Baked Salmon with Mushroom Risotto

Why is it that salmon is so tasty? Lots of flavour not matter what you do to it - you almost cannot ruin it, except perhaps to dry it out. Grilling on the BBQ, poached, fried, raw as in sashimi, or baked like this recipe. Plus it has the much vaunted omega-3 fatty acids, blah blah.  I like white fish as well, but it seems to me that half the time it turns out awesome and the rest of the time it is just flavourless or "fishy" tasting. Anyway, one of my go-to cooks, Michael Smith, suggests baking at a low temperature for a change. Wow, great idea. No grill marks, but much improved smooth tenderness. You can throw just about any sauce you want on it, and voila.

As for the risotto, it's something you just have to make once in a while.  Kind of like eggs, it is easy to make but difficult to make really well.  To get just the right balance and avoid all the problem takes a bit of practice. There's lots of advice out there as well, for example this well thought out page courtesy of Alton Brown. Parts of it disagree with his own recipe I found on the Food Network, but we all change and grow as chefs - why would he be any different. In any case, I would take advice from a reputable chef like him, or Mark McEwan which is where I took most of the queues for this recipe.

Baked Salmon with Mushroom Risotto

I'm not the hugest fan of asparagus, but I'm constantly trying to find ways to make it awesome. It goes well enough in the risotto. Luckily didn't overcook it so it was good. I found that it overpowered the mushrooms just a bit however.

Next Time: I'd go heavier on the mushrooms and leave out the asparagus

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 4/10

Avocado Salad with Quinoa

Quinoa is all the rage these days, and no wonder - according to HuffPo, it is high in protein, low in calories, and gluten free. It's also kind of expensive, I bought 1.5lbs for $17. I think you could get a metric ton of rice for $17. But apart from all the health benefits, it just tastes really yummy - and I find it is easier to cook than rice. Plus rice doesn't go well in a cold salad.

Anyway, SO found this and emailed me the recipe. "So what are we having with the salad?" I asked. "It will be hearty, we don't need anything else" she responded. Hmmm, we'll see about that. It took surprisingly long to prepare, but it was just chopping cooking the quinoa. I mixed all the ingredients together while I stuck the pot of quinoa in the garage to cool down. Looks good already!

The salad, before adding the quinoa. Looks colourful and tasty!

I was impatient, it was 6pm and the quinoa was taking forever to cool down even in a -10 degrees garage. I transfered it to a bowl and stirred it a few times, finally got it to luke warm temperature. So I got a bed of spinach down on the plates, sliced some lemon, got the sprigs of parsley out, and then mixed the quinoa. Just for effect, packed it in a bowl to shape it like they did in the recipe. And WOW was it delish! I think SSO hated it as much as we liked it. Well, he's nine so what do you expect.

Avocado Salad with Quinoa

Next Time: nothing

Me: 10/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: 1/10

Pan-fried salmon with chickpea salad

There are lots of reasons why I really like this recipe - salmon is so delish, the whole thing is done in 15 minutes flat, and it is super healthy. There is nothing unhealthy about it. I think we came across this (or something like this) in a Weight Watchers book, but darned if I can find it again. In any case, it is something we go back to every once in a while and once we do, we wonder why we don't have it more often.

Pan-fried Salmon with Chickpea salad

A lot of people are not crazy about chickpeas, but they are low in fat and high in fiber. Add a bit of curry powder and you have a spicy and good for you salad.
Some crazy facts:

• India of course produces by far the most, but second place in production is....Australia
• Hummous, the middle-eastern staple, is actually the Arabic word for Chickpea, and is not just the name of the dip made with tahini
• The chickpea was cultivated as early as 7500 years ago!
• Other names you may recognize are Garbanzo beans, and channa (from the Indian buffet table)

Next Time: may try switching up the ingredients of the salad

Me: 8/10

SO: 10/10

SSO: 4/10