Slow-baked Salmon with White Beans and Fennel

This is an easy, different, and delicious take on salmon that's easy to scale up for company or leftovers. Loosely adapted from this recipe here, crossed with this long-time favorite.

Ingredients
1 lb wild salmon
2 tbsp chopped green garlic (or sub 2 cloves garlic, pressed)
1 1/2 tbsp minced fennel top
Zest of ½ lemon
1 tsp mustard seeds
Olive oil
Kosher salt
1 large or two small fennel bulbs, diced
2 cans cannellini beans
1 tbsp good-quality mustard
Few sloshes white wine
1-2 tomatoes, diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine in a small bowl: 1 tbsp of the green garlic (or one clove garlic, pressed), the fennel top, lemon zest, mustard seeds, 1.5 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp or so wine, and a couple pinches of salt. Lightly oil a foil-lined baking sheet and place the salmon on it, skin side down. Spread the garlic-fennel mixture evenly over the top in a thin layer. Let sit for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 275°F. Bake the salmon for 20-21 minutes or until you can see that the fat has started to melt out a bit from the bottom.

In a wide nonstick pan, heat a generous glug of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the fennel and reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about six minutes, allowing the fennel to brown.

Add another glug of olive oil if the pan seems dry, turn the heat down a little, and add the rest of the garlic. Stir a couple times, then add the beans. After 1-2 minutes, add the mustard and a couple generous sloshes of wine and cook for another minute or so until some of the wine evaporates. Stir in the tomatoes and let cook until just heated through (unless they’re not really in season, in which case, cook them a couple minutes longer), then turn off the heat and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the beans onto plates and top with a piece of salmon.

Serves 3-4.

If you're reheating leftovers the next day, reheat the beans only, then lay the salmon over the top. The warmth of the beans will bring the salmon to room temperature without overcooking.

Fish Curry with Gypsy Peppers

The thing about wandering the streets of Paris in search of various foodie quests nominated by the brilliant Clothilde Dusoulier is that one must be prepared to carry back armfuls of freshly baked bread and goat cheese with pressed fig and brilliant red globes of plum tomatoes still on the vine. And, if you stumble into Goumanyat, spices. After gazing with deep longing at the saffron honey and sniffing every spice and pepper packed into their sniff bar, we left with a bag full of treasures, including the most amazing curry ever.

Seriously. The most amazing. Go to Paris and see. (I know. Such terrible homework assignments.)

Post Paris, come home and make this.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 large or 2 small shallots, chopped (about 4 tbsp)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp grated or minced ginger
2 spoonfuls of good-quality curry powder
4 gypsy peppers, sliced lengthwise into strips (or sub 2 bell peppers)
1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and thickly sliced
4 tbsp coconut milk
Chicken or veggie broth
About .6 lbs opah (moonfish), tilapia, or salmon, cut into 1-2" cubes (you want them all about the same size so they cook in the same amount of time)
A few leaves of cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Heat a pan over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil and sauté half the shallot, half the garlic, and all of the ginger until they soften slightly. Add a spoonful of curry powder, stir for about 10 seconds till it turns fragrant, then add the veggies and toss to coat. Sauté for a minute, adding a little more oil if necessary, then add 2 tbsp coconut milk, a slosh of broth, and a pinch of salt. Stir, bring to a simmer, and cover the pan. Turn the heat down slightly and let cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the peppers soften their shape and the zucchini is tender. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat another pan over medium heat, add a generous glug of olive oil, and sauté the remaining shallot and garlic until they soften. Add a spoonful of curry powder, toast for about 10 seconds, then add the fish. Sprinkle with salt, stir, and saute until it's cooked on all sides. Add 2 tbsp coconut milk, a generous slosh or two of broth (you want enough to make some sauce to spoon over your rice), and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the fish is just barely cooked through.

Serve the fish and veggies together (you can mix them in a pan or just layer them in bowls) with brown rice and a glass of Barbera.

Serves 2.

Slow-Baked Salmon with Lemon and Thyme

I recently found myself in the alarming position of agreeing to cook dinner for 25 people.

Actually, I should rephrase. "Agree" implies that I had some say in the matter. I was unilaterally volunteered to cook dinner for 25.

I raised the possibility that perhaps this was an egregious error. Maybe they meant 2.5? 2.5 people seems feasible. I could do 2.5.

"2.5 people?" I asked.

No. Definitely 25. And they definitely meant me.

At this point, I may or may not have seriously considered moving to a small island off the coast of Thailand.

