Roasted Salmon and Pea Greens with Remixed Polenta

I'll tell you a secret.  Even foodies like convenience foods from time to time.  It's true.  Some of it is actually good.  Now don't tell anyone I told you.  On the topic of convenience foods, there are also convenience ingredients, meaning, an ingredient with some of the prep work done for you.  Now, I'm no Sandra Lee (thank god); I'm not going to make a Margherita Pizza out of store-bought biscuits and get you to eat it because you're blitzed on a mysterious blue cocktail I made up.  No.  What I am going to share with you is my favorite weeknight convenience ingredient:  individually-frozen, boneless, skinless salmon fillets.  You thought I was going to say chicken breasts, huh?  Boring.  Get them at Costco and you can choose between the cheaper farm-raised Atlantic salmon or the wild-caught sockeye.  I won't hold it against you if you go the obvious cheaper route--I do.  This Costco purchase is completely worth the freezer space.

I love salmon, and so does Jeremy, and fish is fast and EASY to cook--much easier than anyone will have you believe.  One of my favorite recipes is a Korean one-pot dish called Bibimbap.  It's easy, but takes a little more than an hour from start to finish.  I'll share that later.  Today, though, I'll share with you a freakin' awesome 30 minute meal you'll actually want to eat (sorry R.R., those "stoups" are less than appetizing).

You'll find the salmon recipe below, but let me tell you a little about the remixed part of the meal.  The blog is called Mix and Remix but heretofore I haven't given you any remixes.  That all changes now.  A remix is taking leftovers and changing it into a new meal or meal element.  It's good and makes your life easier.  A few nights before the salmon meal in question, I made Coq au Vin (chicken, red wine, mushrooms: yum) and I made it because I wanted something saucy to go with a recipe for a creamy polenta (like cream of wheat, but with corn and a generous amount of grated parmesan).  I forgot to mention one more recipe source in the last post.  I have a subscription to Cooks Illustrated Magazine (the BEST bridal shower present; seriously, keep that in your back pocket for the future).  The difference for me, though, is that with CIMag, I start with the recipe, rather than the ingredient.  They make some great food and know what they're doing.  Anyway, they came up with a polenta recipe that requires almost no stirring and about half the cooking time.  Trust me, getting perfect polenta before this recipe meant an hour of almost constant stirring.  No fun.  Unfortunately, CIMag is SUPER proprietary and you have to subscribe to either the magazine or their site.  Because I like them and want to continue a relationship with them, I'll have to say subscribe, or make polenta otherwise, but I can't give you the recipe here.  ANYWAY, the deal with polenta is that leftovers in the fridge solidify.  It's not bad, it's just not going to be a creamy porridge when you reheat.  If you try, it'll be lumpy and yucky.  Thus, the remix below.  Finally, done with the babble.

Butter Roasted Salmon with Broiled Polenta and Pea Greens (adapted from Bittman's How to Cook Everything)
serves 2
   3 tablespoons butter
   2 boneless, skinless, salmon fillets (about 4 ounces each)
   kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
   leftover, cold polenta
   cooking spray or oil
   pea greens, or your fave fresh greens
   a couple good squeezes of lemon juice (~2-3 teaspoons)
   2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1.  Preheat broiler.  Slice your solid polenta into about the size of your palm, or the size of the salmon fillets, and to a little less than an inch thick.  Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and lay the polenta on the sheet, salt lightly keeping in mind how much you salted the original dish.  Most people have a combined broiler/oven.  However, if you're like me and they are separate, you can cook the polenta and fish at the same time.  As I'm assuming you have a combined apparatus, we'll continue as such.  Broil (SUPER hot heat, applied only from the top) the polenta for 4-5 minutes, keeping an eye on it so it doesn't get more than a couples dark spots.  Flip the slices and broil for another 4-5 minutes.  Remove to two plates.  The outside will be lightly crisped, while the inside is soft and creamy.

 

 

2.  Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.  (Cooking anything at over 400 degrees is considered "roasting,"  while anything less is "baking;" incidentally 350 degrees is considered the "universal baking temperature.")  Put the butter in a baking dish just large enough to fit the fish with space around each.  Stick the dish in the oven while it preheats.  While you continue with the next steps, keep your nose and ears open.  You'll know to take the dish out of the oven when you hear a bit of crackle AND you start to smell the butter (hot butter is one of my favorite smells).  As it melts, the butter will "foam" and this is the milk solids separating from the fat.  When the foaming has stopped, that's technically when you should remove the dish from the oven--but I think the nose/ears test is pretty solid.  Whatever you do, don't let the butter burn.  It's okay if it starts to brown around the edges before you take it out, but any black will just make the dish taste bitter; if this happens it's worth it to wipe out the dish and start over with new butter.  Phew, all that just for melting butter.  :)

 

3.  Remove the fish from the packaging, rinse under cool water, and dry with a paper towel (remember to wash out your sink with soap and hot water, we don't want food poisoning from later contamination).  Place on a plate and salt and pepper both sides.  When the oven is preheated, place the fish in the baking dish and cook for about 5 minutes.  Turn the fillets and cook for another 3 minutes or so--until you reach the doneness you like.  Salmon is really great medium-rare.  The above time will get you there, as long as you IMMEDIATELY remove it from the pan when it's finished cooking, and serve right away.  Adding just a minute more for each side will get you to a nice moist medium.  Salmon is too good to cook anymore, so don't do it.

