It was a wonderful surprise when I discovered that our local meat market had fresh Copper River salmon in stock. Those of you who live near the ocean and have fresh seafood at your disposal will have a hard time relating to the delight that we land-locked folks experience when we get our hands on fresh fish. Delicious fatty river fish - what has been described to me as "slowly-rotting-to-death-fish." Despite some harsh criticism, river salmon is nutritious and delicious in it's own ways. River salmon, in my experience, contains more of those healthy oils that help the fish retain moisture when cooking, and the meat is darker and stronger in flavor. Now that I have adequately defended my salmon purchase...let's get down to business.
Right away I realized that some adjustments were needed for the Grilled Salmon with Lime, Sesame, and Ginger Butter (pg. 100). First off - I don't usually keep specialty wines, liquors, etc in stock since they tend to spoil or freeze before I've finished using the typically epensive bottle of spirits. I opted to skip the vermouth and in place of it use a mix of dry white wine and rice wine vinegar. These, I felt, would be a good substitution given the Oriental salad dressing I was whipping up for the salad and lime barley pilaf.
Salmon prepped for ovenNow that my garden is producing mass quantities of herbs, I chose to use fresh parsely and thyme rather than the dried herb called for in the recipe. I don't really feel that this counts as a subtitute or alteration of the recipe since fresh is always best!
Butter with ginger and limeSince I'm not a fan of leftover salmon (tastes too fishy when stored in fridge after it's cooked), I purchased two thin fillets. Perfect for four hungry people who had been working outside all day. Since they were so thin, I decided to bake them in a hot oven - 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. I would have loved to use the broiler, but I have not perfected the use of it in my gas range. With the large amounts of liquid from the marinade, and the oily nature of this salmon, I was not worried about it drying out (plus, it's hard to overcook salmon in just 15 minutes!).
I LOVE butter - just sayin. After draining the marinade, I drizzled the herb butter over the top and...it was amazing!
Salmon, mixed green salad with green onion and
oriental dressing, and Alaska barley pilaf
Pilaf recipe? Please?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog! And a fitting tribute to the best cookbook ever.
ReplyDeleteThe pilaf is really easy - cook the barley like you would brown rice. It's the hulless barley that they are growing out in Delta Junction now...Thual barley...and it is the first barley in AK that is edible by humans without processing because it grows hulless. I usually cook it with a bit of vegetable, beef or chicken broth (depending on the flavor I'm going for) and towards the end of the cooking time add finely chopped celery or carrots. It's really easy to change up too.
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