Wait, I believe that’s someone else’s slogan.

But I ask you:  what better way is there to finish off a long, frigid week than with a big bowl of Salmon Chowder?  It’ll warm your belly, bring a smile to your face, and defrost your outer abominable snowman.

Hope I’m allowed to make such claims.  Maybe I should just stick to the topic at hand.

I didn’t deviate much from the original recipe, other than that I didn’t add the fresh lemon juice at the end.  I was feeling lazy.  Also, I did substitute a leek for one of the two cups of scallions – I was feeling sorry for it, sitting all by its lonesome in my produce drawer.  Oh, and I added a little bit of flour to thicken things up a little bit…so looking back, I guess I did deviate after all!  I’m a deviant, what can I tell you.

Now, you could cut back on the fresh cream if you were so inclined…if say, you’re in the ‘less is more’ camp.  You won’t find me in that camp.  Less is not more.  Less is less.  More is more.  Thank you.

Now you know that I’m both indulgent and deviant.  Hope we can still be friends.

SALMON CHOWDER

Serves: 6

Source:  epicurious.com

• ½ lb. red potatoes (for me this was four medium, and these are on sale)
• ½ lb. sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1/4” strips
• 2 c. chopped scallions (2 bunches)
• 1 c. frozen corn, thawed
• 1 T. finely chopped garlic (3 cloves)
• ½ t. dried thyme
• ½ California bay leaf
• 1/8 t. dried hot red pepper flakes
• 1 ½ T. flour
• 3 c. whole milk
• 2/3 c. heavy cream
• 1 lb. salmon fillet (I used the sale wild-caught sockeye)
• ½ t. salt
• ¼ t. black pepper
• 2 t. fresh lemon juice

Cut potatoes into ½ inch cubes, then cook them in a 1 ½ quart saucepan of boiling salted water until just tender, 8 -10 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

Cook the bacon in a 5 quart Dutch oven over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 8 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain.  Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat from pot, then cook scallions, corn, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, and red pepper flakes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the scallions are tender, about 5 minutes.  Add the flour to the pan and cook, stirring, for two minutes.  Gradually whisk in the milk, and bring just to a boil.  Reduce heat to moderately low, then add the cream, potatoes, salmon, bacon, salt, and pepper and cook, gently stirring occasionally, until salmon is just cooked through and begins to break up as you stir, 5 to 8 minutes.  Stir in the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.  Discard bay leaf before serving soup in heated bowls.

Speaking of vino … in light of my current healthy eating kick and all, I’ve been trying to keep my nightly wine consumption to just one glass instead of one whole BOTTLE (progress!).  But that’s a whole different issue we won’t go in to today.

“Hello, my name is Leah and I have issues.”

Speaking of issues, does this ever happen to you?  When I decide to go on a ‘diet’, something bizarre happens in my brain, and things tend to go really badly for me.  I get all resentful, crabby, and stressed out if I think something is being taken away from me, like foods and cocktails I love (see what I mean?  ISSUES.).    That’s why I’m trying to fool myself by simply ‘eating healthy’ and not attempting to follow a dreaded ‘D word’.  I call this the Jedi Mind Trick.

“Help me Obi Wan, you’re my only hope!”

Gosh, I’m so glad I have you all as my sounding board bored!    Thanks for reading.  You guys are like therapy for me.  And now that I’ve annoyed you to itty bitty pieces, let’s talk about the salmon, shall we?

I absolutely LOVED this dinner.  I can’t say enough about it, in fact.  The glaze is sweet, salty, and tangy, and the sear-roasting process gives the salmon the most delightful crust.  We enjoyed it over plain jasmati rice, with a simple side of wilted spinach.  It would be lovely over wild rice too; I might try that next time.

Company worthy?  Check.  Healthy at the same time?  Check that too.  I can’t wait to make it again!  ENJOY!

HONEY & SOY GLAZED SALMON

Serves: 4

Source:  epicurious.com

• 4 T. honey
• 4 T. soy (La Choy is on sale if you’re running low!)
• 3 T. fresh lime juice (yes, I said FRESH!), plus additional lime wedges for garnish if you’re in to presentation!
• 1 T. Dijon mustard
• 2 T. water
• 1 ½ t. cornstarch mixed with 2 t. water (optional; I like a thicker glaze)
• 1 T. neutral cooking oil
• 4 – 6oz. salmon fillets, skinned (Premium Alaskan Coho fillets are on sale this week)

• Your favorite cooked rice, for serving (I like Jasmati or a wild rice blend)

Preheat the oven to 400.