  

 

4.  While the salmon cooks, rinse and dry the greens and remove any tough stems.  Toss with a couple squeezes of fresh lemon juice, oil, and a bit of salt.  Pea greens are super trendy right now, I picked them up at the farmers market after seeing them mentioned in a food blog.  They have a nice chew to them and a very light fresh pea flavor.  I actually dressed them with a shallot vinaigrette (see recipe below), but it overwhelmed the flavor of the greens.  If you can't find these (and unless you are doing the SF farmer's market thing regularly, you won't), use your favorite green.  I love arugula (aka rocket, in some places), and the vinaigrette would be more appropriate for this strongly flavored green.

5.  To plate, place the broiled polenta in the center of the plate, stick the fish on top of the polenta and place a large fistful amount of the dressed greens on top of the fish.  The heat of the fish will lightly wilt the greens; this is what we're going for and is really pleasant.  But if you don't like a wilted green, just serve the greens on the side.

Check out those flowers.  Who says you can't buy happiness?  I love whomever decided carnations were unpopular, makes my happiness cheap.  :)

A basic vinaigrette is really simple: 1 part acid, 2 parts mustard, 3 parts oil.  The acid can be anything from vinegar (balsamic, rice wine, apple cider) to citrus juice (lemon, lime, orange, or go wild and squeeze several dozen kumquats, etc.).  I typically go for dijon mustard, but you can use any kind you like, even mustard with whole seeds.  The oil will usually be extra virgin olive oil with its clean fruity taste, but you can use specialty nut oils; I love hazelnut oil (find it on the cheap at TJMaxx, no kidding).  Or, to make a creamy vinaigrette you can use mayonnaise as the oil.  Then you can add aromatics to vary the flavor.  Try garlic, onion, shallots, or any kind of herb.

Shallot Vinaigrette
dresses enough salad for 2-3 people
   3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
   2 tablespoons dijon mustard
   1 tablespoon white balsamic or white wine vinegar
   1 tablespoon minced shallots
   2-3 generous pinches of kosher salt
   1-2 grinds fresh pepper

Put all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until emulsified with a fork.  Taste and add more salt or a pinch of sugar, if you like.  Done.  Now you'll never have to buy salad dressing again, nor will you want to.

 

  

That's it.  A really easy, tastey dinner.  Please leave your comments.  Tell me what you're making, or if you have ideas for how I can improve my food.  Also, let me know if there's a particular dish or inspiration ingredient you want to see.

The Creative Process (Meets Tempeh)

We're not vegetarians in our house (though I used to be for a few years).  But we love variety, and the occasional vegetarian meal fits in with that love.  That said, the way I cook usually starts from one ingredient.  I'll pick up the usual pantry items at the grocery store and then get a few inspirational ingredients, usually things I haven't had for awhile.  This trip I picked up tempeh.  If you're not a vege, you've probably never heard of it--it's even "weirder" than tofu.  To fill you in, it's a vegan protien source made from fermented soybeans.  In that way it's like tofu, but instead of a smooth uniform texture, the beans are roughly chopped and pressed together in a slab.  The kind I got this time has added grains: rice, barley, and millet.  Those are just some extras added to this particular variety, not part of the basic recipe.  I read that grains are sometimes added to cut the strong flavor of tempeh.

Once I've got my ingredient motivation, I'll check out the indices of my favorite general cookbooks: Rombauer's The Joy of Cooking and recently Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  I was shocked in this case to find tempeh in Joy and not TCE.  Mark Bittman usually mentions every ingredient at least in passing, but nothing in this case.  Joy had two recipes: a moo shu and a cold noodle dish.  I wasn't interested in either this time.  So, the next step is to do a few website searches.  My go-to's are Food Network, Epicurious, and All Recipes (although, this one can be unreliable; you MUST read and take into account the reviews for every recipe).  But in the case of a vegetarian meal, I'm all about Super Natural Recipes.  It was there that I searched "tempeh" and saw a recipe for Tempeh Reubens.