Here's the thing: I don't cook for 25. I don't cook for ten. I cook for one or two or sometimes four. And a lot of the things I make aren't particularly scale-uppable...you can't quintuple a risotto and expect it to cook the same way (in fact, we tried once in college and dinner was about three hours late). Pan-frying is obviously limited to the number of things you can fit in the pan. Homemade pasta would take days. My obsession with vegetables is heavily contingent on them caramelizing in some way, which gets harder or impossible if you crowd them together.

Plus: Most people tend to expect dinner to involve some central meat thing, and I don't really do central meat things. (Let's be clear: I haven't the foggiest. I would undercook, or overcook, or accidentally make kale instead of a pork roast.) The point being, I had no idea what to do. None.

Fortunately, I was saved by the miracle of slow-baked salmon. Miraculous because—are you ready?—it is easy AND dreamily delicious AND scale-uppable AND fancy-looking. Oh, and it tells you when it's done. The technique was made for a dinner party. Or in my case, a small team of intrepid chefs determined to serve up California cuisine to a couple of dozen hungry academics in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Adapted from this recipe, and perfect over Israeli couscous (especially if after cooking the couscous, you stir in a tab of butter, a pinch of thyme, some chopped parsley, a bit of lemon zest, and some lemon juice).

Ingredients
12-13 oz wild salmon fillet*

1 tbsp olive oil
Zest of ½ lemon (about 1 tbsp)
½ tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 small clove garlic, pressed
Small slosh white wine (just enough to moisten mixture slightly)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lemon wedges & parsley for garnish

Preheat oven to 275°F.

Combine the olive oil, lemon zest, thyme, and garlic. Add about 1 tsp of white wine—just enough to make the mixture easier to spread, without being runny. (If you're scaling the recipe up, still start with this much wine and then add a little bit more if needed.)

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lightly oil it, then place salmon skin-side down. Spread the lemon zest mixture evenly over the top, then sprinkle with salt and (lightly) with pepper. Let sit 10 minutes for flavors to blend.

Bake for 20-21 minutes until the fat melts out the sides (it will often start by melting in little pools on the top, but you're waiting for the tell-tale sign of it melting at the bottom of the sides of the fillet, just like you see below).

Garnish with lemon & parsley. Serve hot, or warm, or cold—this fish can really do just about anything.

Serves 3, or multiply by six for a crowd.

And, if you are feeding a crowd, other suggestions include:
Quinoa Salad with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
These Fish Packets
Grilled Asparagus with Balsamic Reduction
Roasted Bell Peppers
Israeli Couscous
Jasmine Rice

*Definitely splurge on wild salmon for this recipe—and in fact, if you can only find farmed, do something else with it. Slow-baking salmon changes the texture completely, in a wonderful way if it's wild, but in a mushy way if it's farmed. Note also that if you are scaling up, you can leave the fillet (or fillets) whole and let people cut their own, or cut before cooking into individual portions—it works either way. I left them whole, just because it was easier.

Wasabi Salmon Sandwiches

The Scene: Saturday evening. Feet up. Encouched.

The Game: Scattergories. Three-minute version.

The Letter: W.

The Category in Question: Things You Bring on a Picnic.

The Conversation, Verbatim:
Husband: What did you put?

Me: Wasabi salmon sandwich. You could totally bring that on a picnic.

Him: Ooooh.

(thoughtful pause)

Me: In fact, I kind of want one.

Him: Yeah.

Me: Like, now.

Him: Yeah.

(thoughtful pause)

Him: What are we doing for dinner tomorrow? 

Me: Making wasabi salmon sandwiches?

Him: That is correct.

Ingredients
2 smallish salmon filets (5-6 oz each), carefully deboned
1/2 tsp grated or finely chopped fresh ginger
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped or pressed
Kosher salt
Black sesame seeds
Olive oil
1 tsp wasabi powder*
1 tbsp very good quality mayonnaise or aioli**
1/2 bunch watercress, leaves separated, washed, and dried
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
2 ciabatta rolls, sliced in half (or sub slices of ciabatta or a french boule if necessary)

Sprinkle both sides of the salmon lightly with salt, then place skin side down on a plate. Sprinkle the top of each piece with ginger and garlic, and press them lightly into the fish with your fingertips. Last, sprinkle the same side liberally with black sesame seeds.

Mix the wasabi powder with just enough water to form a thick paste. Add the mayonnaise, stir well to combine, and set in the fridge.

