light brown sugar and smoked paprika to taste and to correct the acidity and spiciness of the sauce. Add salt to taste. Once the sauce is prepared place a salmon fillet, skin side down in to the pot, cover and simmer for 7 1/2 minutes. Turn the salmon and remove the skin. Spoon the sauce on top of the fillet, cover and simmer for another 7 1/2 minutes.
While the fish is cooking, prepare the pasta and drain and place on a plate. Spoon the salmon and sauce onto the plate and serve.
Crtitique: I used a rather large amount of tomatoes and ended up with more sauce than I needed. The Garlic Chutney was more spicy than flavorful and I suspect I will be dispensing of it as a future ingredient. The dish was quite enjoyable overall but the dried garlic chutney was more of a wild card that a pivotal ingredients.
This would be a good dish to rework without the dried garlic chutney and with other ingredients to take its place.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Honey Salmon with Sun-dried Tomato Salsa
Okay, so this one was seven ingredients. I obeyed the rule this time. I usually begin thinking about my escapades, as the previous post hinted, by considering what I have on hand, and particularly, what is about to "go to glory," as a friend of mine like to say.
So here are the ingredients I used this time:
1. A fillet of salmon
2. A couple of bags of sun-dreid tomatoes
3. Fresh parsley
4. Garlic
5. Lemon juice
6. Honey
7. Fresh Jalapeño Pepper
I began by chopping up the sun-dreid tomatoes and tossing them in a bowl with the parsley, garlic, lemon juice, a small amount of honey and the seeded and chopped jalapeño pepper. I let that sit for about an hour or so at room temperature and stirred it every so now and then to marry the flavors.
When it was time to prepare the salmon I placed it skin-side down on a tray and drizzled with about scant tablespoon of honey over the exposed side and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I roasted the salmon in our toaster oven since it was such a small fillet. I started on broil setting, but our toaster oven is rather old and it fazes in and out at broil setting, so I finally just set it for the highest temperature which is 500º. I have no confidence in the accuracy of that measurement.
I roasted the salmon for five minutes and then turned it over, removed the skin and drizzled it with another scant tablespoon of honey and sprinkled it with salt and pepper. I returned it to the toaster oven for another five minutes.
I turned the salmon over and roasted it for five minutes on each side again.
I plated it simply by placing a serving of the salmon on a plate and dressing the side with the salsa.
Critique:
I was worried the salmon would be too sweet with the honey but it wasn't. I nailed that part. Interestingly, the honey was given to me as a Christmas gift by a friend who harvested it from her own hive. It was from a private hive that has no specificity to it. In other words, it is not processed and it is not specifically a clover honey or the like. Curiously it is quite sweet as honey should be, but it is surprisingly lighter tasting and not as thick and oppressively sweet as commercial honey. This may be why the salmon wasn't too sweet.
The salsa was not bad. I would add another jalapeño but I was concerned it would be a bit on the hot side. Fresh jalapeños can be unpredictable. In fact, I believe what are often sold as fresh jalapeños may actually be any number of varieties of peppers that significantly differ in their Scofield index numbers (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pepper/msg070813259265.html), (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale). Seeding a pepper always has an impact on its spiciness, so that may also be a way of mitigating the success of this recipe.
One thing I did not mention above is that I actually had two types of sun-dried tomatoes. One was just simple sun-dried tomatoes. The other package was smoked. Now smoked sun-dried tomatoes might just be an important twist in certain situations, but not in this one. Had all the tomatoes not been smoked, I think the dish would have been more successful.
Verdict:
I would make it again but without using smoked sun-dried tomatoes and paying closer attention to the spiciness of the "jalapeños".
So here are the ingredients I used this time:
1. A fillet of salmon
2. A couple of bags of sun-dreid tomatoes
3. Fresh parsley
4. Garlic
5. Lemon juice
6. Honey
7. Fresh Jalapeño Pepper
I began by chopping up the sun-dreid tomatoes and tossing them in a bowl with the parsley, garlic, lemon juice, a small amount of honey and the seeded and chopped jalapeño pepper. I let that sit for about an hour or so at room temperature and stirred it every so now and then to marry the flavors.
When it was time to prepare the salmon I placed it skin-side down on a tray and drizzled with about scant tablespoon of honey over the exposed side and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I roasted the salmon in our toaster oven since it was such a small fillet. I started on broil setting, but our toaster oven is rather old and it fazes in and out at broil setting, so I finally just set it for the highest temperature which is 500º. I have no confidence in the accuracy of that measurement.
I roasted the salmon for five minutes and then turned it over, removed the skin and drizzled it with another scant tablespoon of honey and sprinkled it with salt and pepper. I returned it to the toaster oven for another five minutes.
I turned the salmon over and roasted it for five minutes on each side again.
I plated it simply by placing a serving of the salmon on a plate and dressing the side with the salsa.
Critique:
I was worried the salmon would be too sweet with the honey but it wasn't. I nailed that part. Interestingly, the honey was given to me as a Christmas gift by a friend who harvested it from her own hive. It was from a private hive that has no specificity to it. In other words, it is not processed and it is not specifically a clover honey or the like. Curiously it is quite sweet as honey should be, but it is surprisingly lighter tasting and not as thick and oppressively sweet as commercial honey. This may be why the salmon wasn't too sweet.
The salsa was not bad. I would add another jalapeño but I was concerned it would be a bit on the hot side. Fresh jalapeños can be unpredictable. In fact, I believe what are often sold as fresh jalapeños may actually be any number of varieties of peppers that significantly differ in their Scofield index numbers (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pepper/msg070813259265.html), (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale). Seeding a pepper always has an impact on its spiciness, so that may also be a way of mitigating the success of this recipe.