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, soy sauce, lime juice, mustard, and water.  If you like a thicker glaze, give the cornstarch and water a little stir and add it in to the honey mixture.  Whisk well to blend.  Set aside.

In a large oven proof skillet, heat the oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking.  Cook the salmon, skinned side up, for three minutes.  During this three minutes do not poke, fiddle with, or scoot the salmon around in any way.  Just let it form a lovely golden brown crust.  After three minutes, flip the salmon and transfer it to the oven.  Continue to cook for an additional 5-6 minutes, or until the salmon flakes easily with a fork and is just cooked through.  Transfer the salmon to a plate.  Place the pan over medium heat, reminding yourself that the handle of the pan is still extremely hot.  Give the glaze one last whisk and add it to the pan.  Simmer, stirring, for about a minute.  Place a scoop of rice in the middle of each serving plate.  Place a salmon fillet atop the rice, and drizzle with the glaze.  Garnish with lime wedges if desired.

We’ve been eating a lot more fish at our house since I started writing this blog.  It’s been good for our family, too.  Not only does fish feel much lighter than meat, it’s given me a great chance to experiment with different preparations, and my kids have decided that salmon (“yay, pink fish!”) is all right — except for No Thank-You Boy, of course … but if you’ve been following along, you know that we’ve determined there’s not much in the way of food that he enjoys these days.  Teenagers.  Let’s not talk about him please.

Let’s talk about dinner!  This meal comes together in a skinny minute; there’s minimal prep work followed by a short cook time.  The sauce of red onion, lemon juice, and capers is light and bright at the same time.  If you’re not crazy about those flavors, you could easily pass on the sauce.  Truth be told (and keepin’ it real), my husband wasn’t nuts about the sauce.  I liked it though, and thought it was a nice compliment to the fish.

You could also punt and whip up a box of rice pilaf if you weren’t feelin’ it for the risotto, but as far as risotto goes, this one is a cinch, and a perfect recipe to get the hang of the technique if you’ve never made risotto before.  Give it a try!

Enjoy your Monday, everyone!

ROASTED SALMON & ASPARAGUS WITH LEMON-CAPER SAUCE

Serves:  4

Source:  epicurious.com

• 2 T. fresh lemon juice
• 2 T. minced red onion
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 T. capers, chopped
• pinch dried thyme
• ½ t. grated lemon zest

• 1 ½ lb. skinless salmon fillet (on sale)
• 1 lb. asparagus (also on sale)
• 1 T. olive oil

Preheat oven to 450.  Whisk first six ingredients in a small bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Cut three ½” deep slits crosswise in top of salmon (as if dividing into 4 equal pieces but don’t cut all the way through).  Arrange asparagus in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet.  Drizzle with oil and turn to coat.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place salmon atop asparagus; sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast until salmon is just opaque in center, about 20 minutes.

Transfer asparagus and salmon to platter.  Spoon sauce over salmon.  Cut into 4 pieces along slits and serve.

RISOTTO WITH PARMESAN

Serves: 6 as a side dish

Source:  epicurious.com

• 5 c. chicken broth
• 4 T. butter (I cut this to 2 T. with no trouble)
• 1 ½ c. finely chopped onion
• 1 ½ c. Arborio rice
• 1 c. grated Parmesan (if you opt for the green can, I’m afraid we can’t be friends anymore.)
• 2 T. chopped fresh Italian parsley
• Shaved Parmesan cheese (on sale)

Bring broth to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Reduce heat to low; cover saucepan.

Melt the butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium low heat.  Add onion, sauté until very tender but not brown, about 15 minutes.  Increase heat to medium.  Add rice and stir 1 minute.  Add 1 ½ cups of broth.  Boil gently until broth is absorbed, stirring frequently.  Add another cup of broth; stir until broth is absorbed.  Add remaining 2 ½ cups of broth, ½ cup at a time, patiently allowing broth to be absorbed before adding more and stirring frequently until rice is tender and mixture is creamy, about 25 minutes.  Patience, people.  Stir in 1 cup of grated cheese.  Season with salt and pepper.  Transfer to serving bowl, garnish with parsley and shaved Parmesan.

