Just a recipe . . . for grilled salmon salad

The other night I fixed a nice dinner for friends. And the best part was the friends brought an appetizer and dessert (thanks again, Jenny), so really I only had to think about the main dish and whatever would go with it. As I perused my recipe collection, I went through category after category thinking “what shall I fix?” And what kept nagging at me was . . . I’ve got to make something that I haven’t already blogged about. You see, as a blogger, (and likely most food bloggers agree) I feel the need to continually bring you, my loyal readers, new and interesting recipes. Not something I prepared 2 weeks ago, or 2 months ago that I’ve blogged about already. With those parameters, my possibilities were whittled down, big time.

You see, after blogging for nearly a year, I’m finally getting down to the last hundred or so recipes from my own personal collection. Sure, I’ve blogged about other recipes now and then, ones I’ve found on other blog sites or cookbooks, and I truly do still have lots of recipes to share with you. And it isn’t as if I don’t ever fix dishes more than once. I do. I just don’t blog about it when I do. But the pressure is there to post – or try to post – a new recipe and story every day. Some days I don’t . . . like everyone, I get busy, we have leftovers, or I just don’t have any “great idea” about something I choose to make or blog about. Or, I fix something new and don’t like it much, so surely I’m not going to blog about that!

So, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, we can move on to the recipe. I finally decided to prepare a grilled salmon salad that is one of our family favorites. My DH has been asking me to make this for several months. I hadn’t made it for a long time because I blogged about it last summer, when I was confined to writing, rather than cooking, when I fractured my foot and couldn’t walk or stand for nearly 3+ months. Back then I wrote up posts on some of my favorite recipes, but didn’t have pictures of them. This is one of those recipes. And now I have a picture.

But, since this one is so awfully good, I decided I’d re-post about it. It’s one of my top ten favorite recipes. And it’s one of my go-to recipes when I don’t have a whole lot of time to prepare a company-geared menu. This dish is a meal in one – a protein (salmon fillet), a salad (watercress and perhaps other greens), and vegetables (onions grilled, as well as some red and yellow peppers). Back when I was still a working woman, this was a meal I could shop for and prepare in a reasonable time after I left work, and still put a “company” meal on the table.

Here’s the gist of the recipe: it’s a large salmon fillet (we normally buy them at Costco) that’s sprayed with olive oil spray, placed on a piece of sprayed heavy-duty foil, edges rolled up to surround the fish. That sort-off foil plant is grilled on a moderately hot barbecue. Along with some red and yellow bell pepper strips too, if you’d like. Meanwhile, you prepare a simple Asian-style salad dressing with fresh ginger in it, and you mix up a big mound of watercress (I added spinach to the watercress this time because I had a bag of baby spinach on hand) with some thinly sliced red onions. I also toasted some sesame seeds too. That’s really all there is to it. You toss the dressing on the greens, carefully slide the hot, bubbling salmon fillet on top of the salad, then garnish with the red onions, grilled peppers and sesame seeds. I also drizzle a bit more dressing on top of the fish. Serve.

Cook’s Notes: you can use other vegetables (quartered red onions, asparagus, both grilled, or some steamed green beans – left whole, stems trimmed – and tossed with rice wine vinegar) but our preference is for the bell peppers and onions. Sometimes I add some halved cherry tomatoes to the salad too.

I’m not going to insert the full recipe again – just give you the link to go check out my first posting of it last July.

Salmon Fillets with Maple-Thyme Glaze

I'm on a mission. Clean out the freezer, or else throw some stuff out. I have a huge freezer, and I'm real good about saving this and that. It seems good at the time, but 6 months or 2 years later I've lost track of what's in there. Originally I tried to keep all the meat products in one place, vegetables in other, other things in door. About the only thing I'm consistent about are the soups. They stand up in just one place. I've written before about my soup library. I've just added two new bags to the library so there's even less room on that shelf.

So anyway, in rooting around for something for dinner, I found chicken breasts (no, didn't want those), tuna steaks from 2002 (tossed), shrimp that was hidden in a back corner and packed with ice crystals (tossed) and this package of Copper River Salmon that I froze a few months ago (YES!). Generally I don't like frozen fish. At least fish that I have frozen. It never seems to taste as good as if you buy it fresh. But if the fisherman freezes it, it's marginally better. This package I froze, and it was actually very good.

I dug out a recipe I'd been holding for just such a piece of fish. It was in Bon Appetit some years ago. It's simple-easy. Nice enough for guests, no question, but easy enough for a weeknight meal even. Salmon lends itself so well to some kind of sweet - honey or maple syrup in this instance, or brown sugar. The salmon has two parts to it - one glaze that goes on the fish before it goes in the oven - and a second one that becomes a sauce for the finished product. Both very nice; both very different, but they complement one another. I eliminated the brown sugar and used less maple syrup than the recipe indicated. I also didn't use the water in the sauce as I didn't think it was necessary.

