Tag Archives: salmon

Stir-Fried Fennel, Pink Grapefruit and Orange with Salmon, plus Serendipitous DC

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DC is an interesting place to drive. There is a weird combination here of people who learned to drive in the north and people who learned to drive in the south, plus a confusing street naming system that requires you to know where you are in relation to the Capitol building and a wealth of tourists. The combination is really not great.

I myself have a pretty good sense of direction, and I found this city easy to learn. That said, I prefer to not deal with virtually nonexistent parking and dodging legions of confused out-of-towners. And then there’s the worst part of driving in DC: getting lost when you know exactly where you are.

This morning I was trying to get to 20th and Constitution NW for DC Yoga Week’s Yoga on the Mall event. I had, against my better judgement, chosen to drive so that I could leave my mat in the car and go for a run afterwards. In the course of looking for parking, I found myself forced from a regular street directly onto a highway on two separate occasions. Two. Roads just turned into highways and there was no way to get off of them until the next “exit.” The second time, I was forced over a bridge with no warning and I was suddenly in Virginia.

In frustration, I turned off and pulled into the parking lot for Theodore Roosevelt Island, which sits in the middle of the Potomac River on the Virginia side. By this time I didn’t want to return to parking hell. So I got out of the car and decided to go for my run on the island instead.

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It turned out serendipitous. I’d never visited the island before, but it turns out it’s a gorgeous trail oasis. The air feels clean and it’s small enough to not worry about getting lost. There were some hikers out for morning walks, but it was a welcome respite from crowded runs in downtown DC.

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After I’d calmed down a bit, I got a text from a friend at the yoga session saying they were just getting started. So I gave parking one more try and got there for the last hour of the event.

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Such a lovely day called for something crisp and refreshing to eat, and Camilla had chosen a perfect recipe for this week’s Food Matters Project: Stir-Fried Fennel and Pink Grapefruit with Shrimp. I was in more of salmon mood, so I swung through the fish market to pick some up. I got a salmon steak instead of fillet because I love how smooth and buttery they are when broiled or seared, although some people don’t like having to pick around the skin and bones.

I’d never tried fennel before, and I asked the man at the booth I bought it from at Eastern Market what it tasted like. He found it hard to describe, and now that I’ve tried it I know what he means. The original recipe called for just the bulbs, but I used the whole plant and really enjoyed the flavor. A bit like licorice, but lighter. It worked especially well with the crisp citrus fruit.

Check out the rest of the Project members’ takes on this one here. I’m sure there will be some creative ones this week!

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Stir-Fried Fennel, Pink Grapefruit and Orange with Salmon

2 tablespoons + 1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 fennel bulb, stalks and leaves, sliced thinly and chopped
1 grapefruit, peeled and chopped
1 orange, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Thai chili paste
1 lb salmon steaks

Preheat the broiler. Brush the salmon steak with one tablespoon of oil on each side, then sprinkle salt and pepper over each side. Put the salmon on crinkled foil under the broiler. The amount of time it takes to cook will vary according to its thickness and proximity to the broiler, but when the top is brown flip it over and cook the other side. When both sides are brown, cut into it to see if it’s cooked through.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the onion, ginger, and garlic and cook for about a minute. Add the fennel and cook for another few minutes. Stir in the grapefruit, orange, soy sauce and chili paste and simmer until the fennel is cooked through. Serve alongside the salmon steaks once they’re done.

Salmon and Asparagus Stir-Fry

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Editor’s note: My sister, Sarah, just moved into her first apartment! I’m so proud of her. When I heard she was taking on cooking by herself for the first time (our mom is a fantastic cook and has tutored us many hours in the kitchen), I had to have her guest blog on Fledgling Foodie. Here’s her first post of (I’m hoping) many! (Hint hint, Sarah, get writing.)

When my sister, THE Fledgling Foodie herself, asked me to guest blog about my first home-made meal in my new apartment, I asked her if it was alright that I sounded like a food “newb.”