What’s that, you say?  Isn’t bacon smack in the middle of the meat group on the food pyramid?  Why yes, it is.  I didn’t have any bacon on my sandwich though. Mine was just a Salmon LT.  You thought you busted me, didn’t you?  Naw.  I’m still to behaving myself after the naughty weekend.  Let’s please not talk about that again though.  Next subject…

…our sandwich!  So yummy, it’s the perfect light dinner for a warm evening.  The salmon has a gentle lemon flavor, thanks to a quick swim in a simple lemon-basil marinade.  Toasty bread is dressed with a terrific lemon-scented basil mayonnaise, then topped with crispy bacon, fresh lettuce, tomatoes and slivered red onion.  A healthy dinner never tasted so good!

I’m also pleased to tell you that this recipe makes great use of several sale items:  the salmon, bacon, and sourdough bread are all in the ad this week.  I happened to have a loaf of ciabatta in the freezer, so I used that in lieu of the sourdough.  Of course, you can use whatever bread you like, but I would draw the line at Wonder products.   Remember, we are counting our pennies, but we have our standards to maintain!

Enjoy!

OPEN-FACED SALMON BLT

Serves: 4

Source:  Adapted from  “Salmon Club” on epicurious.com

• 6 T. mayonnaise
• 5 T. minced fresh basil
• 1 t. lemon peel
• 3 T. olive oil
• 1 T. fresh lemon juice
• 4 5-6 oz. skinless salmon fillets, each about ¾” thick (try the sale Coho)
• 8 slices bacon (I used the sale Farmland)
• ½ small red onion, julienned
• 4 slices good quality bread (again, try the sale sourdough)
• 8 tomato slices
• 8 lettuce leaves

Mix the mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons basil, and lemon peel in a small bowl to blend.  Cover and chill.

Mix remaining 3 tablespoons basil, olive oil, and lemon juice in a large glass baking dish.  Add salmon to oil mixture, turn to coat.  Cover and chill for an hour or so.

Preheat oven to 450.

Cook the bacon in a large, oven safe sauté pan until crisp; transfer to paper towels to drain.  Drain off all but 2 teaspoons of bacon drippings, return pan to the heat.  Place the salmon (skinned side up) in the pan and cook over medium-high heat for three minutes.  During this time, kindly do not fiddle with it, poke it, or scoot it around.  No peeking, either!

Carefully flip salmon, transfer pan to the oven and continue to cook for another three minutes or so.  Remove from oven, and set aside, and remind yourself that the handle of the pan is still screamingly hot!

Toast bread slices and place on work surface.  Spread mayonnaise mixture over one side of each slice of bread.  Top each slice with two lettuce leaves, two slices bacon, two slices of tomato, some of the julienned onion, and one salmon fillet.  Serve immediately.

I fully admit that I revert back to the mid-80’s when I’m with this particular group – we tend to eat a lot of junk food, and imbibe on a few more cocktails that we typically do in our normal daily lives.  Of course, we put on our 80’s music; this year, our playlist for the weekend was (naturally) monopolized by Michael Jackson.  We stay up ENTIRELY too late (3:10 a.m, thank you very much), dance around in our pajamas, laugh our faces off, and of course, enjoy every minute we have together.

I usually come home from our annual get-together completely exhausted and yes, slightly hungover, needing an alcoholic / caloric detox. So it’s no surprise I was craving ‘light and healthy’ for dinner on Monday night, and decided to go with the Wild Caught Alaskan King Salmon that’s on sale this week.  Limes are also on special, 5 / 1.00, so I chose a Soy Lime Sauce to go along with the fish.  I served it on a bed of Coconut Rice with Scallions and Cilantro, and it was a big hit with the Husband and the kids.

The salmon was ‘sear-roasted’, which is a simple, two step technique that restaurant chefs use to get a gorgeous brown crust on different cuts of meat, poultry, or fish.  The food is quickly seared in a hot, hot pan before going into the oven, where it finishes cooking evenly.  If you can master this skill, you will look like a total pro in the kitchen!  This salmon is the perfect recipe for learning the sear-roasting process.

First of all, you’ll need a heavy, oven-proof pan, preferably not non-stick.  The coatings on non-stick pans generally ‘can’t take the heat’ of a super-hot oven.  You’ll want to heat up your pan over a pretty hot flame (I would call it ‘medium high’); it should be hot enough that a drop of water will evaporate almost immediately on contact with the pan.

