The King Salmon and I.

After all the heart-stopping dishes of the past few days (waffles, late-night quesadillas and such), I received a phone call from the United Nations Council on Cardiac Relations, stating that if I did not make SOMETHING healthy and delicious, that the U.N. as a whole would be very angry with me, and that they would write me a letter, telling me how angry they were…

In order to stave off an international culinary incident, I took it upon myself as a benevolent kitchen dictator to rectify this situation. But a dish that was heart-healthy AND delicious? Herbs, garlic, lemon, and extra virgin olive oil would work for the delicious side of things, but what about the healthy side of the coin?

Pork was out, I was tired of chicken, lamb was too exotic and fussy, shrimp was no good, and I don’t think there is enough lemon and rosemary on earth to save the can of sardines that’s been sitting in my cupboard since I moved into this place a year and a half ago….but wait. Sardines are fishies, and fishies are good for you… And a fish that tastes great (when properly prepared) is SALMON.

A quick visit to the frozen food section of my local mega-mart yielded me a nice big salmon filet. Taking it home, I thawed it using the chef’s trick of immersing it in water in the sink, then letting just a trickle of water fall into the sink. In 20 minutes, my 1.5 lbs side of salmon was thawed and ready for baking! Nifty trick, no?

I wanted the maximum amount of flavor I could get, without adding too much heavy ingredients. No cream or béchamel sauce, no hollandaise or mornay, no. This dish would rely on the raw culinary prowess of aromatics and some simple salt and pepper/

A quick rubdown with oil helped my seasonings adhere to the salmon during cooking, and the rosemary, lemon zest, onions, salt and pepper was almost immediately fragrant as the baking dish hit the oven. I put some lemon slices over everything just to keep the heat from drying the filet out so much, The little fishy was ready in just about 20 minutes, with nice, fork-flaky flesh, and no “fishy” smell at all.

I removed the onions and lemon slices, and served up the salmon with a little fresh lemon and rosemary sprigs, along with some fresh ground black pepper and a dash of parmegiano reggiano cheese. I served it with the veggies below.

For a side dish, I needed something that could give me some good kick. For this I chose onions and zucchini. The onions would complement the fish (which was cooked with onions also), and the zucchini gave a nice color to the dish as a whole. Since I had been fed countless rounds or half-moons of stewed, nasty zucchini through the years, I wanted to have something bright and different. So I went with a cut that gave me a lot of surface to mass ratio, RIBBONS! And the best tool I could find for the job was my trusty vegetable peeler. It made quick work of the zucchini, and my chef’s knife finished off the “seedy” part.

For extra flavor, I sweated some hot chile and garlic in some olive oil and just a small pat of butter. This helped up the ante quite a bit, and to help more I tossed in just a bit of garlic powder. I cranked the heat to high and sautéed the zukes and onions to perfection, tossed in a little white wine for brightness, and served it up with the salmon.

I am pleased to say that the dish did meet both requirements of the council, the salmon was flaky but not dry at all, infused with bright citrus notes and pungent rosemary. The onions and zucchinis had a detectable, but not overwhelming heat from the chile and infused garlic oil, and the bit of sweetness from the onions complimented the salmon nicely. Overall, the dish was a success, and a tragedy averted.

Now I can rest easy, knowing that not only is the world safe once more from the threat of a UN letter writing, campaign, but once again, the UN came sniffing around and never did find any WMD’s…this time.
480 to go!