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Baked Butter Lemon Salmon from 101 Cooking for Two
This was a simple meal, easy and quick to prepare, though it wasn't very photogenic. While the food was all good to eat it wasn't very colorful, presenting a plate of pale portions to the eye and camera.
We don't eat fish very often. With the purported health benefits we should probably eat more fish. Our reluctance to cook it is probably due to upbringing and old habits. Even being raised as a Catholic with meatless Fridays, we didn't eat fish much when I was a kid. My mom usually went grocery shopping with her best friend on Friday evening. She would have dinner at a restaurant, usually the Canteen (sadly, now gone), while dad was left to fix supper. He made good breakfast for dinner and would also sometimes prepare"tomato soup on toast". I made it once for Diane in the early years of our marriage, but I guess once was enough for her.
When we do have fish at home it is usually salmon. I used a recipe for a simple preparation from the blog 101 Cooking for Two. I purchased a 1-pound Atlantic farm-raised salmon fillet from which I had the fishmonger remove the skin. I followed the straight-forward directions closely, making only one change. We had received some fresh sprigs of rosemary in our CSA box, so I chopped some of that up fine and added about 1 tablespoon to the lemon butter sauce used to baste the fish. I baked the salmon to 120°–130°, removing it from the oven when it seemed to be nice and flaky, about 17 minutes. (The recipe says 145°.) The salmon was good with a nice lemon flavor provided by the sauce. Another few minutes of cooking would have made it a little better. Rosemary flavor, however, was not at all apparent. I will try this dish again but try to add a little more flavor with some herbs. I'll work on that and report here what I develop.
For the rice I used a recipe for "Simple Rice" from America's Test Kitchen Cooking for Two 2012. It was good rice but nothing special. The recipe called for ¾ cup of rice which made more than enough for the two of us. I look forward to using other recipes from this book and the 2013 edition; I was able to get both of them for the price of one. (Not that I need more recipes!) We again had sweet white corn which continues to be very good for so early in the year.
Leftovers
Salmon presents a challenge as a leftover, it isn't very good reheated on its own. Diane based our second salmon meal on a recipe from Betty Crocker's Cooking for Two published in 1973. The salmon was combined with peas, mushrooms, and a light cream sauce and served over rice. This made good use of the salmon and an enjoyable dinner.
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