Salmon with orecchiette and horseradish cream sauce

Salmon and pasta with horseradish cream

The heat has been so brutal for so long now, that I think my brain has started to melt.  All my energy has been sizzled away and I find myself just laying around in a stupor, blinking at the foggy walls and ceiling.  Normally, I love to cook.  But lately, I've been too lazy to cook and too hot to eat.  My family has been forced to graze on salads.  Like these:

Salad with grilled veggies, salami, and goat cheese

Nicoise Salad with asparagus, new potatoes, and tuna fish

Cannellini and Fennel salad with roasted veggies

But, after a week of salads, I decided to drag myself out into the kitchen and cook up something a little more solid for dinner.  Feeling inspired by a recipe I found in an old issue of Bon Appetite, I cooked up a salmon and pasta dish that the whole family loved!  I think it was good enough to serve to company (my husband and I always rate a new dish by whether or not we'd serve it to company!)  I used salmon fillets (with skin on), baby broccoli (also called broccolini - it is a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale), caramelized onions, Parmesan cheese, and orecchiette.

Ingredients:


for the sauce

• 1 cup clam juice (one 8 oz bottle)
• 1 cup 1/2 and 1/2
• 1 cup cream
• 3 T prepared horseradish (not sauce)

for the pasta

• 12 oz orecchiette (or any other fun pasta shape of your choice)
• 1 1/2 lb onions, caramelized
• 12 oz baby broccoli
• 1 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 T olive oil

for the salmon

• 2 T olive oil
• 6 6oz salmon fillets with skin on

Method:

for the sauce

1. bring clam juice, 1/2 and 1/2, and cream to a gentle boil.  Let boil until reduced to about one cup
2. whisk in horseradish 
3. season to taste with salt and pepper.  set aside

for the pasta

1. bring a large pan of salted water to a boil
2. cook baby broccoli in salted water for about 3 minutes or until crunchy tender.  remove with slotted spoon
3. cook pasta in salted water for about 11 minutes.  drain, reserving one cup of pasta water
4. cut broccoli into pieces about 1 inch long
5. return pasta to pan along with broccoli, caramelized onions, olive oil, Parmesan cheese and about 2/3 c of the reserved pasta water.  Mix well.  (If pasta seems dry, add remaining pasta water)

for the salmon

1. heat 2 T olive oil in large pan
2. season salmon with salt and pepper
3. place salmon in pan, skin facing up, and cook for about two minutes, or until nicely colored
4. flip over and continue cooking for another 3 minutes or until skin is crispy and salmon is just opaque in the center

To serve:

• place some pasta in the middle of a serving plate
• place a salmon fillet, skin side down, on top of pasta
• drizzle sauce over fillet

Delicious!!!

Fish Wrapped in Savoy Cabbage with Caper Butter Sauce

In an effort to eat cheaper and healthier, I've been trying to make two meals a week meatless, and two meals a week with fish.  This is a recipe I've made a couple of times now and it's always been moist and tasty.  I think it's even good enough to serve to company.  And as an added bonus, it qualifies as an Emmi!

The only things that might ruin this recipe are overcooking the fish (which I have not yet done) or under cooking the cabbage (which happened to me last night.)  The flavor and texture of the fish was perfect, but the cabbage was crunchy, somewhat spoiling what would have been a perfect dinner!  Next time, I will either cook the cabbage longer, or maybe, cut out the tough stem.

Here's my version of the recipe that I found in the March issue of Bon Appetit.

Ingredients:

9 T butter, at room temperature
4 T capers
2 T minced Italian parsley
6 large Savoy cabbage leaves
6 4-oz fish fillets (Halibut, Cod, or other firm fish of your choosing)
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Method:

1.  Mince or finely chop 2 T of the capers and then add them to a bowl along with 5 T of the butter, the parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.  Mix well and set aside.

2.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and drop in the cabbage leaves.  Let cook for 2 to 5 minutes, depending on how tough the leaves are.  You want them to be pliable enough to wrap around the fish.  Remove leaves, drain, and pat dry.

3.  Take one leaf and trim the thick part of the stem so the leaf will lie flat (or cut out and remove the stem completely.)

