Such an easy dinner – and so savory. Salmon is super tender.

About a week ago my grandson, Vaughan, age 13, came to stay with me for about 5 days. He lives about an hour or two away and his parents were taking a quick trip to Montana, and he would have had wi-fi difficulty there as he is doing middle school remotely for now. He’s been a joy to have around, and on top of that, he knows how to cook. His parents are foodies, and I’ve posted numerous pictures and recipes from Karen, my daughter-in-law, and of my son Powell’s grilling pursuits. Vaughan’s not like a lot of kids, unwilling to try new things. Nope. He’ll try most everything, and even likes vegetables (most, anyway). He asked if we could have salmon one night – sure, I said. Had some in the freezer, so he told me what he needed. Usually he makes this with watercress, but that I didn’t have, so we used spinach instead.

There he is, stirring the lemon butter sauce, and the salmon is in the closer pan, lidded for steaming.

This recipe is so very easy. You could pull this together in a matter of about 20 minutes with no difficulty at all. It helps if you have everything out and ready, mis en place. The salmon is salted and peppered. You bring about an inch of water to a boil in a pan large enough to hold the salmon, and tall enough so the lid won’t rest on the salmon (like mine did). Use a steamer basket or rack. We used a small metal rack, then I put the salmon on a piece of foil, poked about 20 little holes in the foil and put that in the pan. The lid went on and we started a timer for 5 1/2 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan (the one he’s stirring) he melted butter, then added just a little jot of lemon juice (and add more, he says, if you like a more lemony taste). If you have thicker salmon, it might need an extra minute, or if your salmon is thinner, maybe 30-60 seconds less time. Remove the salmon when it has reached 135°F.

Once the salmon was cooked – we tested it  – we removed the salmon and the rack. If you want, tent the salmon with foil to keep it warm. We poured out the water from the pan, then melted more butter and cooked the spinach. Taste for salt and pepper.

Simple – plate the salmon, place the spinach along side, then gently pour the butter sauce over the salmon. If some of it dribbles over the spinach that’s fine. Thank you, grandson Vaughan, for a delicious dinner!

What’s GOOD: for me, the fact that the dish was SO easy and quick to make, and it was so delicious. The salmon is super tender – just right. And the lemon butter sauce – not only is it hardly a cooked sauce, it was quick and added lovely flavor to the salmon.

What’s NOT: Nothing, really. The next time I make it I won’t have my grandson doing all the cooking!
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The first recipe I’m sharing from my air fryer.

I’ve owned a 6-quart Instant Pot for a couple of years, and use it all the time. Most frequently for hard boiling eggs (once a week I do about 9 of them) because they are just so amazingly easy to peel done in the instant pot. And I’d contemplated buying an air fryer. I’d looked at all the various brands – gosh there are a lot of them – different sizes, configurations and prices galore. And thought about where I’d store it. Then I discovered that my 6-quart Instant Pot could have an air fryer LID put on it. Once I’d decided to go that route, I narrowed it down to the lid that is made by Instant Pot or the SousVide Art one – the Air Fryer Lid for Instant Pot 6 Qt Pressure Cooker one. Both had good reviews. The latter was cheaper by about $10, and all the reviews were stellar.

A few days later it arrived at my door. It’s a kind of a conical shaped black lid that merely sits on top of the Instant Pot, nesting on the rim just like the real lid does. It doesn’t get locked in. It just sits there. It has a dial for time, and a dial for temp. It’s not digital. That’s it. Very simple technology. First I made air fryer (AF) zucchini fries. They were so good I ate them all in one go. I used a lot less breading (bread crumbs and Parm) on them. They weren’t exactly crispy. And I’ve since learned that not a lot you make in the AF is actually crispy. Then I made AF sweet potato fries, using much the same breading. They weren’t crispy either, but I liked them a lot. The variable is temperature and the watts of your air fryer – so I’m going to try these two things again to see if I can make them more crispy. More breading would help, but since I’m trying to keep the carb count down, I don’t want to do that.

Then a week later I decided I’d try doing salmon in the AF. I had a fresh orange languishing on my kitchen counter so had to find a recipe that used that. Found one from America’s Test Kitchen. I followed the recipe to the letter except for the amount of orange zest, and added the orange sections to garnish the salmon when serving.