Salmon With Maple-Thyme Glaze
Recipe: Bon Appetit
Servings: 6
1/2 cup dijon mustard
4 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup -- pure, not the fake stuff
3 1/2 tablespoons water - - optional
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets
1 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar -- optional
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Whisk mustard, 3 TBS maple syrup, 3 1/2 TBS water, and horseradish in small bowl to blend.
3. Arrange salmon on baking sheet. Spread thyme mixture evenly over salmon.
4. Whisk 1 1/2 TBS maple syrup, sugar and thyme in another small bowl to blend.
5. Bake until salmon is just opaque in center, about 14 minutes.
6. Spoon mustard-horseradish sauce over and serve.

Per Serving: 197 Calories; 5g Fat (22.5% calories from fat); 24g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 59mg Cholesterol; 345mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 3 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Fat; 1 Other Carbohydrates.

To print a PDF recipe, click title at top.

Salmon with Pickled Ginger/Butter Sauce

(photo from wildoats.com)

When I watched Phillis Carey make this sauce at a cooking class, I thought, piously, oh, I won't eat but a bite of that, it's just got too much fat in it. Hmmm. Yea. Sure. I tasted it and my resolve went right out the window - my mouth went into a heavenly state. Well, why not, with that much butter in it? But the combination of the butter, the pickled ginger and the basil. Oh my.

I really considered not posting this recipe because of the quantity of butter. But this is just so darned good, I just had to. If you want to watch fat grams, then reduce the quantity of sauce. I think you could. As I recall a lot of the butter sauce drizzles around the plate anyway - you don't get it all right ON the salmon. The calorie and fat content assumes you consume all that sauce, which you won't. So that makes it better for us, right? Sure.

Previously I've mentioned Phillis Carey, her cookbooks, and her creativity with chicken. I mean, the woman is a magician and an Einstein all rolled into one when she invents new dishes using chicken. Plus, she makes them really flavorful and moist. Phillis applies the same ingredient creativity to salmon. I mean, she can't do chicken at every cooking class, right? But, who would have thought to use pickled ginger with salmon? My mind just doesn't work in those tangents, I guess. But I'm glad Phillis' does. And so will you if you try this. This makes a wonderful company meal. And if you read my posting about how I grade cooking class recipes, this one merited a "fabulous." That means it's a MUST FIX. And I did. And I do. And I will.

Salmon with Pickled Ginger and Basil Butter Sauce
Recipe: Phillis Carey, from a cooking class
Servings: 6
36 ounces salmon fillets -- in 6-ounce steaks
1 cup white wine -- not Chardonnay
1/4 cup rice vinegar -- not seasoned style
2 whole shallots -- chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger -- chilled
3 tablespoons pickled ginger -- divided use
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tablespoon fresh basil -- minced
1. Preheat oven to 375. Arrange salmon fillets on a parchment lined baking sheet.
2. In a heavy saucepan over high heat, bring to a boil the wine, vinegar, shallots, fresh ginger and HALF of the pickled ginger. Boil it until it is reduced by half. (You can do this up to one day ahead.) Reduced heat to medium low and slowly add the 1 1/2 cups of butter, one tablespoon at a time. Do NOT boil. Strain the sauce, then season with salt and pepper and stir in the basil and remaining pickled ginger.
3. Melt the remaining 2 T. of butter and brush on the salmon. Season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 20 minutes, or until just cooked through.Serve salmon with some of the sauce and pour remaining sauce in a pitcher and serve at the table.
Serving Ideas : This can also be made with halibut. Broccoli or asparagus are great sides for this.
NOTES : Chardonnay is too tart for this dish - the chef preferred a Sauvignon Blanc or something a little sweeter than Chardonnay.
Per Serving: 669 Calories; 56g Fat (77.6% calories from fat); 35g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 223mg Cholesterol; 123mg Sodium. Exchanges: 5 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 10 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Grilled Salmon with Watercress Salad

(Photo from livegourmet.com, a company that produces watercress.)

If I owned a restaurant, this would probably be my signature dish. I'm sorry I don't have a photo of the really pretty platter of food it makes with all the grilled vegetables around the outside. This photo above looks a lot like my grilled salmon with watercress. I've made this so often that I might be able to make it in my sleep. And it is my one-and-only recipe for which I can buy the ingredients in the late afternoon and have dinner on the table by 6:30 or 7:00 - for guests. This is a one dish meal - well, clarify that . . . it's a grill in one meal. Except for dessert and appetizers, if you're serving them, you can make this in no time at all. It may be the only recipe in my entire personal cookbook that qualifies. So, take note, if you'd like a company meal with little effort.

My friend Stacey is a good cook, but doesn't really like spending hours in prep, nor does she have time anymore with two little ones getting into mischief. But after I made this at their house in the Bay Area one weekend several years ago, she said they invited lots of friends over and she got a lot of entertaining done - serving this for every one. So, Stacey, this one's dedicated to you! You're my hero!

I've told you before about Chris Schlesinger. His book, The Thrill of the Grill, is one of my favorite cookbooks. This recipe came from there. This is the fellow I spoke to, telling him my favorite recipe from his book was the Asian Slaw and he gave me this face. If you haven't read that story, click here. When he signed my cookbook, I hadn't prepared this salmon dish yet. I just wish Chris was reading my blog and he'd know that this is my favorite recipe to date. And I've amplified on his recipe too. I've thought about writing to him tell tell him all about what I've done to his recipe. But oh well. He's a famous chef and all. I think I won't.

