Simple Salmon

This is a simple recipe I found in my files. I am not sure where it came from, so if it is yours let me know. The original recipe only has 3 ingredients, I added a fourth to give it a little kick. If not try it, it's so simple and delicious. The sugar will met and create a glaze.
You could switch out the mustard for another "sticky" substance and add herbs and spices to the sugar for different flavors.

Glazed Salmon

1 salmon filet
Dijon Mustard
Brown Sugar
Cayenne Pepper

Preheat your grill to high.
Spread just enough mustard on the salmon to cover with a thin coat. Next put enough brown sugar to cover the filet on a plate. Mix the cayenne pepper with the figure. Put the salmon, mustard side down into the sugar. Make sure the sugar evenly coats the whole filet. Put the filet on the grill and cook until it reaches the desired doneness. Serve immediately. In the picture I served over sautéed spinach with mushrooms and bacon crumbled over it.

Sun Dried Tomato Salmon

My wife and I celebrated our 29th anniversary this week, by taking a trip to the beach. She is a big fan of lighthouses, so we went to the Bald Head Island and Oak Island lighthouses on the North Carolina coast. We have been to most of the other North Carolina lighthouses. The day turned out to be gorgeous 70's and sunny. We got to have seafood for lunch and dinner, if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you saw the food pictures.

Here is a salmon dish I made last weekend. I hope you enjoy it, as much as we did.

Sun Dried Tomato Salmon
1 salmon filet, about 8 oz

1 tbs sun dried tomato oil
3 tbs sun dried tomatoes, chopped
4 oz mushrooms, finely chopped
6 oz spinach leaves
Brown rice, 1/2 cup per person

Cook the brown rice according to directions. About 10 minutes before done start salmon.

Add oil to pan and heat to medium high. Add salmon. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes then add the mushrooms. Cook for 4 more minutes. Add the sun dried tomatoes and then spread the spinach over top of the whole thing. Cook until spinach is wilted.

To plate put the rice on the plate and spread out on the plate. Then add a layer of the spinach. Top with 1/2 of the salmon. Pour the sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and any oil left over the whole thing.

Blueberry Balsamic Salmon

Over the Fourth of July I told my wife I was going to cook a different region of the country everyday. We did southwestern, New England (you saw the lobster boil), New Orleans and what my wife called northern woods. I look at the northern woods as more of a childhood memories meal. The main entree for the meal was salmon with a blueberry balsamic sauce. Growing up just about every weekend we went fishing, whether it was pan fish or larger fish like salmon. I had an uncle who was a fishing guide so every year we made 2 or 3 trips to fish for salmon. My wife lived at the top of a hill, at the bottom of the hill was a blueberry farm. It was only natural that I eventually tied the 2 things together. Sorry about the pictures for this recipe, I am not sure what happened but I didn't get 1 good shot out of the bunch. Most of them looked like the camera wasn't focusing.

Salmon with Blueberry Balsamic Sauce
1 salmon fillet
1 pt blueberries, reserve a few for garnish
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbs tomato paste
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

For the sauce combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Cook until the sauce starts thickening, the blueberries will begin to explode. Remove from the heat and let it cool slightly. With a stick blender
(or pour it in a blender) blend until smooth.
Grill the salmon as you normally would. The last 3 or 4 of minutes on the grill spread the blueberry balsamic sauce on the salmon. Garnish with the reserved blueberries.

Salmon Pasta

When I was growing up, my mom made tuna noodle casserole when my dad wasn't around. It consisted of 1 can of tuna, 1 can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, 1 soup can of milk and egg noodles. The noodles were cooked and then everything else was mixed in with it and heated through. This is my version of Tuna Noodle Casserole. Only there is no tuna, noodles and its not a casserole.

Salmon Pasta
8 oz Salmon
1 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz Pasta, I used penne
1 cup peas
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
2 tbs Pine Nuts
Pesto to taste

Salmon
Preheat grill. Drizzle olive oil on the salmon and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill to desired doneness. I like to cook this until golden brown and cooked through for this dish. Set aside to cool. After it is cool flake it apart with a fork.