They recommend you prepare a foil sling that rests in the AF basket, which makes it easy to remove it when it’s done, and also makes for zero cleanup required. The foil is lightly sprayed with oil spray. The salmon was blotted dry with paper towels, then I brushed on the glaze (orange marmalade, the zest, orange juice and mustard). The salmon gets placed on the foil. If you’re doing two, space them a little apart if possible. Into the air fryer it went, at 400°F for about 11 minutes, until the middle of the salmon registered 125°F. The time variable was 10-14 minutes. My AF is 1300 watts, so I chose the lower end of the time. I was a bit concerned about removing the lid to check the temp – just the safety and heat radiating. But I needn’t have worried, the lid handle is easy to grab, it’s not hot, and I merely held it off with one hand (and the heat coils and fan turn off when you lift the lid anyway), and stuck the thermometer in the salmon with the other. Just remember that with almost all meat, poultry or fish, the temp can zoom up once it reaches close to the finished temp. Watch closely.

I had the rest of my dinner all ready to go, so onto a plate it went with the orange sections on top and a sprinkle of chopped Italian parsley.

What’s GOOD: Not only was this a delicious way to fix salmon (the glaze part) but it was so easy to make, and to clean up. The foil went into the trash can and that was all it took! The tricky part is not overcooking the salmon, so do watch that carefully if you try this. Mine reached 132° so it was not quite as moist but it was perfect in every other way. I’ll definitely be making this again. So easy.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Watch the temp carefully so it doesn’t overcook.

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Luscious, moist salmon in a simple creamy orange sauce

Salmon is one of my favorite fish. And I didn’t have any in my freezer arsenal, so I asked my neighbor to buy me a chunk. Sometimes I buy wild caught, but more and more the fillets are thinner and I truly do enjoy a thicker piece of fish. Plus, the wild is so very expensive! But thick pieces cook better, more evenly. So this one  was farm-raised. As I write this we’re still in the midst of the lockdown – maybe by the time this posts we’ll be somewhat out the other end (gosh, I hope so). I cut the chunk into 3 pieces, froze one that I vacuum sealed, cooked the two with this recipe, ate one and will have the left overs of this (above) for my dinner. And you can see I had it with asparagus (recipe up soon) with a maple pecan vinaigrette on top. Just a lovely dinner.

As I scanned through recipes I’d use, I was limited with what I had on hand – no running to the grocery store to buy leeks or mushrooms, or fresh ginger, or limes, so I decided to adapt a Phillis Carey recipe that’s already here on my blog (from 2008). Technically, I suppose this recipe doesn’t quite qualify as a “new” recipe, except that I did change it – I used green onions instead of the leeks called for in the other recipe, and I substituted orange juice for the white wine. I also reduced the amount of cream since so much of it rolls off of it, even when serving. You want to lap up that sauce, though!

As I was on the phone that afternoon with my friend Linda T, who lives about an hour south of me (we’ve been friends for 30+ years) she told me the original recipe was/is one of her favorites. She often makes it for guests. I haven’t made this recipe for a long time. I did have a fresh orange on hand, so it seemed destiny that I’d make this recipe with the adaptations.

All of it is made in a saucepan in lickety-split time. Really – you make this in less than 20 minutes if you have everything ready to go. The green onions (both white and lower green parts) are gently sautéed in butter. The asparagus took almost more time to make than the fish, but I did them simultaneously. The fish is added to the green onions, then you add the orange zest, orange juice and the little dash of cream. Bring it to a simmer, cover and let it gently cook until the salmon reaches 135°F. With my handy-dandy instant read thermometer, I checked the temp until it reached about 132°F, then turned off the heat while I finished the asparagus. By the time I plated dinner, the salmon had reached full temp and the sauce was ready.

What’s GOOD: the flavor, first and foremost. So very tender fish, flaking easily with a fork, with the orange sauce (not much – but enough to give it all super flavor).

What’s NOT:  nothing that I can think of.

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Super easy dinner with loads of flavor.