For awhile, some years ago, I cut down the amount of the dressing on this salad, to reduce the total fat grams, but have since decided that the full amount is needed; it's an important component of the dish so it covers the salad sufficiently and you have enough left over to pour a little over the salmon itself. And if you grill vegetables to go with, like I do, then you need a bit more for them too. Salmon has plenty of fat in its tissues, but it's good fat, so don't be thrown by the fat content on this one. I've done the math and the salad dressing is fairly inconsequential.

I do need to talk a bit about watercress. It's a little hard to find - at least it is here in California. Whole Foods sells some funny kind of young watercress still growing in vermiculite covered in a little root ball. It has different roundish leaves. And has almost no flavor. This is NOT what you want for this. You need the real thing, the kind of watercress that's actually grown in water (that's why it's called watercress, silly!). It has fattish stems (which you don't use in the salad) and wonderful crinkly leaves. The taste is peppery, not to everyone's taste, I suppose. I love it, though. So seek out good, fresh watercress.

Costco sells this huge slab of boneless salmon. It is farm-raised; not my favorite thing anymore, but I will buy it on occasion. I prefer wild caught now, and if you can find it, by all means do so! You wipe it off, spray it with olive oil spray, then place it on two large pieces of greased heavy-duty aluminum foil, crimp up the edges around the salmon (you don't seal it or cover it). Add a bit of salt and pepper. Meanwhile, you fire up your grill and start working on the vegetables, whichever ones you decide to use. I like putting something red with this dish - the color is just glorious on a large platter. So, you need red bell peppers for sure, even yellow or orange ones too. Asparagus works also. And zucchini too. In a pinch I've also thrown a large quantity of halved cherry tomatoes on the platter at the end (not grilled, of course). And DH's favorite is small red onions, halved. All the vegies need to be well oiled, then grilled. Then you put on the salmon and it's done when you begin to see some white foam seep up through the middle of the salmon. At the last minute toss the watercress salad with some of the dressing, spread it down the middle of the large platter, then slide the salmon off the foil and on top of the salad and add the grilled vegies (that you've kept hot) around the edges. Serve immediately to raves. Guaranteed.

Grilled Salmon with Watercress Salad
Recipe: adapted from "The Thrill of the Grill" cookbook
Servings: 6
2 1/2 lb salmon fillet -- max 1" thick
DRESSING:
2 bunches watercress
1/2 medium red onion -- thinly sliced
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger root -- minced
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil salt and pepper -- to taste
2 tbsp sesame seeds -- toast in teflon pan
VEGIES (optional):
3 whole red onions -- peeled, halved or quartered
2 pounds asparagus
4 whole red bell pepper -- quartered
1. Heat a non-stick pan and toast the sesame seeds, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. They tend to burn quickly, so stir often when they start to brown.
Salad: wash well the bunches of watercress and pull the small stems off and discard the large stems. Dry in a towel. Place watercress and red onion in a plastic bag and keep until ready to serve.
2. Vinaigrette: combine the oil, sugar, soy sauce, ginger, vinegars, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. It is best if this is allowed to sit for a few hours, refrigerated, before dressing the salad.
3. If using vegetables, prepare them, oil them, then grill to your taste, being careful not to burn. Move to the side before they're completely done and add the salmon.
4. Fish: Spray the top of the salmon with olive oil spray. Using either heavy-duty foil, or two layers of regular foil, spray the foil with olive oil spray, then place fillet on foil and curl up edges to make a sort of a "pan." Place on grill for 12-20 minutes, or until the inner juices of the salmon have begun to bubble up in the meat (whitish fluid).
5. Immediately before serving, in a large bowl combine the watercress and onion and add most of the vinaigrette to taste - really, taste it to make sure it's right. Sometimes I add green and/or red leaf lettuce to the salad mixture as well. Pour the salad out onto a large platter and place the hot, grilled fish on top. Pour the remaining vinaigrette over the top of the salmon and sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and serve. It says this is excellent served cold although we've never done it that way.
6. NOTE: This is also excellent made with halibut or swordfish. The salmon is the best, however. Serving Ideas : Good for a hot, summer night. I've served this with asparagus, simply dressed with seasoned rice wine vinegar sprinkled over the spears, or green beans. Sometimes I also decorate the platter with halved cherry tomatoes, to give it some color. Or, more often, we grill red and yellow peppers (sprayed lightly with olive oil spray) and place them around the outside of the platter. If you do the peppers, grill them before you put on the salmon, then push them off to the side when you put the salmon on. We also like to add red onions (quartered, sprayed with olive oil) to the platter - they should go on the grill first, as they can take 30 or more minutes. NOTES : This is really a fairly simple dish. Everything can be done ahead except grilling the fish.

Per Serving: 441 Calories; 22g Fat (44.4% calories from fat); 42g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 98mg Cholesterol; 481mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 5 1/2 Lean Meat; 3 Vegetable; 3 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.