Honey Mustard Salmon

On Monday I decided I was in the mood for some fish. Being that nice husband that he is, Levi went off to the fish store to see what they had gotten in fresh. He came home with a super fresh, beautiful pink salmon that had come in just that morning.

When Levi brought the fish home he let me know that they said it was a sushi grade fish - so he proceeded to have some some sashimi with soy sauce. Having never tasted sushi or sashimi (I've always been terrified to try raw fish) I decided to give it a go - and ate my first piece of sashimi :)

Then I got to work on making dinner. I wanted to have dinner in the oven within about 30 minutes so that I could head out to take my kids bowling.  I quickly washed potatoes and put them in the oven to bake. Then I got to work on slicing mushrooms and onions for a mushroom sauce for the potatoes. Sauce made I quickly created a honey-mustard dressing for the salmon and popped it in the oven. Then I grabbed a bag of washed and ready to cook green beans from the fridge, seasoned them and set them to cook in the microwave. Everything in place I asked Levi to please "babysit" dinner and make the salad.

When we got back from bowling we sat down to dinner - and then I discovered that the honey-mustard mix I put together was the perfect match for the salmon. So...here's the "recipe" for the honey-mustard salmon.

Honey Mustard Salmon

Salmon fillets
Salt
French's mustard
Honey
Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder

Preheat oven to 375. Rinse fish and place in a glass baking dish. Sprinkle fish with salt. In a bowl, mix equal parts mustard and honey. Add pepper, garlic and onion powder to the honey-mustard mixture. Mix well. Spoon sauce onto fish. Place fish, uncovered, into the oven. Bake for about 20 or so minutes, until fish flakes easily.

Enjoy!

Salmon Croquettes

As children and teenagers we all had moments where we promised, "in my house it will be different".  As a child I was really not a very big fan of leftovers. The food we ate always tasted good, but for some reason the Margolin clan (that would be me and my 6 brothers) wasn't very fond of leftovers. As a matter of fact, my brothers and I were known to purposefully not put foods away so that we wouldn't be able to eat them the next day. Back then we thought we were quite smart  - looking back I'm not sure how wise that plan was :)

Being a wife and mother and the primary cook in my home, I have come to embrace leftovers. Sometimes the leftovers get eaten for lunch, other times I serve them again for dinner and there are times where the foods in my fridge get repurposed and turned into something else. When I happily serve that chicken soup another night I sometimes chuckle to myself at how the tables have turned. When they make my life easier, leftovers can seem miraculous!

This past Friday I baked a beautiful side of salmon for Shabbat dinner. After Shabbat there was still a fair amount of fish resting in the refrigerator. On Sunday evening I pulled the fish from the fridge and quickly turned it into salmon croquettes. The salmon got used and we ate a completely different dish - what could be better than that? I have to say they were delicious, and I was pleased that my kids ate them - and liked them - after I said they were salmon latkes. 

So the next time you find yourself with leftovers, do a little thinking and see what you can create with them.

Salmon Croquettes

10 oz baked salmon (skin and bones removed)

2 eggs

6 tablespoons cornflake crumbs

1 tablespoon chopped onion flakes

2 teaspoons canola oil

Salt, pepper and garlic if needed (when I made them my fish already had enough seasoning)

Place fish in a bowl and mash up with a fork. Add chopped onion flakes, eggs and cornflake crumbs. Mix well. Heat the canola oil in a non-stick skillet. Form the fish mixture into patties and place in the skillet. Allow to fry for about 5 minutes on medium. Flip and cook for another few minutes. Remove and serve. 

(We dipped ours in ketchup, but you can also do a mayo-dill dip.)

Honey-Soy Sauce Salmon

Last week my hubby and I went on a little date to paint pottery. (If you have ever been to my kitchen you know that I love painting bowls and plates to use in my kitchen - so much so that I don't really have any space left for new additions to the collection!) As I do each time I paint pottery, I picked out my piece, placed it on the table and then did a little staring at it, trying to visualize what I could do with the plain white plate.

Yesterday I rinsed the salmon fillets we were going to have for dinner and then placed them in a glass dish. The next thing I knew I found myself staring at the fish as if it were a blank canvas, trying to decide how to  "design" our dinner. It occurred to me then that at times cooking feels like an art. When I paint I need to decide on colors, shapes and shades. When I cook I need to choose flavors and textures. After contemplating my salmon for a few minutes I gathered some honey, soy sauce, fresh garlic, black pepper, lime juice and ground ginger. I mixed it all together and a short while later we had a great salmon dish.