Toss the watercress with the rice wine vinegar and set aside.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, lightly drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Add the salmon, skin side down, and shake the pan back and forth to make sure it doesn't stick. Cook for several minutes until the skin is golden brown and the salmon looks cooked about a third of the way up the side.

Flip the salmon, and cook for 2-3 minutes more until the top of the fish is very lightly golden (but not long enough for the garlic to brown).

Flip back skin side down, and check for doneness (we recommend medium-rare). If it's not done yet, cover the pan, lower the heat to medium-low, and cook for a minute or two more. Remove from the heat just before it's cooked enough (it will cook more as you serve it and carry it to the table).

To assemble the sandwich, spread each piece of bread lightly with wasabi mayonnaise, then sandwich the salmon topped with watercress in between. Cut in half, and serve immediately.

Serves 2. Pairs extremely well with sauteed beet greens, St. Supery's 2011 Virtu (available right now at Costco), and Nina Simone.

*Whole Foods has Sushi Sonic, a freeze-dried version made with real wasabi that tastes entirely different from the horseradish-mustard concoction often used as a substitute.
**Also found at Whole Foods: Sir Kensington gourmet scooping mayonnaise; also well worth seeking out.

Ginger-Rubbed Salmon with Mustard Seeds and Sorrel

Quick, easy, and stupendously delicious...hello, salmon season. I've missed you.

Serve this over jasmine rice or jade pearl rice, with sauteed greens on the side.

Ingredients
12 oz wild salmon
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 small clove garlic, pressed
Mustard seeds
Onion blossoms
(or sub 1 scallion, thinly sliced)
Olive oil
1 cup chopped sorrel leaves
(about one third to half a bunch)


Sprinkle salmon generously with salt on both sides, and a little ground pepper on the non-skin side. Mash the garlic and ginger together, and then rub onto the fish (mostly on the non-skin side, and a little on the skin if you plan to eat it, which you should, because it will be amazing. Trust me). Sprinkle the non-skin side lightly with mustard seeds and the onion blossoms or scallion.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add a glug of olive oil and swirl to spread in the pan. Place the fish in the pan skin-side down, wait a moment, then shake to make sure it's not sticking.

Cook for several minutes, until the skin is golden-brown, then flip and cook for a minute until the fish has just a hint of gold to it (if it's a thick piece of salmon, you may have to cook it for a couple minutes on the non-skin side...or, keep it skin side down, and put a lid on the pan for a minute to help it cook through).

When the fish is medium-rare (still that darker shade of pink in the middle), serve onto a bed of rice. The trick is to catch it just before it's as cooked as you want it, since it will keep cooking a bit over the hot rice. The other trick is to eat it medium-rare, because medium-rare salmon is amazing.

Drizzle a little more olive oil in the pan, add the sorrel, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and toss to coat. Turn off the heat. Saute the sorrel, stirring, for about 20-30 seconds till it just starts to change color from a vibrant green to a darker olive tone. Pour over the salmon, and serve immediately.

Serves 2.

Wordless Wednesday: Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes, Fresh Baby Corn, and Parsley over Pan-Seared Salmon

 

Mustard Seed Salmon with Garlic Blossoms and Parsley Butter

Our house guests this week brought fresh-caught salmon with them (which we think all future house guests should take as a challenge), and our produce box sent the scapes and tops from young elephant garlic. Good things were bound to happen.

To use the blossom-filled tops of the garlic scapes, cut each in half crosswise. Empty the little buds from the top half into a small bowl, then peel the bottom half and cut the buds away from the center. Garlic blossoms have a light, springy, and subtle garlicky flavor and ended up complementing the fresh salmon well without overpowering it. If you don't have garlic blossoms, use a little chopped green garlic or a finely chopped leek in its stead.

Ingredients
Olive oil
4 salmon filets
Black and yellow mustard seeds
Blossoms from 2-3 elephant garlic tops
2-3 big handfuls flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Pasture butter
Salt

Brush the salmon lightly with olive oil and sprinkle both sides lightly with garlic blossoms (use about half of the blossoms you have, and reserve the other half). Next, liberally sprinkle mustard seeds on both sides of the salmon.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot enough that a drop of water evaporates right away, add a bit of olive oil and let it heat for another 20-30 seconds or so (heating the pan until very hot and then heating the olive oil before adding the salmon will help make sure the fish doesn't stick to the pan).

