Hooked on Salmon

One day while checking out at Whole Foods, the attractive check out guy said, "You like Salmon?" while shoving a salmon recipe book into my reusable bag. I walked out feeling a tad affronted, but when I got home and opened the book up I was pleasantly surprised. I'm one of those people who ends up buying what the store has samples out for - I get moved by simple ideas. Anyway, the Grilled Wild Salmon with Tomato and Basil Cream stood out at me and I resolved to make it for my boyfriend post haste. But laziness kicked in. Luckily laziness kicked out last night in my plans for dinner.

Georgia and I headed to the store. Heirloom tomatoes were on sale, so we bought a bunch, including a large yellow tomato with a surprisingly red inside (see above - yum.) I headed to the fish counter - as fish is one of the few animal products I'm eating right now, its fairly important. They had both Alaskan Coho and Sockeye Salmon. Both are sustainable, excellently flavored fish - the Coho is a bit fattier, so I went with that one. For more information on which fish are sustainable, check out this site.

Grilled Wild Salmon with Tomato and Basil Cream
(borrowed from Whole Foods recipe guide)

1/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup heavy cream
12-16 cherry or yellow pear tomatoes, halved (we just chopped up 1 large heirloom tomato)
1/2 cup chopped basil
sea salt and pepper
2-4 salmon fillets

In a saucepan, bring wine to boil. Let it reduce by half, then add the cream. Let simmer about 5 minutes to let cream thicken. I threw in the tomatoes, basil and salt and pepper then and let simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes.

In the meantime, brush the salmon on both sides with olive oil. The recipe called for grilling, but the grill was acting funny (read close to blowing up the propane tank) so we just broiled the fillets with a light sprinkling of sea salt. (Letting the sauce simmer for so long while we cooked the salmon really intensified the flavor.) I let this broil for about 10 minutes (I wasn't really watching the clock), but I kept checking the middle of the salmon for a medium done-ness.

Remove, plate, spooning sauce over top (make sure to get a bunch of tomatoes, they're the best). We served with mescaline salad and cheese drop biscuits we made - recipe to follow.


Drop Biscuits
(adapted from Cooking Light)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/4 cup chilled butter or stick margarine, cut into small pieces
1 cup milk
1 oz cheddar cheese, diced
1 T chives (dried or fresh)

Preheat oven to 450.

Combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt int a bowl. Cut butter into mixture until is resembles coarse meal. Add milk, stir just until moist. Add in cheese and chives.
Coat muffin tin with cooking spray and drop batter into cups.

Bake at 450 for 12 minutes or until golden.