Next, add in your oil, and give it a swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. I don’t ever measure; I just add enough oil so that the bottom is nicely coated.  Please don’t skimp, or your fish might stick to your pan, and I would hate to see that happen.

Making sure your salmon is completely dry and nicely seasoned, add the fish to the pan, skinned side up (or, ‘pretty side’ down).  Please, please, please don’t crowd your pan.  Crowding your fish will cause them to steam instead of sear.  If you have to sear the fillets in two batches, that’s okay.

Now.  Here is the secret, and it is a big one.  The key to your searing success is to … are you ready?  Listen closely, please.

DO NOT FIDDLE WITH THE FISH.  Do not touch it, do not scoot it around, do not play with it for a full three minutes.  Got it?  I’m serious.  ‘Cause if you’re lookin’, you ain’t cookin’!

I didn’t make that up, I heard a chef say it once and it’s become my searing motto.  Catchy, right?

When three minutes have passed, you may gently peek at the underside of the fish.  Your salmon should have a beautiful, golden brown crust.  Gently flip the fish over, drizzle it with a bit of sauce (as indicated in the recipe), and place the pan in the oven.  Proceed with the next few steps, then sit back and enjoy the praise that your family will heap upon you at the dinner table.

Oh, one last note:  since I never seem to learn, I give myself a big red flag reminder that the pan (which came out of the oven just a short while ago) is still really, flippin’ HOT.  I now like to leave the potholder on the handle of my pan so as not to burn the heck out of myself… which I’ve done before, and it’s pretty awful.  Just a little tip, for what it’s worth.  Safety first, my friends!

Enjoy!

Sear Roasted Salmon with Soy Lime Reduction

Adapted from Epicurious.com

Serves:  4

• ½ stick butter (try the Alcam, it’s on sale this week)
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ t. red pepper flakes
• ¼ c. brown sugar, packed
• ¼ c. fresh lime juice (please, for goodness sake, do not use bottled lime juice. Blech.)
• ¼ c. soy sauce
• 1 t. cornstarch dissolved in 1 t. water
• 4 – 6 oz. skinless Wild Caught Alaskan King Salmon fillets, cut from the thicker end; room temperature
• Slivered scallions or lime wedges for garnish, optional

Coconut Rice with Scallions and Cilantro for serving, optional.

Preheat oven to 400.

Place a small saucepan over medium low heat and melt the butter.  Add the shallot, garlic, and red pepper flakes and sauté for a few minutes until the shallot begins to soften.  Whisk in the brown sugar, increase the heat a little bit,  and cook for about five minutes, until the sugar is completely dissolved and mixture begins to bubble.  Add in the lime juice and the soy sauce, and bring up to a boil.  Boil gently until mixture is reduced to about ¾ c.  (this usually takes me about 7 minutes or so).  Stir the cornstarch and water mixture, then add to the soy / lime mixture.  Simmer gently until sauce thickens a bit, about three more minutes.  Set sauce to the side and keep warm.

Next, place a medium sized, oven proof sauté pan over medium high heat.  Allow the pan to come up to temperature while you pat the salmon fillets dry and season to taste with salt and pepper.  You’ll know the pan is hot enough when a drop of water evaporates almost immediately.  Add enough neutral cooking oil (canola, etc) to coat the bottom of the pan.  Add the salmon fillets, skinned side up.  Leave them there for a full three minutes without fiddling or scooting them around.  After three minutes, gently turn the salmon with a long spatula.  Spoon a bit of the reserved sauce over the fillets, and place them in the oven for 5 minutes to finish cooking.

Remove salmon from the oven.  Place scoops of rice on to four dinner plates, top with salmon fillets and an additional drizzle of sauce (I pass it at the table).  Garnish with slivered scallions or lime wedges if desired.

Coconut Rice with Scallions & Cilantro

Serves 4

• 1 ½ c. water
• 1 c. coconut milk, very well stirred
• 1 ½ c. basmati rice
• 1 t. salt
• 2 scallions, minced
• 1 T. fresh cilantro, minced

Place a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the water, coconut milk, rice, and salt and stir to combine.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Cover tightly and simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to stand covered for five minutes.  Fluff with a fork, and stir in the scallions and cilantro.  Serve with the Salmon dish.