Rosemary & Garlic Roasted Salmon

I made this for dinner tonight. Like, just about an hour ago. I usually wait a day or two, but this was so, so good, I wanted to share it immediately. What’s even better than that is the fact that it took less than 20 minutes, start to finish and that included prep and roasting time. Simple and delicious, perfect for a weeknight meal. Oh, and you know what’s even better than both of those things put together? The fact that this recipe came from a blog by the name of In Sock Monkey Slippers. To steal a line of Ina Garten, “How cute is that?” So, now you have it, a delicious and quick recipe that came from a fun place, and you can stop tomorrow to pick up the ingredients and enjoy it with your family for dinner.

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves Garlic, minced
  
• 2 fresh Rosemary sprigs, about 1 Tbsp chopped
  
• 1 ½ to 2 lbs. Salmon Filet
  
• 2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  
• ¼ tsp Sea Salt
  
• ¼ tsp Black Pepper, freshly ground
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Peel and chop garlic. Set aside.
   
2. Chop the rosemary. Set aside.
   
3. Place salmon on a baking sheet covered in foil. Distribute olive oil evenly on salmon.
   
4. Add salt and pepper over the fillet. Next, add the rosemary and garlic and lightly press into salmon.
   
5. Place in oven to roast for 10 to 12 minutes until the salmon is flaky and tender. Allow to rest for 3 to 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Salmon Mousse

This recipe from Annie’s Eats was a great addition to our New Year’s Eve table, and will be featured at future parties as well. The leftovers are even good on toast or bagels topped with cucumber and tomato slices, and then sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a squirt of lemon juice.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. Smoked Salmon, flaked with a fork
  
• 8 oz. Cream Cheese
  
• 1 tsp. dried dill weed
  
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
  
• Cucumber, cut into slices, and Crackers for serving
  

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse repeatedly until all the ingredients are blended and smooth.
   
2. Transfer to a serving dish, cover with plastic wrap and chill at least one hour. (Alternatively, pipe the mixture onto crackers and garnish with fresh herbs.)

Pomegranate-Glazed Salmon

We were surprisingly gifted a filet of salmon, so I needed to find a delicious and quick week-night worthy recipe for it. I shouldn’t be surprised that my search brought me to The Way the Cookie Crumbles and Bridget’s recipe for this great dish. Not only was it a great way to enjoy our newly acquired fish, it was also an opportunity to use my find of Tabasco Brand Soy Sauce. The mix of sweet and heat was a perfect complement to the fish. I highly recommend giving this a try soon.

Ingredients:

Marinade:

• 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
  
• 1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
  
• 2 Garlic cloves, smashed
  
• 2 tsp Ginger, finely grated
  
• 2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
  
• 1 Tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
  
• ½ tsp Kosher Salt
  
• ½ tsp White Pepper, freshly ground
  
• 4 (6-ounce) skinless salmon fillets
  

Glaze:

• 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
  
• 1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
  
• 1 Garlic clove, minced
  
• 1 tsp Ginger, finely grated
  
• 1 tsp Lemon Zest, finely grated
  
• ½ cup Pomegranate Juice
  
• Salt
  

Directions:

1. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large, shallow dish. Add the salmon fillets and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour, turning a few times.
   
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix all of the glaze ingredients except the pomegranate juice. In a small saucepan, simmer the juice over medium-high heat until reduced to 2 tablespoons. Stir into the other glaze ingredients.
   
3. Adjust an oven rack to 4 inches below the broiler; heat the broiler. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil; arrange the salmon fillets, skin side down, on the prepared pan. Season with salt and brush with half of the glaze. Broil for about 3 minutes, until the fillets begin to brown. Brush the fillets with the remaining glaze and broil for about 3 minutes longer, until richly glazed and the fish is just cooked through. Serve immediately.

Salmon with Sweet Chili Glaze

This recipe is originally from the April 2010 issue of Bon Appétit magazine. It was written to include a light vegetable sauté of snap peas and pea shoots, but since I couldn’t find the pea shoots, we enjoyed this with only the sauce. It was amazing. I highly recommend it, and think the glaze would also work very well on shrimp, chicken, and maybe even pork. Be careful though, it did pack more of a kick than I was expecting, we weren’t disappointed, just surprised.

Instructions:

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
  
• 1/4 cup Asian sweet chili sauce*
  
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
  
• 2 tablespoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger, divided
  
• 6 6-ounce salmon fillets with skin
  

 

Directions:

1. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. Coat with nonstick spray.
   
2. Whisk chili sauce, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon ginger in small bowl. Place salmon fillets, skin side down, on prepared sheet. Spoon chili sauce marinade over and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.
   
3. Preheat broiler. Spoon any marinade remaining on baking sheet over salmon fillets. Broil salmon without turning until browned in spots and almost opaque in center, 6 to 10 minutes, depending on thickness of fillet.
   

