I’m addicted to tomatoes.
So much so that on occasion you’ll find me with a jar of Rao’s Marinara
in one hand and an iced teaspoon in the other.
Enjoying my dinner. Pretty sad,
eh? There are other things that I
crave. Among them are salmon, asparagus,
tuna salad, mushrooms, chicken green bean casserole and a couple of fun lettuce
salads like Meridian Hills Special Salad.
Today was one of those salmon days.
I’d debated having a salmon topped salad earlier this week when we went
out to dinner. But, last time I ordered
it they really messed up the order so that was a no that evening.
Now, when I fix salmon at home it’s typically the recipe
that I first made and got Connie to actually eat cooked salmon. Today I decided to be brave and try a different
recipe. For some reason pistachio
crusted salmon sounded good. I have NO
clue why. It just did. And, asparagus with an orange sauce. Plus, we bought some fresh corn on the cob at
a farmer’s market on our way home from a family bbq lunch to celebrate the
start of the renovation of my nephew and his hubby’s back yard.
We also have some fresh morels so while we were picking up
salmon we picked up a nice little ribeye steak to share tomorrow. With that we’ll have caprese salads. And, the sauce for the steak will be mushroom
stock and red wine and some dried morels.
So, let’s get to this evening’s festivities. It was a perfect spring day meaning we got to
eat out on the screened porch. According
to the Merlin app we were entertained by cardinals, goldfinches and
robins. Everything was just about
perfect.
I found a recipe for pistachio crusted salmon on the Two
Peas and Their Pod blog. The orange
sauce for the asparagus was for a recipe for pork tenderloins and asparagus on
dietaeffectiva.com. It’s rare for me but
I made the salmon almost exactly as the recipe was written. The orange sauce? Not so much.
It called for crushed red pepper and toasted sesame seeds. Connie walked in with the handful of basil flower
starts he’d clipped off our 24 plants and I decided to chop them up and toss
them in instead of using the red pepper and sesame seeds. It was fabulous!
A couple of side notes here…
At our last wine club, our hostess Alison gave each of us a jar of honey
from her hives. This was our first time
using her honey and boy oh boy was it ever good! Thank you Alison! The second is that I couldn’t find my
grandmother’s chopper. We opened every
drawer and cabinet in the kitchen to no avail.
Suddenly Connie tore into the laundry room and pointed at the wall above
the desk. There it was. Wall art!
Connie declared the salmon the best he’d ever had. He loved the sauce for the asparagus on the
salmon. I kept them separate but loved
both also. Both recipes were so fresh
and flavorful. And, they went perfectly
together.
Pistachio Crusted Baked Salmon
Ingredients:
1 ½ lb whole salmon fillet, skin
on
Salt and pepper
1 T fresh lemon juice
2 t olive oil (totally spaced
this!)
2 t honey
1 t Dijon mustard
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
¼ c panko
1/3 c crushed pistachios
¼ c freshly grated Parmesan (the
original recipe called for 2T)
Zest of one lemon
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, honey, Dijon and garlic. Then, in a separate bowl mix the panko, pistachios and Parmesan. Lay the salmon skin side down on a half sheet covered with parchment paper.
Once the oven comes up to temperature, drizzle the liquid over the salmon. It’s fine if a bit runs off. Then, scatter the panko mix over and press it onto the salmon.
Bake 10-14 minutes depending on
how well done you like your salmon. We
like ours rare so used ten minutes.
Asparagus with Orange Soy Basil
Sauce
Ingredients:
1 T soy sauce
2 T orange juice (I used the juice
from two clementines
2 t sesame oil
2 t honey
1 T finely minced basil or basil
flowers
Fresh asparagus spears, trimmed of
woody ends
Directions:
Steam the asparagus to the degree
of tenderness you prefer. Put the spears
on each plate and drizzle with the sauce.
