I bought a nice tail piece of Coho salmon, rubbed it with olive oil, cracked pepper and sea salt and roasted it at 400 for about 12 minutes. I didn't overcook it! This is mainly because Oliver took it out of the oven and forbid me from returning it. Talk about easy.
The sauce was really easy, too. I cut up three shallots and sauteed them in olive oil until they were soft. I then added three minced cloves of garlic and cooked for another minute. FYI, I have decided that cutting up garlic with a knife is far superior to using the press. I then added three diced large tomatoes. Here's what took it over the top: they were heirloom tomatoes! I'm on such an heirloom tomato kick. They're not outrageously expensive this time of year and they are so good. Then I added 1 Tbsp of lemon juice and 1 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar. I've heard of white balsamic vinegar, which might be good in this context, since the the regular stuff diminishes the gorgeous color of the tomatoes. I also put in a little sea salt. I let that cook down for a while, maybe 15 minutes. When I was just about to take it off the heat I added 1 Tbsp each basil and tarragon and let it cook for about a minute. The recipe also called for chives, but I didn't have those. I loved the way it turned out. It went perfectly with the salmon.
I was partially inspired to make such a nice dinner because my friend Emily came over. Emily is not a particularly adventurous cook herself, but she is a very appreciative eater. Once, when we were young first year grad students cooking for ourselves for the first time, I made her vegetarian chili out of a box. She still asks me to make this for her. I said I would this time, but then surprised her with this salmon dish. I don't think she minded too much.
8 comments:
I can SO make this dish! I just got back from Whole Foods with Coho salmon, nice local tomatoes (well, not heirloom), and the rest, and I am pumped to do it! Thanks!
I had salmon at Asia Nine (near Reeves's office) on Saturday. Big, fat juicy salmon - - didn't look as dark as coho, maybe the standard farmed kind, but it cooked up plump and luscious wrapped in a rice paper, served atop green lentils.
Let me know how you like it! You could probably find the original recipe on Simply Recipes. I what made it so good was the combination of the great tomatoes and shallots. The guy at the berkeley bowl says King Salmon is the best. However, its also the biggest so it has a higher mercury content. Its also overfished, so I think Coho is the way to go. I rather like the lighter flavor anyways.
THanks for the advice. I can never remember the differences among the salmon when I get to the store. I haven't made your recipe yet == as it turned out, Reeves didn't need a big meal Tues, and we had dinners out Wed and Thurs. So I had bought 3 fish on Tues (Coho, swordfish & haddock), none of which we've eaten. Bad. But in the hopes of avoiding waste, I went ahead and marinated the salmon and the swordfish in their usual marinades. The dinners out were at Zaytinya, the Mediterranean/Mideast place, which was not horribly loud when we took Suzanne and Michael at 5 pm during restaurant week, but which was deafening by 7:30 when Reeves brought all the tax partners & wives (no women, so no need to nicely say "spouses"). THen last night the law school had its faculty dinner at the Mexican Cultural Inst near Adams MOrgan, which was terrific - - gorgeous murals on the walls, fabulous food, and less terrifically, a cute but too-loud marachi band. It was a lot of fun, though. I think Reeves saw our faculty at its liveliest.
Not to worry! With Michael's help, we did eat all of the fish I'd bought last week. We served a Tastings Menu on Saturday consisting of the post-marinade salmon and swordfish and the remains of your eggplant/tomato/onion/basil dish that I'd made the before, and similarly leftover leek/hummus pie. And a freshly=made salad.
dang Jo. That salmon sounds good. Do you think it'd work with Halibut? I recently bought some & fear cooking it!
Yes! It would definitely work with halibut. All you would need to change is the cooking time. Another simple and delicious halibut recipe is to cook the fish the same way, and then make an avocado/tomato salsa topping. You just cut up an avocado, dice a nice tomato, add in some red onion, cilantro and lime juice. Put that on top of the cooked halibut and your done. It s a really nice summer recipe. The avocado goes really well with halibut. But, I don't know what your avocado situation is like in baltimore ...
Oh! "I don't know what your avocado situation is in Baltimore," she says airily, from her land of milk and honey. Well, there are avocados in East Coast grocery stores, although they probably are sitting sheepishly on the shelves, mortified to be there, compared to their robust cousins lounging at the Berkeley Bowl. But guess what, West Coast avocados - - you all get eaten anyway!
We had this tonight! And I went out and bought chives. It was a great success. Pretty, with the garden basil still bright green after only a minutes of cooking. Thank you so much Jody!
Love,
Robin
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