(Sorry this time I didn't really measure anything, so here is my best guess.)

Honey-Soy Sauce Salmon

Salmon fillets

a few tablespoons honey

a few tablespoons soy sauce

a few cloves of garlic - minced

a few sprinkles of black pepper

a few sprinkles of ground ginger

a splash of lime juice

Pre heat oven to 385. Rinse and place salmon in a glass baking dish. Mix remaining ingredients together in a bowl. Pour mixture over the salmon. Take a spoon and spoon some more of the sauce onto the fish. Place in oven uncovered and bake for about 15-20 minutes. When the salmon is cooked it will flake easily with a fork. Spoon additional sauce from the dish onto the fish and serve.

Salmon and Tangy Pepper Chutney

Sixty minutes. That is the amount of time it took from start to finish to have dinner ready tonight. We had zucchini soup, roasted sweet potato chips, baked salmon with a pepper chutney and a garden salad.

If you ask me, the pepper chutney was the star of tonight's dinner. When Levi walked in the door he commented that something smelled delicious - it was the sauce for the fish.

Not only did it smell incredible, but it tasted even better. Imagine if you can, a sweet and tangy sauce to pair with a very simple baked salmon. The flavor and texture of the chutney sauce truly enhanced the flavor of the fish.

The greatest thing about this delicious duo is that it is simple to create in a very short amount of time!!!

I would also like to add that I think the sauce would also be a wonderful accompaniment to pasta or burgers.

Simple Baked Salmon


Salmon fillets 
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Onion powder
Lemon juice


Rinse salmon fillets and place in a baking dish. Sprinkle fish with salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder and just a tiny bit of lemon juice. Cover with foil and bake on 385. Bake until fish flakes easily.


Tangy Pepper Chutney


1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
3/4 cup rice vinegar (natural flavor)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
garlic powder
salt


Wash and dice both peppers and place into a pot. Add rice vinegar, brown sugar and spices. Cook on high until the mixture boils - allow to boil for about 5 minutes, mixing very often. Then lower flame and allow the sauce to reduce. 


Serve Tangy Pepper Chutney over Simple Baked Salmon

Tomato, Onion and Cornflake Crumb Coated Salmon

I sometimes joke that I am, "recipe challenged". You may not believe this, but there are many, many times where I will take out a cookbook, get to work on a recipe I have found and then twenty minutes later I will discover that I have completely mixed up the ingredients or instructions. While instructions are certainly useful, I have found that most of the time I use a recipe as a springboard for my own creation. Sometimes I modify a recipe because I don't have a certain ingredient in the house, and other times because I simply don't like a given ingredient. At other times I revise a recipe because I have no patience for multiple steps in my cooking and just want to get done quickly. Luckily, the vast majority of my recipe experiments turn out to be just what I want to eat :)

A few years back I came upon a salmon recipe that I wanted to try. The first time I prepared this recipe I actually followed the given instructions, yet the next time I decided to experiment and see if I could get it to be something that I would love. Last night I made this salmon for dinner and it was super delicious!

Tomato, Onion and Cornflake Crumb Coated Salmon

4 1/2 lbs fresh salmon (skin and bones removed)

black pepper

salt

3 tablespoons French's mustard

3 tablespoons honey

6 small tomatoes (I used Campari - Roma would be good too)

1/2 vidalia onion

1 1/2 cups cornflake crumbs

1/4 cup olive oil

a handful of fresh basil - chopped

garlic powder

Preheat oven to 385.

Cut the salmon into roughly 7 oz fillets. Place salmon in a glass baking dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix honey and mustard together and then brush onto the salmon. Slice tomatoes and onions into thin slices. Start with one piece of fish - place a tomato slice one end of the fish and then place some onion, then some tomato - continue the pattern until the slice of fish is covered, then move on to the next piece of fish until all are covered with tomatos and onions. Mix cornflake crumbs with olive oil, garlic powder and chopped basil. Place crumb coating over the tomatoes and onions. Sprinkle the tops of the fish with a little bit of water and place a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the dish. Cover with foil and place in the oven. Bake until salmon flakes easily.