cook: tuscan salmon

It all started with leeks I had bought weeks ago at Trader Joe’s and which were starting to molder in the vegetable bin. Maybe vichyssoise because of a bunch of potatoes in my bin, but I was never a fan of cold soup. I was craving salmon, and Eureka! I resolved to use the leeks in a Tuscan salmon, which I hadn't cooked in ever so long a time. I had picked up a gourmet pappardelle pasta at World Market, Alaskan sockeye salmon, heavy whipping cream, and basil at Trader Joe's.    

 

Our faculty lounge had a bunch of vegetable donations, of which I had picked a bunch of potatoes but also beets, radishes, and Brussels sprouts. Patrick had also overbought tomatoes at Costco. And so except for the potatoes, all were chopped or cut in half for roasting along with the aforementioned leeks and cloves of garlic. 

I seared the salmon in a bit of olive oil, removed the fish and then sautéed all the aromatics and vegetables. And then the wine and cream and lastly spinach. Before adding back the salmon into my cast iron, I also sprinkled grated Parmesan cheese.

We've leftovers for the week!

And I wished I had thickened the sauce a bit more before adding the salmon, but blame the spinach. At least my plating had many colors and textures.

The next day was Nancy's birthday, and we went to Emelina's Peruvian Restaurant to celebrate. We started with Ceviche de Pescado or fresh fish marinated lemon juice and Peruvian spices which were served with sweet potatoes and Peruvian corn, red onion and corn nuts and also Anticucho de Corazon or grilled beef heart marinated with a panca sauce and served with golden potatoes.

 

And then the rest of our order came--papas frita (or fried potato), yuca frita (or fried yucca) with huacaina sauce, Tacu Tacu con Carne or New York grilled steak with potatoes and paella and Pescado a la Macho or fish, calamari, shrimp, mussels, clams, stewed in a white wine and cream sauce, served with rice. And I was too busy tucking in and heaping more sauce onto rice and potatoes on to my plate to take any more pictures. At home, I promptly napped with Sadie. Good Sunday.

cook: saturday supper

I was craving salmon. A few years ago, Tuscan salmon was in my rotation and then I stopped making it because we went vegan for a few months and so forgot about this dish in my seafood repertoire. But I also forget what I used to serve as a side dish with this salmon. Did I even used to serve a starch alongside Tuscan salmon? No matter. I decided use up the rest of a box of cavatappi pasta and pesto.  And got my mise en place together.                            

And I cooked the starch first by boiling the cavatappi for 6 minutes and then tossing it in the pesto along with a little bit of its starchy cooking water. It’s not an appetizing-looking side. I blame the Trader Joe’s pesto, which is a pond scum green rather than emerald like the Costco pesto, but it takes us months if not a year to eat a big warehouse jar of pesto.                       

Maybe in a few months, we’ll be in the mood for pesto again, and I'll blend fresh basil, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil myself. Next I seared and crisped the salmon.  

I basically got my cast iron searing hot to cook the salmon. Lay the filets skin side down for two minutes to brown and then loosen from the pan and flip. And then let it cook another two minutes to brown on the other side.             

After browning, I set the salmon aside to finish cooking later in the sauce, which calls for dairy.                         

Damn that’s a lot of lactose. And so I melted butter and sautéed minced garlic.                                   

Just before the garlic can burn, add the sliced cherry tomatoes and de-glaze with additional white wine if you wish. And then let the moisture cook off to prevent a watery sauce.                 

Next add spinach. You could just add a couple handfuls or even all of an 8-ounce bag because the vegetable will wilt down. A lot.                    

Once the spinach has taken up less volume in the pan, add heavy whipping cream. I added a quarter cup and then simmered the sauce again to drive off more moisture. I also sprinkled Parmesan cheese into the sauce to further thicken it.                      

I tasted and salted, which then made the spinach release more water into the sauce. And so the Tuscan sauce needed to simmer off more moisture and meld all the flavors. After some 5 minutes of simmering the sauce looks done and ready for the salmon.                       

I then nestled the salmon into the vegetables and sauce and let it simmer for only 2 or 3 minutes so the fish would heat through but not get beyond medium rare.                           

I also sprinkled a couple more tablespoons of chopped basil and called out to the hubs that dinner was ready.                                 

Seared salmon in Tuscan sauce. It’s what was for Saturday supper. Next time I will nix the pesto pasta and just serve rice or buttered pasta or corn as a side.