I don’t know about you, but I love sheetpan dinners. They just simplify the dinner making. I’ve done dinner for guests using a sheetpan recipe – my favorite is still the  Chicken Thighs with Bacon and Sourdough Croutons. Some recipes roast several items for the same time period – not so with this one – you do have to start the potatoes ahead of time, then add other ingredients. But they’re all still done on the one sheetpan. And if you line the sheetpan with parchment or foil, you’ll have the simplest of cleanup ever.

This recipe uses small red or white (or a combination) potatoes. You want them to BE about 1” square or cut them into something close to that.  First the potatoes are tossed in EVOO, mustard, salt and pepper. Those are put out onto the parchment-lined baking sheet and roasted for about 20 minutes. That gives the potatoes a head start. The baby green beans (haricots verts) are tossed in the remaining oil mixture and go onto the baking sheet next. Those, along with the potatoes roast for 5 minutes, then you add the halibut that’s been topped with some ready-made jarred tapenade (olives). Another 12-15 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fish) and everything should be roasted-done.

Meanwhile you will have chopped up some baby tomatoes, cut a lemon into wedges and chopped some parsley. Serve the fish with the toasty potatoes, green beans, the lemon wedge and the garnish of chopped parsley. Done. Easy-peasy. You can substitute sweet potato for the white potatoes, and you could easily add a small amount of squash or eggplant to the pan. The recipe came from a class with Susan V, although I changed it just a little bit to make it simpler.

What’s GOOD: how easy this is. Dinner on one pan. The nip of briny olives on the fish – a really tasty touch – and the crispy green beans. Also loved the addition of the fresh tomatoes at the end. Altogether delicious.

What’s NOT: nothing really.

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You can never have too many recipes for salmon. This one is easy and quick. Rich? Yes. So good, though.

Another one of the recipes from the salmon class with Phillis Carey. Very simple to make – done all in one pan. You’ll need some fresh dill (which really adds so much flavor) and heavy cream and a lemon. The salmon is pan-seared then removed while you make the sauce. Once it’s done, you add the salmon back in and cook it for a minute or two at the most. See? Easy. Phillis suggested serving this with orzo and spinach. You’ll want something carb (orzo, rice) or carb-like (riced cauliflower, millet) to soak up any extra sauce and juices from this.

What’s GOOD: how easy. Delicious. Tender texture. Loved the dill in it.

What’s NOT: nothing at all.

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Sort of looks like a jumbled mess there, but it really isn’t. It’s supposed to look like that. A kind of rustic way to pull chunks of salmon, slow-roasted, then garnishing with a very flavorful olive and caper relish.

This recipe came from the salmon class Phillis Carey did a few weeks ago. It was SO delicious. I have some salmon in the refrigerator that I bought yesterday and I’ll be making this one night and the Tropical Salmon the next night.

There are a couple of things that are different about this – first, it’s slow-roasted, which makes for a very tender and juicy piece of fish. There are a few other recipes on my blog for slow-roasting salmon, and I think all of them came from a Phillis Carey class. The other thing is the method you use to serve it. Once the salmon is roasted, you use a big fork (easier with a big fork) to pull off small to medium chunks. Not orderly, even pieces, but chunks, randomly. And that’s what you serve. Or put it out whole, on a serving platter (heated) and gently tug the pieces apart with the fork, and garnish with the very flavorful sauce/relish.

Phillis took a trip (a tour she led) to Sicily last year and she said at a class after her return, that she’d be incorporating various recipes she gathered or devised herself, from her Sicilian adventure. And this is one of them, obviously. The sauce on top is a combo of oil, chopped Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, a bunch of Castelvetrano olives, shallots, capers, lemon zest and garlic. Do seek out the Castelvetrano if you can – I have to buy them at a specialty market near me (and they aren’t exactly inexpensive) but they keep for months in the refrigerator. Someone told me Costco (some) carry a really huge jar of Castelvetrano, but I’d never be able to use up that many! The olives are a ripe olive, but they have a wonderful texture and taste all their own. If you can’t find them, use some other kind of green olive (NOT the ones  you’d put in a martini, however).