“I’m not a star chef either,” she said. “That’s what the blog is about.”

Despite what she says, I will warn you that I am hopeless and embarrassing in the kitchen. I will also warn you that I am very excited about how this first dish came out, because it’s, like, the third time I’ve ever made anything that tasted good.

I got this cookbook, “Easy Skillet Meals” (by Good Housekeeping) for two reasons. Number 1: The word “easy” is in the name. Number 2: I tend to like on-top-of-the-stove cooking way more than inside-the-oven cooking. The oven is a scary, scary place where many things get burned. I was drawn to the Salmon and Asparagus Stir-fry because I love those two things, and the picture opposite the recipe looked really good.

Salmon and Asparagus Stir-fry, adapted from Good Housekeeping’s Easy Skillet Meals

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds of skinless salmon fillet (You can apparently also use swordfish! Yum!) (I also learned that they skin fish for you at the grocery store! Thanks, Mom, for telling me that and for skinning the fish when I told you that we would order pizza before I skinned anything.)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1.5 pounds asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 medium red pepper, thinly sliced
3 green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup of water

I heated up one of my (bright red—thanks Mom!) non-stick pans over medium heat until it was nice and hot. Meanwhile, I cut up the salmon into 1.5-inch squares. I’m sure this measurement does not need to be exact. I was picturing how much I could fit in my mouth in one bite, just in case this stuff turned out to be really good. Cook the fish, stirring occasionally, until it’s cooked all the way through. Even I knew that meant until it was light pink instead of… raw looking.

Put the fish off to the side. Keep it warm, though! Get that foil out!

In the same skillet I added the red pepper and asparagus. Cook them until they’re done how you like them. I guess some people like them a little crisp? Some people might like them wicked squishy. It’s really your call, I think.

While those are cooking (I can’t believe I did this much multi-tasking), whisk together the green onions, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, garlic, corn starch, sugar, and water until it’s all blended together. I’m going to be honest with you: the recipe called for rice vinegar, and I didn’t get it. I had no idea what it was, thought I was never going to use it again after this meal, and breezed right by it in the grocery store guilt-free. Also, I didn’t put the ginger in. I bet this would have made the stir-fry taste even more delicious, but I was having a melt down in the produce section and couldn’t find any. I gave up relatively easily and I feel (sort of) like a quitter.

Add this little soy sauce mixture to the veggies and heat it all up until it boils. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. I wondered, at the time, whether the word “constantly” was really necessary. Did I really have to stir without stopping for the next minute? I had done so well following directions up until then, though, that I was scared I would ruin everything if I didn’t keep it up.

After that minute, poor the veggies and mixture over the fish and mix it all up a little before you serve it. I put this delightful stir-fry over my new favorite corn pasta. More multi-tasking! I was cooking that the whole time! If you knew me in real life, you would be shocked.

Apparently, each serving of this stuff is around 265 calories with 38g protein, 11g carbs, 7g total fat (1g saturated), and lots of sodium.

Enjoy! I know I did. Let me tell you, food tastes really, really good when you’re proud of yourself for making it. Okay, food tastes really good all the time, I guess.

Related posts:

Salmon and broccoli
Salmon Caesar salad, done light!
Sounds a bit fishy to me

Salmon and broccoli

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The Maine Avenue Fish Market was calling to me on the way home from errands tonight, so I swung through to pick up some salmon. I brushed it with a mixture of maple syrup, olive oil, mustard and salt and pepper then tossed it on the grill pan. The glaze made it sweet and crispy on the outside while the inside remained melt-in-your mouth smooth. I steamed some broccoli, squirted some fresh lemon juice on it and enjoyed a fresh summery dinner in probably 20 minutes.

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What’s your favorite summer evening meal?

Salmon Caesar salad, done light!

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Sometimes you just get a craving for a nice, garlicky Caesar salad. I did this less-guilt version a few weeks ago with some salmon and tomatoes on top for a bit of extra nutrition, plus homemade croutons! With all the toppings, you really couldn’t tell the dressing was light — just enough to satisfy a craving.

