Tomato Simmered Salmon

Tonight I made a dish that literally shocked me at how easy it was to make and amazing it tasted. 

There a lot you can do with this. We served it with a Caesar salad. But it would be amazing with buttered pasta or rice. Mmmm. Enjoy

Tomato Simmered Salmon

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon Harissa (or more if you like heat!)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound cherry tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• Four 4- to 5-ounce frozen skinless salmon fillets

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant but not browned, about 1 minute. Add the tomato paste, red pepper flakes, Harissa and 1 teaspoon each salt and black pepper and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture darkens, about 1 minute.
2. Add the cherry tomatoes to the saucepan, mashing a few with a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes split and soften, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and 1 1/2 cups water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook until slightly thickened, 5 to 7 minutes. 
3. Add the salmon to the saucepan in a single layer. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook until the salmon is opaque throughout and flakes easily when a paring knife is inserted between the layers, 7 to 9 minutes. Serve the salmon in shallow bowls with the tomato sauce ladled over. 

OSU Pop up Dinner

My husband, Craig, is known for finding some of the most unique things (but I’ll get back to this later). 

 

Quite a few years ago we were introduced to CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and quickly became spoiled!!  A CSA project is a system that connects local producers/farmers with consumers (that’s me), allowing the consumers to subscribe to the harvest of a farm or group of farms.  Generally, you buy a share of that year’s crop, which then gets delivered on a regular schedule (usually once a week).  Some CSA’s even include farm events throughout the growing season. By attending these CSA farm events, Craig and I have expanded our knowledge of chickens, farming and canning as well as having the opportunity to try “new to us” produce items we would have not probably tried (Kohlrabi and  Broccoli Rabe, just to name a couple).  

 

Now, back to Craig and his ability to find unique opportunities, He found a seafood CSA. What?  Mind blown!  Soon after signing up, we received a pound (plus) of fish every Tuesday. The fish we received was absolutely the freshest fish I’ve ever tasted, straight out of the waters of Juan de Fuca. Black Cod, Striped Salmon, Coho. I’m drooling just thinking about it. 

 

Since moving to Portland, we’ve tried a few different CSA options.  We even tried an egg CSA. Nothing ever really seemed to fit our needs. 

 

So that brings me to today (remember those unique abilities of Craig?).  He asked me if I was interested in signing up for a Pop up Dinner.  Okay, that peaked my curiosity.  OSU was offering a vegetarian dinner (for two).  I’m game, let’s do it!  

A bit of background information about me, in our house I plan every meal down to the pepper grains. Seriously.  And I don’t like to divert my meal plans either. I quickly catch myself from being offended if someone spontaneously invites us for dinner. I’m like, what the hell, now I have to shift the menu. With this new adventure, I shifted Taco Tuesday to accommodate our Pop up Dinner, as well as added some fresh salmon as a side (our neighbor had just returned home from fishing and offered us a HUGE salmon fillet).  

The OSU Pop up Dinner box included items to prepare Baked Ratatouille, Nectarine Radish Fennel Salad and Apple Pear Blueberry Crisp. All of these recipes are vegetarian and gluten free. 

Baked Ratatouille 

12oz tomato sauce 

1 eggplant, thinly sliced 

1 zucchini, thinly sliced 

1 yellow squash, thinly sliced 

3 heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced 

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced 

 

Herb topping: 

1 T basil, minced 

1 T thyme, minced 

1 T parsley, minced 

1 clove garlic , minced 

olive oil 

salt and pepper to taste 

 

Directions:

Mix herb topping together. Set aside. 

Preheat oven to 375°. 

Place the tomato sauce in the bottom of a 10 inch round pan. 

Stack 1 slice each of eggplant, zucchini, tomato, yellow squash and onion. Repeat this step until all vegetables have been used, Then place vegetable stacks around the pan, on top of the tomato sauce. 

Lightly salt and pepper. Top the vegetable stacks with the herb mixture.

​Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 20 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before serving. 

 

Nectarine Radish and Fennel Salad

 

Vinaigrette:

1/2 cup olive oil 

3 T white balsamic 

1 T honey 

1 t dijon mustard 

2 T lemon juice 

4 T mixed chopped fresh herbs (mint, tarragon, thyme) 

Salt to taste 

 

Salad:

2 nectarines, diced 

1 bunch small radishes, very thinly sliced 

1 small fennel bulb, very thinly sliced 

1 shallot, very thinly slice and separated 

2 green onions, thinly sliced 

 

In a medium bowl, combine all the vinaigrette ingredients.  Mix to blend.  Set aside. 

 

Place all the sliced vegetables and fruit into the bowl and toss to coat, making sure to separate the radishes and shallots, so they don’t stick together.