The slow-roasting is a simple task – at 300°F – and I always put the rack in the lower half of my oven to do this. The roasting takes a max of 20-25 minutes. Don’t overcook it. The beauty of this dish is that you can serve it at room temp. Would make for a lovely brunch dish. So count this recipe as versatile.

What’s GOOD: the succulence of the salmon when slow-roasted. The sauce is fabulous. And so very easy. And I like the rough-cut, pulled apart look of the salmon too. Different. Would be lovely for a company meal, or easy for a weeknight dinner too.

What’s NOT: can’t think of anything.

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That salmon was (and looks) so moist, you can almost see the juices running. You need to make this.

When Phillis Carey taught the salmon class a couple of weeks ago, she said of all the recipes she was sharing that evening, this one was her favorite. I could understand why as soon as the first bite entered my mouth. The piquant taste of the sweet pineapple (underneath that salmon, you just can’t see it) enhanced by the Thai sweet chili sauce (Trader Joe’s has it). I wanted more. This entire recipe would likely come together in less than 30 minutes, including the rice if you started that first thing. You can make the sauce while the salmon is cooking. The fish is placed on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet on top of half-rings of pineapple. If you have fresh pineapple, great, otherwise the Dole canned stuff works fine with this. You do want skinless salmon – reason?  – because you want the flavors to enter the fish both top and bottom.

The sauce: melted butter, the Thai sweet chili sauce, cilantro, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and red pepper flakes. That mixture is brushed all over the top of the salmon and some of it runs off, which, hopefully, gets absorbed underneath. Any of the juices that end up on the pan should be spooned out over the salmon when served.

What’s GOOD: the flavor, first and foremost. I wished my piece had been bigger, I liked it so much. Loved the little bit of pineapple underneath. Phillis used canned pineapple. It might be a stunner if you used fresh pineapple. A keeper of a recipe.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Don’t make more than you can eat – my opinion – fish doesn’t ever taste as good warmed over. That succulent salmon gets overcooked when you reheat it.

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Talk about a vibrantly colored salad, and full of texture and flavor!

Last week my friend Cherrie and I attended a cooking class with Phillis Carey. It was all about salmon. And I’ll share all the salmon recipes she prepared that evening (four) plus the dessert (cookies – I didn’t eat them because I shouldn’t but Cherrie attested to their deliciousness). This salad was such a standout. On this anti-lectin diet I’m on, I’m not supposed to eat sugar snaps or peas, but I ate the peas and one sugar snap; I just couldn’t help myself! What I loved about this salad was all the textures in it – Phillis even mentioned it as she was explaining the recipe – it’s served with a simple lemon vinaigrette. It was SO good. All of it. She blanched the sugar snaps and the fresh peas (although you can use frozen, thawed peas). Everything could be made ahead – you’d just have to compose the salad immediately before serving it – and it would be best to serve individual servings because you can make sure each person gets a specific share of the smoked salmon. And the crispy prosciutto added a lovely saltiness to the salad. So worth the effort.

In this case, Phillis said to use hard-smoked salmon. This is not a place for regular, thinly sliced smoked salmon, lox style. So seek out a grocer/butcher store that carries chunks of smoked fish. Or you could use canned smoked fish (which I just happen to have in my pantry). This could easily be a main dish, just make it in a larger portion. Great for a warm summer night – it was one the night we attended the class. We’ve been having Indian summer weather in SoCal this past week or two. Much too hot for my liking.

But, as a complete aside – – – a few months ago I had solar panels installed on my house. It was a big undertaking, and expensive (I paid up front for it). They guaranteed I’d have a 55% or more reduction of my electric bill. Not only did I have 2 swimming pools (regular and separate spa), but 3 A/C units (one for each floor of my house plus the wine cellar). Hence I use a lot of power. But then, I decided to empty my big swimming pool and had a deck built into/over the space. Last week I got my first electric bill since I did that deck. Talk about thrilled. We’ve had summer weather here since June and the A/C units run a lot . . . my bill was $37. Oh my goodness, was I thrilled. I danced a jig! That’s WITH the A/C running every day but about one or two. Over the winter, I’m certain I’ll be getting a $0 bill. Happiness.

What’s GOOD: Do try it. Look how vibrant it appears – love all the colors of green, and I did love all the texture in it. Loved the hard-smoked salmon with the greens. A keeper.