Salmon Caesar salad

Ingredients

a nice chunk of stale bread (I used some leftover loaf from Safeway’s bakery)
2 cups romaine lettuce
1/2 cup grape tomatoes
3 oz salmon fillet, cooked
2 tbsp light Caesar dressing
a sprinkle of shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Cut the bread into chunks and toss it in a tiny bit of olive oil with some salt and pepper. Spread them over a pan and put them in the oven until they’re brown and toasty. The time this takes will vary depending on how big the pieces are, but check on them often so they don’t burn.

3. As the croutons bake, heat up the salmon (or cook it if you need to — I just made mine in the oven the night before and had some leftovers)

4. Wash and dry the lettuce and tomatoes.

5. Top the lettuce with the tomatoes, the salmon, the dressing and a sprinkle of shredded Parmesan. Add the croutons on top.

Serves one.

Cilantro salmon cakes

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The state of affairs in my kitchen last night was very sad. I hadn’t set foot in a grocery store in a week and was running low on even the basics. I was seriously considering making grilled cheese (with Laughing Cow and the one slice of bread I had, which was also the heel — sad, I know) and canned tomato soup, but I ended up getting a little more creative. Born out of my laziness in shopping last week, I give you: cilantro salmon cakes.

Cilantro salmon cakes

Ingredients:

1 5-oz can of salmon
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1 egg
about 1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
2 tbsp mango chutney (optional, for dipping)

1. Drain the salmon and put it in a bowl. Add cilantro, egg, breadcrumbs and salt and pepper. Mix it well with your hands until it’s all combined.

2. If it’s too moist, add more breadcrumbs as needed and mix again.

3. Heat up a George Foreman grill. If you don’t have one, you could probably do this in a pan instead, with some cooking spray, but I used the grill.

4. Squeeze the mixture into balls, flatten them slightly, then put them on the grill. Close the grill and cook until they’re solid and browned on each side.

5. Serve with your choice of dipping sauce. I used mango chutney.

Serves one, although you may have leftovers.

Fish tacos

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I just got back from a week in Hawaii, which was preceded by a longer trip for work and to visit family a couple weeks earlier. I went to the store when I got back on Thursday and stocked up my apartment with pretty much every kind of fresh food imaginable, since I haven’t been home cooking a whole lot and haven’t felt free to just buy whatever I wanted because it would go to waste. So Thursday night, I roasted a couple of salmon fillets with garlic and cilantro, then made a cilantro yogurt sauce to top it off.

Today, I took some of the leftover salmon and made a fish taco. Please excuse the awful photo; my camera battery died this afternoon and I couldn’t find my charger, so I used the camera on my laptop. (Of course, my charger turned up right after I finished lunch. Go figure.)

Fish taco ingredients:

1 soft whole wheat taco
1 large spoonful canned corn
1 large spoonful canned black beans
a piece of salmon a little smaller than the palm of your hand, cooked
a few slices of bell pepper (I used frozen, pre-sliced)
3 heaping spoonfuls of salsa
a few slices of avocado
a few cilantro leaves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons cilantro yogurt dressing (see recipe below)

1. Heat up the salmon in the microwave if it just came out of the fridge.

2. Spray a cooking pan and warm it over medium heat. Cook the peppers.

3. Add the beans and corn and stir until they are warmed through.

4. Add salsa and stir until some of the liquid evaporates.

5. Meanwhile, toast the tortilla in a toaster oven until it’s a bit crispy.

6. Layer the bean mixture over half the tortilla.

7. Flake the salmon with a fork and layer it over the bean mixture.

8. Drizzle cilantro yogurt over the top, then layer on chopped cilantro and avocado.

9. Fold over the other half of the taco.

Serves one.

Cilantro yogurt sauce ingredients:

1/4 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
a fistful of cilantro leaves
salt and pepper

(This can be made to taste. For example, since I only had nonfat yogurt and it was kind of thin, I added a bit of cottage cheese as well to thicken it up. I bet it would be good with lime, too, had I had one lying around. Use your instincts.)

1. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.

One thing to note, if I haven’t before. When I buy canned corn for things like this (burritos, taco salad, etc), I buy the plain sweet canned corn, not the creamed or the no-salt-added versions. I tried the no-salt-added once because I noticed that the regular kind has sugar added, too, and I figured I’d be healthy. It’s a million times better when you use the sweet corn, though. I allow myself that small indulgence.

Seconds, please!

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When you’re cooking for one, leftovers become everyday occurrences. At first, I’d either eat the same thing heated up from an earlier meal for days on end or freeze all my leftovers. I still utilize the freezer quite a bit, but I’ve learned it’s usually more fun to make something completely new out of leftover ingredients than to eat the same dish indefinitely.

This week, I thawed a big salmon fillet for dinner one night. Let’s face it: frozen fish just doesn’t measure up to its fresh counterpart. I ate about a quarter of it and tossed the rest in the fridge. If it was barely palatable the first time around, I knew it wouldn’t be pleasant out of the microwave the next day, either.

So I tried something a little different. I flaked it with a fork and tossed it with some pasta and veggies in homemade pesto. It was so much better as a side flavoring than all on its own as a main dish.

Here’s the recipe, in case you find yourself stuck in the leftover slump:

Ingredients:

1/2 filet of salmon, cooked
1 serving of whole wheat spiral pasta, dry
zucchini and summer squash, chopped into 1/2-inch-thick slices
2 tablespoons pesto
Parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. Coat a large pan with non-stick spray and heat on medium.

3. Sautée squash and zucchini 3-4 minutes.

4. Flake the salmon with a fork.

5. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan.

6. Add the flaked fish.

7. Stir in the pesto and continue to toss until well coated.

8. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Serves one.

Sounds a bit fishy to me

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Fish is one of my favorite staples, but I’m skeptical of my abilities to actually cook it myself. Case in point: When I was in college, I purchased a tiny fillet of cod and tried to copy my favorite way my mom cooks it, which is baked with crumbled Ritz crackers on top to give it a bit of salt and buttery crunch. I was trying to figure out how long to bake it according to its thickness, because it was such a small piece, but all my cookbooks and usual online resources told me I should just wait until it flaked and didn’t look as translucent. I put it in the oven in a casserole dish, but didn’t realize that I needed to leave the cover off in order for it to brown on top.

The problem was that it didn’t get crispy and flaky because the cover was on the dish, and I couldn’t tell what color it was through the layer of Ritz crackers on top. I thought I should wait another 10 minutes, because it still looked a bit translucent. After 20 minutes, it still didn’t look right, so I left it in for another five.

By the time I was done, the poor cod had probably been baking for 30-40 minutes. My mom laughed hysterically when I told her how I had managed to make my special dinner into a fillet of leather so inedible that I ended up having to throw it away.

It only takes one mistake to learn the next time, so although I was wary, I thought I’d try my hand at making salmon this week. I found a recipe for salmon with a maple dijon and scallion glaze in my newest cookbook, The Little Black Apron: A Single Girl’s Guide to Cooking with Style and Grace by Jodi Citrin, M.S., R.D., Melissa Gibson and Katie Nuanes. I’ll write more on this book later, but what I like about it is that the recipes don’t use a ton of obscure ingredients–most of the time, it’s something I already have or should have in my pantry, and if it’s something rare, they’ll often offer up a substitution that might be easier to find.

And I’m proud to report that my second encounter with the gods of seafood was a success. I served it with a side of brown rice and fresh, steamed green beans, another bounty from the farmer’s market. It was sort of a lot of food for one serving, so I ate half and saved the rest to heat up today at work. I used it to top a salad, which consisted of:

2 cups arugula
a sprinkle of crumbled blue cheese
a sprinkle of slivered almonds

Dijon Vinaigrette Dressing:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tbsp cider vinegar
1/4 tbsp dijon mustard