 

Servings – 6

WW Points – 6 pts per serving

Salmon Baked in Puff Pastry with Dill Sauce

Every week, as I am making the meal plan and shopping list, I ask Jim what he wants for dinner. He usually says, “I don’t know”, “I don’t care”, or “Whatever”. Really helpful, right? Well, since he hadn’t had a single home cooked meal this week, he actually thought of an actual answer to what we should have for dinner on Saturday night: salmon. Now, he asked for salmon and pasta, but I focused on finding a new way to serve salmon, and would find the appropriate side dish afterwards. I mean, what do boys know about planning meals anyways? I found a recipe on Epicurious.com for this salmon featured in the February ’96 issue of Bon Appétit. It sounded great, received great reviews, and featured puff pastry, so I was sold. I did omit the rice, as I didn’t like the idea of it, and had already decided to serve the salmon with risotto.

The sauce was an unexpected surprise, as I thought it wouldn’t be necessary for the success of the final dish, but I was totally wrong. Even though it is a cream sauce, it succeeded in cutting through the richness of the salmon and pastry and added another layer of flavor. I decided not to buy clam juice for the dill sauce, as I didn’t know what I would do with the rest of it once I used the 2/3 cup the recipe calls for. If you know what you would use the left overs for, go ahead and stick with the recipe as is, but the sauce turned out fine with the substitution of chicken stock.

This was delicious. I think this would be great for company as well, as it was simple to prepare, presented beautifully, and could be made ahead of time, and baked just before serving. The recipe is made to serve 4, but this can easily be adapted for 2, by only thawing out one sheet of pastry.

Ingredients:

Salmon:

• 2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
• ½ cup Leek, white and light green parts minced and rinsed
• 6 oz. Fresh Shitake Mushrooms, stemmed and chopped
• 2 sheets Frozen Puff Pastry, thawed
• 4 6 oz. Salmon Filets, skinned
• Egg Wash: 1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water

Dill Sauce

• 2/3 cup Bottled Clam Juice or Chicken Stock
• ½ cup Dry White Wine
• 1 ¼ cups Whipping Cream or Crème Fraîche*
• 3 Tbsp Fresh Dill, minced
• Salt
• White Pepper

Directions:

Salmon:

1. Melt butter in heavy medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add leek; sauté until beginning to soften, about 4 minutes. Add mushrooms. Cover skillet; cook until mushrooms release their juices, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Uncover skillet. Increase heat to medium-high; sauté until liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Cool completely.
2. Butter large baking sheet. Roll out 1 pastry sheet on floured surface to 12-inch square. Cut into 4 equal squares. Divide mushroom mixture among centers of squares, mounding in oval shape with ends toward 2 corners of pastry. Set salmon atop mushroom mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bring pastry corners up around salmon (pastry will not enclose salmon completely.) Roll out remaining pastry sheet on floured surface to 13-inch square. Cut into 4 equal squares. Lay 1 square atop each salmon fillet, tucking corners under bottom pastry to enclose salmon completely. Pinch edges together to seal, brushing with egg mixture if necessary to adhere. Arrange salmon packages, seam side down, on prepared baking sheet. Cover and chill 30 minutes. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Keep chilled.)
3. Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush top of pastry with egg mixture. Bake until golden and thermometer inserted into fish registers 145°F, about 30 minutes.

Dill Sauce

1. Combine clam juice and wine in heavy small nonaluminum saucepan. Boil until reduced to 1/3 cup, about 9 minutes.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Whisk in crème fraîche. Boil until reduced to 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in dill. Season with salt and pepper.

Serving:

Transfer salmon packages to plates. Spoon Dill Sauce around and serve.

*If crème fraîche is unavailable, heat 1 cup whipping cream to lukewarm (85°F). Remove from heat and mix in 2 tablespoons buttermilk. Cover and let stand in warm draft-free area until slightly thickened (24 to 48 hours, depending on temperature of room). Refrigerate until ready to use.

Eli & Ina’s Asian Salmon

We haven’t had salmon in quite awhile, and I think that might be part of the reason this recipe from Barefoot Contessa at Home stood out to me. Oh, that and it seemed to have all of the makings of a full flavored meal. After 2 days of traditional Christmas meals, we needed some zing in our lives.

Overall, we really liked this, but I’m going to cut back on the panko next time, so it’s a thin crisp layer rather than the thick slab that we had on ours. Honestly, if you wanted to cut the carbs, I think it would be equally delicious if you skipped the panko entirely and marinated the salmon in the sauce. Also, if you don’t like salmon, I think the marinade would be good on chicken, shrimp, and even beef, as it has a really nice kick to it.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 pounds center-cut salmon fillet (1 1/2 inches thick)
  
• 1 cup soy sauce
  
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
  
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
  
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  
• 1 tablespoon toasted (dark) sesame oil
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili paste
  
• 1/2 cup sliced scallions (2 scallions)
  
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (8 large cloves)
  
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
  
• 1 1/2 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
  

Directions

1. Line an 8 by 12-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Place the salmon in the pan.
   
2. In a mixing cup, combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, lemon juice, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, chili paste, scallions, garlic, and ginger. Pour 1/3 of soy sauce mixture over the salmon fillet. Sprinkle the panko evenly over the fillet. Pour the rest of the soy sauce mixture evenly over the panko. Be sure to soak the panko completely and if any runs off, spoon back onto the salmon. Set aside for 15 minutes, leaving all the sauce in the pan.
   
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Roast the salmon for 18 to 20 minutes, or for about 12 minutes per inch at the thickest part of the salmon. The internal temperature will be 120 degrees F on a meat thermometer when it’s done. Remove from the oven, wrap tightly with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.