Place the salmon in the pan skin side up. Sprinkle each fillet with a little salt, and pan fry until the bottoms are lightly golden or until the salmon is cooked through about a third of the way. If the fillets are very thick, you can lower the heat slightly and cover the pan for a couple minutes to help it cook through.

Flip the fillets, sprinkle the tops with a little salt again, and continue to cook until the salmon feels firmer when you press it gently on the top. (If you're open to trying it medium or medium-rare, do -- it's amazing. If you'd prefer to cook it through all the way, you can do that too, but turn off the heat just before it's done, since it will cook a bit more on the plate before you have a chance to eat it.)

Meanwhile, heat a small pot over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil and a pat of butter, a pinch of salt, and the rest of the garlic blossoms. Saute for 10-20 seconds, then add the parsley, stir, and turn off the heat.

Arrange the salmon over rice or quinoa pilaf, and drizzle a little parsley sauce over the top. Serve right away.

Serves 4.

Grilled Salmon with Mustard and Scallions

I realize that there are several salmon recipes already on here, but Costco has wild sockeye right now for a ridiculously low price and we feel obligated to take full, weekly advantage.

Ingredients
Marinade:
2 scallions, sliced and then coarsely diced a few times (white and light green parts)
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 tsp whole grain dijon mustard
A slosh of soy sauce
2 sloshes of rice wine
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Wild salmon (enough for 2)
1/2 avocado, diced, for garnish (optional)

Whisk marinade ingredients together. Pour over the salmon and let marinate in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Grill on high for about 3 minutes (skin side down), then flip. Spoon extra scallions over the top, and grill another 1-3 minutes on the second side, depending on how thick the salmon is. (We were once told, in a friendly but firm way, that the only way to eat salmon was medium rare, by the co-owner of one of our favorite French restaurants in Manhattan. After taking her advice for our dinner that night, we were converted. I can't pull off the same Parisian flair or authoritative gaze, but seriously: try it. You'll feel warm fuzzies for the French and possibly all humankind.)

Serve over rice (e.g., Bhutanese red rice: saute a little olive oil and onion over medium heat until soft, then add 3/4 cups red rice and saute for another minute. Add 1 cup water, cover, and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 20 minutes, then uncover and turn heat to medium, stirring until the excess water evaporates. Push rice to the side of the pan, add a tsp of pasture butter and a sprinkling of mustard seeds to the bottom of the pan and let simmer for a few seconds, then turn off the heat and stir the rice to coat).

Serves 2. Goes well with cucumber salad (above).

Purslane with Sweet Onions

One day last week, while perusing our Coop's vegetable aisle and pining after the now-absent baby rainbow chard, my eyes fell on a bunch of some weedy looking thing I'd never seen before. A little detective work with the signs above (not purple kale, because it's not purple...not carrots, because I definitely know what those look like) suggested the mystery vegetable was purslane. I had no idea what purslane was, although it sounded vaguely familiar. (Turns out this is because Michael Pollan mentions it in passing as an example of how wild foods are often very healthy, which, apparently, purslane is.) But something about the way the tips of the weedy little sprigs jutted forward looked like a challenge. I will buy you, I said to them, hopefully under my breath although in retrospect, one never can be sure. I will buy you, and I will cook you. I fixed the stems with a steely gaze.

The problem, it turned out, when Phase I of my two-part plan (the buying of the purslane) had been completed, was that nobody seemed to know how to cook purslane (which was, if you recall, the crucial Phase II). I could find recipes online for salads and some people suggested using it on sandwiches, but I had distinctly (and hopefully silently) sworn to cook it, and a salad seemed like wimping out. Also, it tasted citrusy, almost sour, and I thought it might need something sweet to balance the flavor. So:

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced into thin half-rings
1 bunch purslane, washed
Salt & pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in a wide pan over medium-high heat. Add onion rings and saute until golden and sweet-smelling, turning down the heat a little if necessary to avoid too much browning (although a little bit browned is perfect).

Meanwhile, cut the bottom 1/2 inch or so off the purslane stems, and then chop coarsely (I left it as a bunch and just sliced in one-inch intervals).

When the onions are carmelized, turn the heat back to medium-high and add the purslane.

Stir-fry for a minute or two, until the leaves just begin to wilt, add salt and pepper, and serve.


The citrusy taste of the purslane goes particularly well with salmon -- for dinner that night, we covered a piece of wild salmon with black mustard seeds and a few curry leaves, pan-fried it, then served over a bed of wild rice cooked with some chopped shallot: