Grilled Salmon with Black Bean Salsa

I have had a pretty good record of consistently seeing my family practitioner in my adult(ish) life. I went for a physical shortly before embarking on my journey to college. The next time was around my 32nd birthday and then again a couple of weeks ago, right after my 45th birthday so really I am like clockwork. I also see a Doctor every time I cut off the tip of a digit or my appendix explodes, pretty regularly I would say. Plus I don't want anyone to think I am a hypochondriac. After my latest check-up I went in for the inevitable blood work, a few days later my Dr. Called me. Now I can't say that I am quoting her exactly it started like this.


"Bryan, this is Doctor Crystal, I just got your lab results, over all everything is in order, your triglycerides seem to be a little bit elevated but that really isn't a big surprise given your weight..."

OK this is where I don't quite trust that I remember exactly what she said...

"Do you mind if I ask if you drink?"

I answered, "yes... some"

"Yes I often find that FAT DRINKERS are prone to high triglycerides, that kind of explains your cholesterol levels too, *FAT people often have high cholesterol and yours is one full point above average. I also find that FAT people often have high blood pressure just like yours and the DRINKING doesn’t help. For the love of GOD it is a wonder you are still alive. By the way you need to make a follow-up appointment so we can check your blood pressure again and get a plan in place for your life as a SIMPERING IDIOT after your inevitable STROKE... Do you have some time next week?"

OK, maybe it isn't word for word...

Given the advise of my new family practitioner I thought I would try a couple of dishes without my usual friends, you have met them, butter, heavy cream and bacon.

Black Bean Salsa (enough for 4-6)
1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 whole tomato diced
1/2 onion diced
1/3 cup of fresh corn
2 cloves garlic minced
1 TBS chopped cilantro
1 Jalapeno pepper diced (I removed the seeds so it wasn't so hot)
1 TBS olive oil
Juice from one lime
Salt and Pepper to taste
Stir the ingredients together and set aside to rest while you make the rest of dinner.

Salmon
Really this was as simple as can be; I set a 4-5 oz salmon filet out and sprinkled a little salt, pepper and Olive oil on it. I grilled it for about 3 minutes on each side until done.

When it was time to serve I put a handful of fresh spinach on a plate then added about 1/3 of a cup of my salsa then topped it with the grilled salmon. I have always loved this salsa/salad, filled with the bright crisp summer flavors and textures, the Jalapeno it this one doesn't really add heat, it is more like a little pop of sunshine.

The whole meal clocks in well under 400 calories and is low enough in fat to keep the dietitians at bay. That gives me a little extra room for a Martini right?

*For the record I am 6 feet tall but to weigh myself the following criteria must be in place:
1. Weight must be taken first thing in the morning.
2. I must be right out of the shower and naked
3. I must have recently used the restroom
4. I must have skipped diner the night before and not yet eaten anything that day.

If all these criteria are in place I weigh in at about 206 pounds... Obviously the Doctor I see doesn't respect these rules so my weight at her office was a little higher.

Baby Artichokes

Just look at them... aren't they the cutest?  Who could resist these little guys?  Baby artichokes!  I have never used them in anything before.  I mean seriously who was the first person to look at an artichoke and think, "say, I'll bet if I peeled about four layers of leaves off of those, then cut them in half, pulled the chokey thing out of the middle and steamed them for 20 minutes they might taste good coated in a Caper Sauce."  That being said I do like artichokes with a nice tart sauce but the process is extreme for a side dish.  Take it for what it is, my Salmon was much simpler... Step 1 remove from refrigerator. Step 2 put on grill... so I had some balance.

The Artichokes were a few steps to get done working with 1 artichoke at a time, pull back outer leaves until they come off close to base discard do this with about 3-4 layers of leaves until exposed leaves are pale green at top and pale yellow at bottom. Cut about a half an inch off the top and trim the bottom into a bit of a cone shape, then halve artichoke lengthwise. Remove fuzzy center and any pointed inner leaves. Put in a bowl of lemon water to keep it from browning.

Once they are all trimmed boil in water with salt and lemon juice for about 20 minutes when fork tender remove with a slotted spoon and soak in ice water until ready to grill.  This can be made a day ahead if you like.

The Sauce
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp of anchovy paste (or about 4 anchovy chopped up)
2 1/2 tablespoons drained capers, rinsed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Warm sauce in a small pan then set aside until ready to serve.

Cook Artichoke halves on a grill, mine was the cast iron stove top kind, winter came pretty fast and I am not ready to use the gas grill yet.  I did them for about 4-5 minutes on a side while I grilled the salmon.   When it was all done I poured the sauce on the Salmon and Artichokes.

Gravlax

I mentioned in my last post that something about fall makes me want to pickle stuff... like beets and fish and whatnot.  I kind of made a point of not talking too much about my Gravlax, after all I posted about the same thing about a year ago but there seemed to be some interest in my cured fish.  Add to that, nobody really read anything I posted a year ago  So I thought I would stop for a second and talk about gravlax.

Gravlax translated literally from Scandinavian is:

Grav= literally grave, more correctly, "hole in the ground"
Lax= Salmon

A salmon would be covered in pickling spices and buried in the sand for several day to cure   The process I use is very similar except I use fancy-pants modern equipment like a refrigerator, a bread pan and plastic wrap.

The first thing to overcome is the fish... it is not cooked, it never will be.  You have a couple of choices here either use sushi grade salmon from someone that you trust or make sure that it has been commercially frozen (technical talk coming up) at least 10 degrees below zero for at least 72 hours  That takes care of those annoying parasites.

OK, now that your fish is ready it is time for the curing mix... I use a mixture of Kosher Salt and Sugar mixed half and half then I add fresh ground pepper, I don't measure.   How much you ask? I am not really sure... it looks like this:

Then I add fresh dill, again how much?  I don't know until it looks like this:

If you want to add any flavors now is the time I have added a splash of rum or tequila for fun, or another herb would work it is really up to you.  This time I sandwiched two salmon steaks together and wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap.  It seems that no matter how carefully or tightly I wrap these there is this gooey liquid that makes its way out of the wrap that is why I always cure these in a bread pan. It takes about three days in all, I turn the salmon over every  morning before I go to work.  After three or four days unwrap rinse it off and you are set.

Salmon in Cedar Paper

Because I am a fan of Food Network I feel kind of strange saying this, it is almost sacrilege.  I know that they turn out some really cool menus and for an hour it is amazing but as I was thinking tonight while I made dinner... Iron Chef... well pansies!  A Japanese guy shows them a table full of food yells something in French then gives them an hour to make dinner for four (with two assistants and access to pantry so opulent that King Henry the VIII  would blush).  Do you know what would make it challenging?  If they had their kids running around kitchen stadium or even better mine.


Here is how dinner went at my house the other day... I picked up the kids from daycare at 5:35 or so and took them home and went through the "just got home" ritual that involves two TVs in two rooms with light snacks and drinks (water for Miss Lu and lemonade for Mr. Man, you can guess mine).  A few minutes later I started to make dinner.  It went like this:


I had picked up some Cedar Paper to wrap salmon and cook on the grill,  I put the cedar paper in a pan of water to soak and then pulled some salmon out of the refrigerator...


Mr Man:  "Me hungry, me want a snack"
Bryan:  "I am making dinner kiddo, do you want to wait"
Mr. Man: "Mommy, Daddy says I can't have a snack!"
Bryan: "You can have a snack, I was just asking"
Mr. Man "Me want peanut butter pretzels"


Peanut butter pretzels are his "crack snack" simply a small dish of peanut butter and a small dish of mini pretzels.  He indulges in this particular culinary invention of Miss Lu's at least once a day.


Bryan: "OK do you want anything else?"
Mr. Man: "Batman with Batgirl in it!" 


Mr. Man has a thing for Batgirl, (this is the Batman, from the mid 60s) so I set up the DVR, then put salmon on the paper, cut a lime and a couple of green onions and...


Mr. Man "Me want juice! cold, in a cup with ice!"
Bryan: "Got it! anybody else want anything?"


Absolute silence...  I go back to the kitchen and get the man some juice in a cup with ice, set the lime, onion and rosemary on my salmon and go back hand Mr. Man his cup.


Miss Lu:  "How come he gets a snack and I don't?"
Bryan:  "I looked right at you and asked; the pillow you are laying on gave me more of a response than you did."
Miss Lu: "Mom, Daddy says I can't have a snack!"
Bryan: "I didn't say that I just mentioned that I asked... what do you want?"
Miss Lu: "I don't know, what do we have?
Bryan: "The same things that we always have I'll get the basket"


I get the basket with about 25 assorted snacky things in it from Nabisco Brownie Bites, or Cheese Crackers to Gummy Bears.  Miss Lu picks a chips Ahoy 100 Calorie pack then I go back to the kitchen, I salt and pepper the fish and add a splash of white wine...


Miss Lu: (entering the kitchen) "Now I am thirsty! water... duh!"  you always hope that the teenage attitude will wait until they are, well in their teens... so far no.


So my hope is to see the kids (hopefully mine) running around kitchen stadium soon just to keep them on their toes.  "Morimoto, me want peanut butter pretzels! and watch cars on the computer!"  "Mario, I want a snack, I'm not sure... what do you have?"  "Bobby, Me want to watch Batman with Batgirl in it, and some juice."

So this entire dish including soaking and cooking takes about 20 - 25 minutes took me closer to an hour an 15.


Take the Cedar paper and soak for about 10 minutes.
Add your ingredients to the top I used for each:
1 4-5 oz salmon fillet
2 slices of lime
2 green onions
a stem of rosemary
a splash of white wine
salt and pepper

Tie it up like a present and put it on the grill for about 3 minutes on each side to cook. Couldn't be simpler and couldn't taste better!  Great citrus flavor and the smokey finish was great.

Green Tea Poached Salmon

I have to admit something here, something a little dark... I hate hot tea people.  Maybe "hate" is too strong of a word, if you and I were sitting on my back porch and you asked for a cup of herbal tea I wouldn't throw you out into the streets of the Chicago suburbs, in fact if you had some tea with you I would even make it for you.  I am sure the evening would turn out just fine, even if I were a bit distrustful.

However from a restaurant and even more so a catering perspective tea drinkers, especially herbal tea people are a lot of work.  Here is an example, when I was going through my divorce I would do some work with Chicago caterers most weekends for a little extra cash.  One weekend I was waiting tables at a wedding in the Field Museum... it was a dinner for 1500 people; yes 150 tables of 10 spread over the entire first floor complete a big T-Rex Skeleton in the middle.  There were a total of 85 people there as wait staff that night, I had just delivered a table full of food and was walking back to pick up another tray and a guy grabbed my elbow to stop me.

"Oh, Excuse me," he started, "could I get some herbal tea?  Maybe Chamomile or a Peppermint would be fine.  Oh, and bring me some raw sugar or honey for it and I can't use this half and half just bring me some milk, skim is best, 2% if you have to." 

Did he have any idea that there were about 1499 other people in the room waiting on dinner?  The guy still hadn't let go of my $30.00 tux jacket.

"Oh and this bread... well just find me some hard rolls or French bread, and some olive oil to dip it in, OK?"

I smiled at him and said I would take care of him immediately, then did the math, "85 waiters, more than half of us men about half of those with blond/light brown hair, every one of us in second hand tuxedos, I don't exactly stand out in fact I look exactly like 20 other people here tonight," I said "I will bring that right out for you sir"  I thought, "yeah, 15 minutes after Hell freezes over."

In my career in restaurants and catering my dealings with tea people has always been something like this one, maybe not as extreme but similar.  That being said when I decided to make Green Tea Poached Salmon I had some identity issues, "am I going to become a 'tea guy' now?" and "will I suddenly be too good for refined sugar? Maybe coffee poached salmon would be more appropriate... OK, maybe not"

The ingredients:

2 TBS Coarsely Chopped Fresh Ginger

3 Cloves Coarsely Chopped Garlic

small handful of Fresh Cilantro chopped

6 oz white wine

Salt and Pepper to taste

6 Green Tea Bags

Roasted Sesame Seeds

Salmon 1 fillet per person

Put the the first bunch of ingredients except the Tea Bags  into a saucepan with about 6 cups of water and simmer lightly for about half an hour maybe 45 minutes.  I wanted extra poaching liquid for the Couscous that I made and something else, upcoming post (maybe... if this one turns out) if you are just doing salmon cut it all in half.  After the poaching liquid had simmered for the half our I turned it off and added the teabags to steep for about 10 minutes.  Then I pulled the teabags out with a slotted spoon and brought it to a light simmer then added the salmon and poached for about 5 minutes.  

This is served over couscous made with some reserved poaching liquid and Chilean Mushrooms.  I splashed a little soy sauce on top and garnished with toasted sesame seeds. 

Oh and here is what the Easter Bunny brought!

Umami... made up word or rich lost secret flavor profile

It was Tuesday this week, I was off work and on a nerdy food mission.  Mr. Man and I were on a quest to find Umami when we were thrown out of the Asian grocery store.  Ok that doesn't make much sense yet...  A few months go I saw a commercial for Kikoman soy sauce when they were bandying the word Umami around.  I kind of figured it was a word they made up as a marketing tool.    A few weeks later I was watching "The Next Iron Chef" (I really did like that show) Alton Brown was setting up the compitition to bring "Umami" to the dishes they were preparing using the collection of Kikoman sauces that were available.  Not that food network is above paid advertising, but I started to look into what Umami was all about.

The best way describe the 5th flavor but a bit more illusive than I thought.  Sweet, Sour, Salty and Bitter we all know, Umami in all my poking around is something like "Earthy" or "Full bodied" anyway... I get email updates from Epicurious.com regularly I received an article about a company that is selling something they call Umami paste "Flavor No.5" or something.  The discussions that followed were a lot of people saying giving their opinions of what they thought Umami actually was.  Some of the flavors that came up, Mushrooms, Parmesan Cheese, Seaweed, Worcestershire Sauce, dried Fish... The list goes on, does any of this make sense to you?  I was lost.  One comment suggested making your own Umami Seasoning using a mixture of:

Dried Nori (seaweed)

Dried Mushrooms

Dried Anchovies

Parmesan Cheese

Sea Salt

to that I added Worcestershire Sauce

I started by trying to grind some dried Chilean Mushrooms in my mini chopper, no luck there, who knew that the steel blades would have no effect on the little fungi?  So I got out the hardest working appliance in my house, the coffee grinder and took them down fast.  I put these guys and the rest of the ingredient, sans salt, into the chopper and mixed them thoroughly. No there are no measurements here I am a pioneer breaking new ground (read "have no idea what I am doing") however the Worcestershire made it all into a mushy paste, so I put all of this into the oven for a few minutes to dry it all out then added salt and there I had it 1/2 cup of Umami dry rub (I hoped anyway).

I rubbed this generously on some Salmon drizzled with Sesame Oil and hoped that I was ready to go.  After the salmon sat on the counter for a few minutes I threw it onto the grill.  I served this with Radicchio that I grilled.

Here you go Umami Salmon on a bed of Grilled Radicchio.  How was it?  Really to describe it I would have to use words like "earthy" and "full bodied" The stuff in the rub seems like a mess that only the Mad Hatter could come up with but it really worked together well.

The question that is more in mind I am sure is "Why did Bryan and Mr. Man get thrown out of the Asian Grocery store?"  Nowhere near as exciting as it sounds, the Asian grocery store was actually the fourth place on our list.  We went to several Stores before we stopped there but none of them had dried seaweed or anchovies.  We went to this place I picked up Seaweed, Dried Anchovies and some Chopsticks.  When we got to the checkout the total came to $5.74 and I handed the checker my credit card.