Pasta
Cook the pasta in salted water. Cook until done, I leave it a little bit on the firm side for this dish. Add the salmon, peas, tomatoes and pesto. I added about 2 tbs of pesto for this.

If you are not serving right away refrigerate the pasta and just before you serve it drizzle with a little olive oil, then toss the pasta.

You could add additional things to this pasta like capers, broccoli flowerettes or green onions.

Salmon with Grilled Veggie Salad

My week in a nutshell: Run, Work, Work, Work, Run Work, Run, Work watch basketball. Michigan State lost :-( Duke won :-). At work I have been working on 3 projects since January. Each project had 4 parts and every time I would work on 1 part of one project for a couple of days an emergency would pop up and I would have to switch to another part and work on that. Then someone decided they all had to be done last week. So after a lot of hours I finished them all. At least all of them are done and I can move on to something new for now and catch up on some food blogs.

This is a healthy recipe that can be made quickly and is very tasty.

A couple of notes before you start. You can use any veggies that you want the ones listed ate the ones I used. Cook the salmon to your desired doneness, I like the salmon crispy but not over cooked. I usually cook the salmon over high heat to crisp it up on the outside, but not long enough so the inside is over cooked. I got a little hand held mandolin a while back and with the remodel I kind of ignored it. I cut the veggies with the mandolin for this and discovered the thinnest setting was not the best setting for grilled veggies as they became kind of a mushy. In my mind the thinly sliced veggies looked gorgeous in the picture. You can cut them any way you heart desires, but I suggest at least 1/4 inch thick.

Salmon with Grilled Veggie Salad
1 salmon fillet or steaks
1 zucchini, sliced into ribbons
1 yellow squash, sliced into ribbons
20 to 30 cherry tomatoes
5-8 mushrooms, sliced thinly
Asparagus, I grilled about 14 spears because they were so small if you get larger ones use less
1 garlic clove, minced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

Turn the grill on high to preheat.

Cut the veggies. Drizzle with olive oil and slat and pepper them to taste.

Drizzle olive oil on the salmon and salt and pepper it. Place the salmon on the grill and cook to desired doneness.

Add the veggies to the grill and cook until done. Place veggies in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil, I use a better grade than what I cook with. and squeeze the lemon on it. Toss the veggies to coat with oil and lemon juice. serve as a side dish or top salmon with it.

Salmon with Bacon and Maple Glaze

EatingWell magazine published a recipe for a Spinach Salad with a warm Maple Dressing. I stumbled across this recipe for trying to come up with a new salmon recipe. My version is listed below, as I thought theirs needed a little work. The maple got me thinking and I decided to do a maple glaze on the salmon. Now what would I add to bring it all together? Obviously bacon, but I think bacon is the answer to a lot of things.

Salmon with Maple Glaze and Bacon
1 salmon steak for each person
1 slice of bacon for each salmon steak
1 tsp of maple syrup for each salmon steak

Spinach Salad with Maple Dressing
2 tbs chopped walnuts
2 oz chopped spinach per person
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 tbs cider vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
salt and pepper to taste

Salmon Instructions
Preheat grill to medium high.
While grill is heating up place bacon in microwave on paper towels and cover with a paper towel and cook for 1 minute. This will make bacon partially cooked but not crisp. Pat excess grease off bacon and set aside. When Salmon is almost cooked to desired doneness, drizzle syrup over the salmon and place bacon on top. Remove when salmon is cooked to desired doneness.

Spinach Salad
Put spinach in bowl, if frozen defrost and drain first.
Heat nuts in a dry skillet, over medium heat, until they are fragrant about 2 -3 minutes. Put nuts in bowl with spinach.
Add oil and shallot to pan and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add vinegar and syrup heat until boiling. Add the salt and pepper. Poor mixture over the spinach.

Put spinach mixture on plate and top with salmon steak.