What’s NOT: nary a thing.

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A kind of a salmon salad, but hot salmon, cold relish with arugula or greens underneath.

Vividly, I recall the first time I ate a peppadew pepper. Oh my golly, was I in love. It was at a restaurant in San Diego, and for a week I was on a mission to find them, and eventually I did. Now they’re in lots of places, even Trader Joe’s. Mostly, now, I buy them at an olive bar in one of my local grocery stores because I don’t use them often enough to keep it stocked in my frig. Peppadews are sweet and piquant at the same time. They have little to no heat in them. They add a lovely surprise in your mouth. And they work perfectly with this salmon dish.

First you need to make the Tunisian relish – dried currants (or golden raisins work fine), soaked in hot water to plump them. A cup of green olives chopped (tart type, not ripe), a bunch of the peppadew peppers chopped up, some olive oil and sherry vinegar, salt and pepper, and that’s it. Set that aside to marinate a little bit.

The salmon is marinated in some of the relish for half an hour then grilled. On the plate you combine the greens with the reserved marinade (serves as a dressing here) then divide the salmon amongst your serving plates, spoon any leftover marinade on top and sprinkle on the relish. A one dish meal in my book. From a class with Tarla Fallgatter.

What’s GOOD: the combination of the relish ingredients is sublime. You won’t need a huge serving of this (the salmon, I’m speaking of) because it is served as a salad – so you get some good salad stuff in there too. Loved it.

What’s NOT: nothing really – just the time to mix up the relish, I suppose. I think if you made more of it, it would keep for a week or so – to use on something else. For me, the peppadew peppers make this!

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Is it halibut season? Found some at Costco and couldn’t resist!

Rarely these days do I have halibut – it’s so gosh-darned expensive. But I found a lovely 3-serving size slab of it at Costco for just under $20. I searched through my to-try recipes and didn’t really find anything that wowed me, so I went on the ‘net and found a recipe at epicurious that wasn’t difficult and contained plenty of lemons. I have fresh rosemary in my garden, and I’d just happened to have bought a small jar of Aleppo pepper at Penzey’s last week, so I was in business.

I made this in my toaster oven, believe it or not, and it turned out just fine. I lined a small rimmed baking sheet with foil, sprayed it with nonstick oil, blotted dry the piece of halibut and placed it on top. The top of the fish was oiled with EVOO (not much), then was sprinkled with salt and Aleppo pepper. You can see it on the front edges of the lemon slices in the picture above – Aleppo is quite bright red – and it’s not particularly spicy hot, so I was generous with the sprinkling of it.

My Meyer lemon tree is on its last few lemons of the season, and some of them still have juice in them, but the flesh has shrunk away from the outer peel – so interesting – have never seen this before – but probably owing to our extreme heat this summer. The lemon slices worked better by cutting each round in half and kind of layering them on top. I also sprinkled a little bit of chopped fresh rosemary on top of the fish before layering the lemon slices.

Into a 450°F oven it went. The recipe indicated 10 minutes, but this wasn’t cooked through to 120°F interior temp until about 13-14 minutes and I whisked it out in a hurry so it wouldn’t overcook. I drizzled the top with additional lemon juice and served a wedge on the plate as well. I removed the lemon slices, but if serving to guests, I’d leave the lemons on top just because it looks prettier. The lemon really didn’t “cook” as such and doubt you’d want to eat them. The recipe indicates broiling the fish at the last for 1-2 minutes until the lemons are charred. I didn’t do that step because I didn’t want the halibut to cook too much. To serve, I chopped up more fresh rosemary and sprinkled that on top too along with a dash more salt. The leftovers are going to be flaked into a large green salad. Doesn’t that sound good?

What’s GOOD: halibut has such a lovely tender flake to it – don’t overcook it, so use your instant read thermometer and remove it at 120°F as it will continue to cook for another 3-4 minutes. I loved the intense lemony flavor and liked the rosemary too. And I liked the little bit of heat from the Aleppo peppers. Was this off the charts? No, but it was really good and very, very easy!

What’s NOT: nothing, really. It was easy to do. Tasty, so no negatives.

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