Creamy Dijon Salmon

YUM. This dinner was awesome. So awesome that Andrew scraped his plate clean even after he’d just said he wasn’t hungry for dinner since he had just eaten a huge meal. I saw it on one of my favorite blogs and have been drooling at the pictures and description ever since. So, when Andrew said he wasn’t hungry for dinner, I made it anyway since I had been dreaming about it all day at work and couldn’t wait to eat it. Okay, now I’m looking at it and I want to eat it again.

The sauce is super delicious, and adds moisture to the dish, and the breadcrumbs give it more texture. Sage, something I’ve always wanted to cook with but just hadn’t yet, also makes a delicious appearance. And is now added to the list of herbs I’m obsessed with. After all my salmon was gone, I won’t deny that I filled my plate up again with leftover sauce and breadcrumbs and just ate that.

By the way, I’m currently trying to play catch up here and preparing multiple posts…and am now starving even though I just ate a big bowl of mac and cheese. Maybe I should have chosen something like “exercise” or “cleaning my house” to blog about and made myself more productive instead of just hungrier…

Anyway, make this. And enjoy.

Ingredients

• 2 salmon fillets (ours were probably 1/2 pound each)
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1.5 T butter
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced and divided
• 1 small shallot, diced
• 2 T fresh sage, chopped
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 3/4 cup evaporated milk, cream, or half and half
• 1.5 T Dijon mustard
• Optional: Capers. I think they would have been delicious in this dish, but unfortunately didn’t think of them until later. If you use them, you can either cook them with everything else or sprinkle them on top in the end.

Recipe

Season your salmon on both sides with salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat 1 T of butter in a skillet. Stir in 2 of the garlic cloves. When the garlic is fragrant, add the breadcrumbs. Toss the mixture for a few minutes, until slightly golden and set aside.

Add oil to a large skillet. When it’s hot, add your salmon. If your salmon has skin, put it skin up. Let it cook until it is done (opaque in the middle). If your salmon is skinless, flip it after 3 or 4 minutes. Remove the salmon and set aside. Add 1/2 T butter, garlic, sage, and shallot and stir well. Let it cook for a minute or two until it sizzles. Add wine and let it cook until it bubbles and reduces a little (3ish minutes). Whisk in your milk and mustard. Keep whisking while the mixture thickens. If you’d like to add additional seasonings or increase any of the ingredients, go for it. You can let it thicken as much as you’d like.

Spoon some sauce on top of each piece of salmon and then sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

 

 

Miso Ginger Asparagus

So, a while back I bought a package of miso. I’ve never cooked with it, so it sat in the cabinet for a few months while I was too intimidated to use it. Then I made these, which were so delicious they did not make it into a photograph and thus will not be on this blog. While they were delicious, they only used about 2% of a large package of miso. I’m predicting that this once intimidating ingredient will be making an appearance in many of our meals in the near future…

I’ve been trying to get more creative with our vegetables, instead of just serving a side salad. The recipe for this asparagus also comes from Steamy Kitchen.  The author of that blog recommends Miso and Easy, which would be a lot easier and maybe a better option than the big package of miso paste that I bought. Also, the miso I bought was dark colored…I’m not quite sure what the difference is between the colorsMiso is kind of like adding soy sauce, only way better. You only need a little bit to add a lot of flavor. I also LOVE fresh ginger in anything, so I loved this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of asparagus, washed and trimmed
• cooking oil
• 1 tsp miso paste mixed with 1 tsp hot water (or 1 tsp miso and easy)
• 1 T water
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste (or 1 clove of minced garlic + 1/2 tsp grated ginger)
• 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)

Recipe

Preheat your oven to 375º. Line a baking sheet with foil and lay your asparagus in 1 layer. Toss with cooking oil. Roast asparagus for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through, or until tender.

Whisk together all of the other ingredients. When the asparagus is ready, drizzle the sauce over it and serve immediately.

 

Pretty Perfect Baked Potatoes

So, potatoes are ugly to photograph. But, these taters are pretty good. This seems like kind of a ridiculous post because it is so short, but I thought I’d share anyway! There’s all kinds of fancy potatoes out there, but this works great with the cheap baking potatoes you get at the store.

A lot of people wrap potatoes in foil, but if you want crisp skin you are better off placing them directly on the rack.

I don’t have anything more to say. I warned you this would be a ridiculous post. Easy, tasty, do it.

Ingredients

• baking potatoes
• olive oil
• coarse salt (regular would probably work)

Recipe

Preheat your oven to 350°. Scrub your potatoes and dry them thoroughly. Rub olive oil all over the outside. Rub salt all over the outside. Poke holes in the tater with a fork. Place potatoes directly on the oven rack; you can put a cookie sheet underneath if you are worried about oil dripping. Bake for about an hour, or until a fork comes out easily. (I did these at the same time I made this; since the temperature was higher, I baked them for 45 minutes and that seemed to work).

Enjoy!