One thing I did not mention above is that I actually had two types of sun-dried tomatoes. One was just simple sun-dried tomatoes. The other package was smoked. Now smoked sun-dried tomatoes might just be an important twist in certain situations, but not in this one. Had all the tomatoes not been smoked, I think the dish would have been more successful.
Verdict:
I would make it again but without using smoked sun-dried tomatoes and paying closer attention to the spiciness of the "jalapeños".
Monday, December 10, 2012
Use celery
We had some leftover celery in our house that was starting to get a little old. My wife left me a to-do list this afternoon with only a few simple items but one was a bit of a throw down: Use celery.
So what does one do with a bunch of left-over celery? My first thought was roasting, but I decided against it. My second thought was to consult a few cookbooks. There are not many celery recipes. It is most usually used as a flavoring ingredient and not as a focus of a dish. I did find a couple of recipes in Julia Child's book.
Now, a disclaimer, I use Julia Child almost exclusively as a reference. She has a great deal of information in her cookbooks but after I used one of her cookbooks for an all-Julia Christmas feast, I was very disappointed. In short, Mrs Child liked to cook the hell out of vegetables. So this afternoon I simply perused one of her books to find some seasoning ideas, etc.
What started as a dish based on her braised celery ended up as basically a Cream of Celery Soup. Not the most creative or "outside the box" solution but I was able to accomplish two things:
1. I used the celery.
2. I made dinner.
So here's how it went
Celery
Apple
Sherry
Chicken Broth
Nonfat yogurt
egg beaters
nonfat cream
Celery Salt
Trim and wash the celery and place it in a roasting pan. Shred an apple over the celery and sprinkled all of it with salt and pepper. Pour sherry and chicken broth in the roasting pan until the celery is about half way covered. Braise at 325º, checking occasionally to make sure Mrs Child's cardinal sin isn't committed. Braise for about 30-35 minutes. The celery should be moist and yet still firm.
Removed the celery and chop. Placed the juices and shredded apple in a sauce pan. Add more chicken broth to sauce pan and gently raise the heat. Whisk nonfat yogurt, egg beaters and nonfat creamer in a bowl. Then whisk egg mixture into sauce pot and add sliced celery. Bring just to a boil slowly, stirring constantly. Adjust the seasoning with celery salt.
Comments:
Now, a count of the ingredients will show that there are actually eight, not seven; salt and pepper not withstanding. I suppose that this is not the most promising sign for my endeavors on this blog. But I will be perfectly honest: I am not a celery fan and I was simply trying to make something that was edible to celery and non-celery fans alike. I didn't really think I would share this recipe but seeing as my to-do list was so short this evening I figured this was the night to start constructing my blog.
My critique of this dish is that I used too much yogurt and not enough cream. My wife agrees. Oh, and adding the bacon would have been a good idea (as it quite often is) but then I would have had to name this blog nine ingredients!
My wife asked a very good question: Which ingredient was the least needed; which one could I omit with little or no impact? Definitely, it would be the apples. They added very little to the dish.
So what does one do with a bunch of left-over celery? My first thought was roasting, but I decided against it. My second thought was to consult a few cookbooks. There are not many celery recipes. It is most usually used as a flavoring ingredient and not as a focus of a dish. I did find a couple of recipes in Julia Child's book.
Now, a disclaimer, I use Julia Child almost exclusively as a reference. She has a great deal of information in her cookbooks but after I used one of her cookbooks for an all-Julia Christmas feast, I was very disappointed. In short, Mrs Child liked to cook the hell out of vegetables. So this afternoon I simply perused one of her books to find some seasoning ideas, etc.
What started as a dish based on her braised celery ended up as basically a Cream of Celery Soup. Not the most creative or "outside the box" solution but I was able to accomplish two things:
1. I used the celery.
2. I made dinner.
So here's how it went
Celery
Apple
Sherry
Chicken Broth
Nonfat yogurt
egg beaters
nonfat cream
Celery Salt
Trim and wash the celery and place it in a roasting pan. Shred an apple over the celery and sprinkled all of it with salt and pepper. Pour sherry and chicken broth in the roasting pan until the celery is about half way covered. Braise at 325º, checking occasionally to make sure Mrs Child's cardinal sin isn't committed. Braise for about 30-35 minutes. The celery should be moist and yet still firm.
Removed the celery and chop. Placed the juices and shredded apple in a sauce pan. Add more chicken broth to sauce pan and gently raise the heat. Whisk nonfat yogurt, egg beaters and nonfat creamer in a bowl. Then whisk egg mixture into sauce pot and add sliced celery. Bring just to a boil slowly, stirring constantly. Adjust the seasoning with celery salt.
Comments:
Now, a count of the ingredients will show that there are actually eight, not seven; salt and pepper not withstanding. I suppose that this is not the most promising sign for my endeavors on this blog. But I will be perfectly honest: I am not a celery fan and I was simply trying to make something that was edible to celery and non-celery fans alike. I didn't really think I would share this recipe but seeing as my to-do list was so short this evening I figured this was the night to start constructing my blog.
My critique of this dish is that I used too much yogurt and not enough cream. My wife agrees. Oh, and adding the bacon would have been a good idea (as it quite often is) but then I would have had to name this blog nine ingredients!
My wife asked a very good question: Which ingredient was the least needed; which one could I omit with little or no impact? Definitely, it would be the apples. They added very little to the dish.
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