4.  Lay the leaf flat, stem end towards you, and place a fish fillet about an inch and a half from the bottom.  Sprinkle the fish lightly with salt and pepper.  Spread 1/6th of the caper butter on top of the fish.  Fold the bottom up, then the sides, then continue rolling until you have a nice, tight packet.  (Use a toothpick, if needed, to hold the packet shut.)

5.  Place the fish packet on a large baking sheet, seam-side down, and continue with remaining fish, cabbage, and caper butter.  Sprinkle packets with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

6.  Melt 1 T butter in a large, non-stick skillet.  Place the packets, seam-side down, in the skillet and cook until lightly brown (2-3 minutes.)  Turn fish over and repeat.  Return fish to baking sheet.

7.  Bake fish at 350 degrees for 7 minutes or until fish is cooked through.

8.  Melt remaining butter in skillet used to brown the packets.  Add remaining capers.  Cook over medium-low heat until butter turns a nutty brown.

9.  To serve, place a packet on a plate and drizzle with brown-butter sauce. 

Caper Butter

Getting ready to roll up the packet

Packets browning in the skillet

YUM!!

Moroccan Roasted Seafood

Last night, I entertained The Amazing Matta.  Matta was an incredible host to me while I was in Athens.  She was like a mother, sister, and best friend all rolled up in to one!  She is visiting here in Fort Wayne for a few days and it was important to me that I create a meal worthy of someone with her high rank and standing.  I decided to make Moroccan roasted seafood.  Let me just say this...... if you try this recipe, after you are finished finger-licking your plate, you are going to rush to your computer and email me a thank-you letter.  It's very good; and oh, so simple!  The original recipe comes from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook.  Here is my version, with slight variations.

Marinade:

1/2 cup olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 T curry powder
1/2 t turmeric
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 T Indian chili powder (or cayenne pepper)
3 T soy sauce
1 t salt

Mix together all ingredients for marinade.

Seafood and Vegetables:

2 lbs seafood (I used 1 lb sea bass, 1/2 lb salmon, 1/2 pound large shrimp (peeled and deveined) and 1/2 lb bay scallops)
1 large red onion, cut into chunks
2 medium red peppers, cut into chunks
2 medium green peppers, cut into chunks
lemon juice and cilantro for serving.

1.  place seafood in one large plastic bag and vegetables in another.  Pour half of the marinade in with the seafood and the other half in with the vegetables.
2.  Marinate for 30 minutes.
3.  Dump the seafood out on a large baking pan.  Separate the pieces as much as possible so they will roast nicely.  Roast at 450 for 15 minutes.  Remove and set aside.
4.  Roast the vegetables in the same way for 20 minutes.
5.  Combine the seafood with the vegetables, squeeze a little lemon juice over all and mix gently.
6.  Garnish with cilantro.
7.  Serve hot if desired but this is also fantastic at room temperature!

The seafood was amazing, but so was the rest of the meal.  I started of with an Indian Mulligatawny soup that is creamy and delicious with dal, coconut milk, and spices; hummus with home-made pita chips; little dishes of antipasto purchased at Fresh Market; couscous with dried cranberries and almonds; portobella mushrooms stuffed with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese; and for dessert my to-die-for coconut creme brulée .  I'll be sharing the recipes for the Mulligatawny soup and the stuffed mushrooms soon!

"Light My Fire" orange roughy

OH!!!!  I've been so busy lately!  I just got invited to be a contributor to an online magazine called Examiner.com.  My title is Fort Wayne Cooking Examiner and I am suppose to write articles about food and cooking that have a local angle.  For my first article, I featured my friend, David Rezits, and his cookbook, Culinary Harmony.  You can read the article  here.   In the article, I share a recipe from the book called "Light My Fire" orange roughy.  I first tried this recipe years and years ago when I was doing recipe editing and testing for the cookbook.  But I decided to make it again tonight.  It can be a little bit challenging to find orange roughy in Fort Wayne, but I found some at Fresh Market and ohhhh! the dish turned out so delicious!

If you want to try the dish, click on the link above and scroll through the article.  I have the recipe printed there.  Yesterday, I made 17 cents as a result of people viewing and reading my article.  If everyone reading my blog visits the site, maybe I can double my pay for toady!!!