This is the point at which my creative drive really kicks in.  Once I've found what I want to make, I don't stop.  I find several other versions of the recipe and either pick my favorite or take what I like from each and make my own.  That's it, then I cook.  This time I was a bit dissatisfied that all these vegetarian recipes didn't even try to give the tempeh typical corned beef flavor, so I actually looked up what spices go into the "pickling spice" that is synonymous with corned beef and made a little brine/marinade.  And I bring you:

Tempeh Reubens
makes 2 sandwiches
   1 cup water
   1/4 cup soy sauce
   1/4 cup red or white wine vinegar
   1/4 cup brown sugar
   1 tablespoon mustard seeds
   1 tablespoon caraway seeds (optional)
   1 tablespoon minced garlic
   half a cinnamon stick (just snap it in half)
   4 whole cloves
   8 ounces tempeh, cut into 1/4" slices
   oil to coat the bottom of your frying pan
   1/4 to 1/2 cup sauerkraut, drained
   alfalfa sprouts or lettuce, rinsed and dried
   1 tomato, sliced
   sliced swiss cheese
   Russian dressing or mayo and grainy mustard
   rye or whole grain bread, sliced and toasted if you like it that way

1.  In a sauce pan mix the water, soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, mustard seeds, caraway seeds, garlic, cinnamon, and cloves.  Bring to a boil, simmer about 10 minutes, then remove from heat and cool.  Add tempeh and allow to marinate at least 30 minutes, up to several hours, refrigerated.  Turn in the marinade a few times.

2.  Blot dry the tempeh with paper towels (will prevent excessive splattering).  Heat oil over medium heat and fry the tempeh on both sides until crisped, about 3 minutes per side.  Remove to paper towel lined plate.

3.  Assemble the sandwiches with the tempeh and remaining ingredients.

As a bonus, I'll tell you my secret recipe for coleslaw.  This is coleslaw for people who have never liked coleslaw.  I'm not kidding.  I'm very picky about my slaw and Jeremy has been a life-long slaw-phobe.  The thing is, I LOVE cabbage.  It has that great spicy-bitterness and is loaded with fiber and vitamins (including B vitamins which can be hard for vegans to get, take note).  So, it's great for you, it tastes good, AND it's cheap--all very good reasons for getting it in your belly in any way possible.  That's why it appears TWICE in this meal (see sauerkraut above).  /End cabbage rant.  Anyway, my coleslaw is pink.  It's not a gimmick, it just has to be, given the secret ingredient.  Trust me, this is good stuff.

Pink Slaw
serves 4-6
Dressing:
   1/4 cup mayonnaise
   1/4 cup balsamic vinegar*
   1/2 teaspoon celery salt**
   kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
   +/- 2 teaspoons of sugar
Slaw:
   1/2 small head of green cabbage, shredded
   1/2 small head of purple cabbage, shredded
   1/2 large sweet onion, grated

Mix the dressing, tasting as you add sugar until it's just right for you.  Toss it with the vegetables.  Chill at least 30 minutes and serve with Tempeh Reubens.  If you're going to a barbecue and are charged with bringing a salad, you can easily double this to serve 10-12.

*That's it.  That's the secret.  The flavor the balsamic gives is awesome and cannot be substituted.  If you don't want your slaw to be pink, you can try using "white balsamic."  I've gotten it at Trader Joe's and it's good.  BUT, the flavor is not nearly as intense as the regular old garnet-colored stuff, so I recommend just accepting that Pink Slaw is the best slaw.

**Celery salt is the runner-up secret ingredient.  Don't skip it.  Besides, it's one of my favorite spices, so you'll see it in future recipes.  :)  It's worth having in the cabinet.

Intro: obligingly slog through, or feel free to wait for the first real post

As you'll come to find from reading my posts, I have very strong preferences about food, including how it's grown, the style in which it's cooked, and the individual ingredients.  I am by no means picky, I just know what I like and I'm an adult, so I have the power to make my food decisions.  My friend Aaron says I'm a food snob, but that's not true either.  He just imagines himself a non-snob and we frequently conflict in our tastes.  Thus, I'm the de facto snob.  Anyway, neener, Aaron.  (He has a music blog, tip of your tongue, top of my lungs, so I imagine he won't respond to my teasing.  I get the last word.  Ha.)

But in the interest of full disclosure, I will always tell you why I have included or excluded an ingredient or chosen a particular method over another, if it strikes me as relevant.  I am not a food expert of any kind.  I just know what I've picked up along the way.  In the end, you just have to decide what you like and make your food in accordance.  This isn't gospel people.  Food is about getting full, but you should feel happy about it, not bored or resigned.

To give you an idea of where I'm going with this, take a look at the photo below.  My fiance, Jeremy, took a nicely composed photo of me smashing the heck out of some chicken breasts for my Chicken Pepperoni dish (like Cordon Bleu, but with mozzarella, pepperoni, and basil instead of the swiss and ham).  In the foreground you can see a plate of veggies that became a lovely Ratatouille.  I brought it to a potluck with my buddies, but there was a LOT, so I brought a bunch home.  We ate the leftovers a couple times, then I used the rest with some stock, applied an immersion blender (bridal shower gift, thank you!), and had an awesome veggie soup.

For the most part, you can expect to read about delicious, but usually not fancy, food.  I'm a pretty good cook, but like everyone, I have occasional kitchen failures, and I'm my biggest critic, so I probably think they happen more often than those with whom I share my food.  I'll let you know when I think I've failed, why, and how I might change things in the future.  And I want your comments too.  If nothing else, cooking and eating is about sharing.