 

Pear, Apple & Blueberry Crisp 

 

Filling:

2 pears, peeled, cored and diced 

2 green apples, peeled, cored and diced 

1 cup frozen blueberries 

1 t cinnamon 

1/2 cup sugar 

1 t lemon juice 

2 t cornstarch 

 

Topping:

1 cup oatmeal (I used 2 Bob’s Red Mill Blueberry Oatmeal Cups) 

1/2 cup butter, melted 

 

Combine apples, pears and blueberries in a bowl.  Add lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon. Toss to coat. 

 

In a separate bowl, mix together the oatmeal and butter until combined. 

 

Preheat oven to 350°. 

 

I divided the fruit filling between 6 greased ramikins, but you can place the fruit filling into a greased glass 

bakeware.

 

Bake for 35 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Let rest 10 minutes before serving. Top with fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Neighbors - Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Salad

Let’s stop a minute and talk about neighbors.  When we lived in Seattle, we honestly had some of the most amazing neighbor, many of who we still keep in touch with, if not daily then at least once a week. Most all have moved away, but the spirit of community will always be with us (The Peeps from The Crick!)

Fast forward to moving in day, here in Portland. We were all exhausted and had just finished dinner when the doorbell rang. We looked puzzled at each other, and went to the door. It was our neighbor (to the left), welcoming us to the neighborhood and giving us a (still warm) loaf of chocolate chip zucchini bread, made from the zucchini she grew in her garden. I knew we struck gold in this neighborhood. 

We have also befriended the neighbors across the street and have turned the corner with the neighbor to the right. It’s nice to wave to people as you drive down the street, or weeding the yard and take a quick break to have a conversation with the couple walking their dog down the street. I just love our new neighborhood. 

Which bring me to this. The neighbor to the right cane home from a long weekend fishing trip on the Oregon Coast. He said he had more fish than what he knew what to do with, would we like some. Of course we said YES!  He came out with a huge zip lock containing 2 Coho Salmon Fillets. 

So last night I seasoned it simply with some garlic and dill. Made some mushroom chive rice and needed a little something green. So I checked the refer and saw some mini cucumbers. I thought they’d make a great simple salad. And didn’t want my go to Greek tomato. So I made sweet and spicy cucumber salad. Recipe below:

Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Salad

INGREDIENTS

• 5 mini cucumbers, thinly sliced on a diagonal, or 3 English cucumbers, halved and sliced
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon Sambal Oleck
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional to adjust for spiciness)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large colander, sprinkle the cucumbers with salt.
2. Allow the cucumbers to sit with the salt so that the juices drain.
3. Add ingredients in a mixing bowl whisk until sugar is dissolved. 
4. Toss the cucumbers with the marinade and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Asian Style Cole Slaw

It's been a couple of weeks now I've been reporting on the CSF (Community Supported Fishing, Best Catch Seattle ).  This week our share is a pound portion of Washington caught King Salmon.


Fresh King Salmon

Any time I get fresh fish, I prefer to season and cook the fish and let the true flavor come through.  Last night I seasoned the fish with fresh cracked black pepper and a sprinkle of some lava salt our neighbors brought us back from Hawaii and few years ago.



 



Hawaiian Black Lava Salt



Salmon, portioned and seasoned

We receive an email either the day before, or the morning of our scheduled pick up.  This give me enough time to plan out dinner, although I do have an arsenal of ideas for side dishes.  With the weather turning warmer on the west coast, I didn't want something heavy, so I opted for a grilled pineapple and cucumber salsa and an Asian style Cole slaw.  The pineapple cucumber salsa I have made before and is a hit in our house.  The Asian style Cole slaw is an adaptation of a friends recipe we helped make for her sisters 60th birthday a few years ago.
 



Dinner

Asian Style Cole Slaw

Dressing:

1 T sugar

½ cup oil

2 tsp sesame oil

½ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

2 T garlic chili paste

2 T finely chopped cilantro

Packet from the ramen

Salad:

1 small head green cabbage, shredded

1 bunch green onions, chopped

2 packaged instant ramen soup (chicken flavor)

½ cup toasted slivered almonds

1 can sliced water chestnuts, roughly chopped

1 can baby corn, cut into 1 inch pieces

Instructions:

Mix dressing together, set aside.

Toss together the cabbage, green onions, almonds, corn, and water chestnuts.  Crush the dry ramen noodles on top of salad. 

Pour dressing and stir to combine.

Salad needs to rest 3-4 hours, for the cabbage and noodles to soak up the flavor of the dressing.

*Note: you can use any type you like, except red-it bleeds. 

It was also suggested to add shredded chicken and stuff a Pita with this.

Salmon, All cooked