Tag: salmon

Four Course Meal: Crab Cakes, Vegetable Gratin, Poached Salmon with Pesto, and Chocolate

Dips, Dressings, and Spreads, Seafood, Side dishes...veggies, potatoes, grains

Tonight I had a date night with myself. My husband went to hockey, and I made the girls Sloppy Joe’s at 5:00. I wasn’t ready to eat yet, so I just made their food and prepped my food while they ate. I made myself a 4 course meal… 1- Crab Cake with a smear of my pistachio arugula avocado pesto 2- Veggie Gratin 3- Poached Salmon with more of my pesto 4- Chocolate

1- Crab cakes- I got one of those already assembled in the seafood case. I knew it was just me eating, and I only wanted one. I cooked it on both sides for about 3 minutes. Then I added my pesto… Swoon!!!!
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Normally pesto is made with basil, garlic, pine nuts, and olive oil. Instead, I used arugula, garlic, pistachios, and olive oil. DIVINE!!!! I actually saw Alton Brown make a pesto today with pistachios, but he kept the basil. I wanted to try the arugula, and I am glad I did. So delicious! Don’t be afraid to experiment! I have plenty of leftovers for later!!!
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2- Veggie Gratin
I had a yellow squash, a zucchini, a container of mushrooms, and 2 small tomatoes. I sliced them pretty thin, covered with olive oil, parm./romano mix, mozzarella, and italian breadcrumbs. So very tasty!006

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3- Salmon poached in Seafood Stock, Lemons, and Dill
If you read my blog last night, you know I made seafood stock. https://funfoodiefamily.com/2014/01/19/seafood-stock-2/
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I used it tonight to poach my beautiful salmon. I added some lemon and dill for freshness and acidity. YUM!!!! I cooked each side about 5-6 minutes. I put it on a bed of arugula and topped with my pesto. You could add a side of some healthy grain like orzo, risotto, or quinoa. This would be amazing. But since I already ate the crab cake and veggie gratin, a grain would be overkill. Even though salmon is a healthy light meal, it is very rich and fatty (good fats). Same for the pesto. A little bit goes a long way. 011

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4- As for the chocolate- It was a square of dark chocolate, and it was glorious!

Dinner for one

Seafood

No, I didn’t get the night off, but I did have a craving for salmon and spinach. Weird? Does anyone else get weird cravings like this?
So much of a craving that I decided to trek to the store for the ingredients.

salmon

Salmon in a pouch, or Salmon en papillote (which really means parchment, but aluminum works just as well), as the French call it. You can add anything you like. I took 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoons olive oil, juice from one lemon, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and liberally put salt and pepper into a bowl to mix together. This was the marinade for my salmon. I let it sit for about 5 min (you don’t want any ingredients to overpower the fish) then used my hands to massage the fish. Then I put it in its “papillote” and in a 400 oven for 5-10 min. And viola! Magnifique!

Tip: When buying salmon, get the good stuff. This time, I got sockeye. If you are confused, check out the sustainability of fish at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx

On to the spinach, but not just any spinach, creamed spinach. I bought a bag of organic pre-washed spinach. I took a med. size pot and heated up some oil and garlic on low-med. heat. You don’t want to burn the garlic then I added a bit of mozzarella cheese, parm cheese, and of course cream. In all honesty, I just kinda eye-balled the cheese and the cream to my liking. Just add a pinch of each until you get the right consistency. You will know when you get the right combo.

creamed spinach

R and K ate Applegate turkey dogs and Alexis waffle fries. They pretty much cleaned their plates. I offered my meal to the girls. R tried and liked the spinach. K tried and liked the salmon. I consider that a success for now!