"I sorry, we only take cash if purchase is under fifteen dollar"

"Seriously," I replied "I don't want to go somewhere else"  Yeah that is when the poor little guy lost it.  I just picked him up and left.  I guess we weren't so much "kicked out" as "run out like Frankenstein's monster."

Potato Crusted Salmon

I got this idea in my head a few weeks a go and have been trying to get the recipe right... this time I got it.  Potato crusted Salmon just seems right, it is filling and comforting at the same time it is a little different.  There are a few steps to this dish but it is worth it.  Really, this one is a nice touch when you want to show off a little.  I used a lot of suggestions from the Food Network website to get this dish, this is what worked best for me.

Ingredients for 2:

The Salmon

5-6 oz salmon Fillet skin removed

1 Large Red Potato shredded with the skin on,

1 Shallot Minced

1 clove Garlic minced

Salt and Pepper

1 TBS Flour

3/4 cup Heavy Cream

1 egg

Olive oil

The Sauce

Juice from 1 Lemon

3 TBS White Wine

3 TBS Heavy Cream

2 TBS Butter

Pinch Turmeric

Pinch Salt

Stick if Fresh Rosmary

Start with the Sauce, this couldn't be easier, mix everything together in a small sauce pan and put over low heat while you do everything else. Stir often taste a little more often, you are the one cooking you get some extra.   While the Sauce is going at a VERY low simmer shred the Potato add the Garlic, Shallot, Salt and Pepper and set aside.  In a small bowl mix the Heavy Cream and Egg, dredge the Salmon through the flour then the Egg Cream stuff then the Potatoes.  The Potato part is a little more like making a snowball than breading fish like you may be used to, pack it on then put onto a hot skillet with a little bit of Olive Oil.  This cooks over medium high heat for about 3-4 minutes on a side.

I served this on a bed of wilted spinach so while your fish is cooking put most of a bunch of cleaned and trimmed Spinach in a pan with Olive Oil and Garlic, you will want to cook this for about 2-3 minutes the leaves will be wilted, but still whole.

Poached Salmon

While I have been going on with my piles of comfort food and other things that have no business being on my plate after the holidays (Sweet Potatoes cooked in bacon fat, yummy but I do have a waistband to think about too). Many of my fellow bloggers have been highlighting delicious light recipes (Shrink my Ass series, Vegan Month and recipes like this come to mind). I feel kind of like a smoker at a red cross convention. I thought I would lighten things up this time, have a little fun and poach salmon. This looks like a lot of stuff is going on but really was easy to prepare plus it is an impressive looking and tasting dish.

Start by making the poaching liquid. To do that start with Mirepoix, if you aren't familiar with that term, simply put mirepoix is a mixture of coarsely chopped Onions, Celery and Carrots (two parts onion, one part carrot, one part celery). It plays an important part in many sauces and stocks. As an added bonus when you say Mirepoix people really think you know what you are talking about.

The liquid has:
1 qt water
1 cup red wine
1 cup mirepoix
2 cloves garlic
1 stem of tarragon (I like tarragon, you can use whatever aromatic herb(s) you like.
Some of the trimmings from the vegetables that I served with this dish
Salt and pepper

Bring it to a boil then turn to medium heat and let it cook for about an hour, by the way the house will smell great! When it has reduced by half strain it off so you just have the dark flavor filled liquid left, keep that at a simmer until you are ready. I topped this with Baby Bok Choy, Yellow Squash, Green Onion, and Baby Portabella Mushrooms. I sauteed these in about 2 tsp of Sesame Oil and 2 tsp of Corn Oil (Sesame Oil can be pretty strong) then added a few Sesame Seeds. When the vegetables were all chopped I put them into the hot saute pan for about 5 minutes tossing often. As soon as the vegetables went into the skillet I put the the salmon fillets into the lightly simmering liquid. Depending on how thick your salmon fillets are this will take 3-5 minutes to cook. In the end, the salmon was tender and flaky with nice subtle flavors to it. The vegetables just can't be beat they are great!

Baby Bok Choy, isn't it cute?