Seared Salmon With White Beans & Spinach Topped With Olive-Lemon Relish

Last week I received 4 cookbooks in the mail and then went away for the weekend. So this weekend I had to put the first one to the test. This week's book is Stir Mixing It Up In the Italian Tradition by Barbra Lynch. Since Annette wanted salmon for dinner I had to select from 3 recipes. Two of the three recipes called for ingredients that I did not have on hand. I had to make a few changes to put my own spin on this recipe because I thought it was kind of bland and there was a lot of fat where none was needed. Also Annette is not a big olive fan so I adjusted the Olive-Lemon Relish so the olives flavor wasn't so strong.

Seared Salmon With White Beans & Spinach Topped With Olive-Lemon Salad

White Bean and Spinach
1/4 cup chicken/vegetable broth (the original recipe called for 1/4 cup olive oil)
8 oz fresh spinach, tough stems removed cleaned and dried (I used frozen)
1 15 oz can white beans, rinsed and drained
1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper, add more if you like heat

Salmon
2 tbs olive oil or Canola oil

Olive-Lemon Relish
1/4 cup Picholine olives, pitted and chopped (I only had Kalamata so I used those)
1/2 Lemon juiced, cut the other 1/2 into segments and finely dice
1/2 Lemon peeled and pith removed fruit cut into small pieces the size of the olive pieces
1 tbs parsley, finely chopped, original called for 2 tbs
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 tsp honey, more if needed original called for 1/2 tsp
splash of white wine vinegar, original called for 1/2 tsp
1/4 tsp kosher salt, I left this out brined olives took care of the salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

White Bean & Spinach
In a frying pan, over medium heat, add 1/2 the broth, the pepper and the garlic, bring to a simmer. Toss in the spinach and cook until it cooks down (if all of the spinach doesn't fit cook 1/2 then add the rest once the first batch cooks down). After the spinach is cooked down add the beans and the rest of the broth. Cook until the beans are heated though. This will be the the base the salmon sits on.

Salmon
In a frying pan , over medium high heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot add the salmon and cook until the salmon is golden, then flip over and cook until the second side takes on some color. Sit on the spinach and beans.

Olive-Lemon Relish
Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Taste and add pepper, honey, vinegar or whatever is needed to make this taste how you like it. Spoon over the top of the salmon.

Chipotle Salmon with Black Bean and Corn Salad

This is a fast and easy recipe with lots of flavor going on. The salad is a salad that my daughter and her roommate make. My daughter attempted to give it to me over the phone. I am sure we left out a few things but it was still very good.

Chipotle Salmon with Black Bean & Corn Salad

For the Salmon:
8 oz salmon fillet
1 tsp Chipotle powder or any other hot spice or spicy spice mix

For Salad:
1 can corn, rinsed or 2 ears corn on the cob kernels removed from ear
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 small bunch cilantro
1/4 red onion, finely diced
10 to 15 cherry tomatoes 1/2 or 1/4 depending on size
Juice of 1 lime
2 tsp olive oil
You could also add a clove or garlic minced or a jalapeno finely chopped.

For the salad mix it all in a bowl and toss to make sure oil and lime juice get mixed through out. Let it set while you grill the salmon so flavors can meld.

For the salmon rub spice on the salmon and grill to desired doneness.

Salmon with Thai Peanut Sauce

I was in the mood for something on the Asian side, so I decided to make a Thai Peanut Sauce on a salmon steak. This sauce is also good on chicken, shrimp or beef.

Salmon with Thai Peanut Sauce

Peanut Sauce
3 tbs Peanut Butter, reduce fat or natural
4 tsp Rice Vinegar
3 tbs Low Sodium Soy Sauce
2 tsp Honey
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Ginger Powder
1/8 tsp Cayenne (more or less depending on your taste preference)

Salmon
8 oz Salmon
2 tsp olive oil
Pepper (I didn't salt as peanut butter and soy sauce will take care of that)
1 Scallion green parts only for garnish

Preheat the grill on high.

Mix all of the Peanut Sauce ingredients together, it maybe a little easier to heat it in the microwave for a few seconds.
Grill the salmon until it is almost cooked and then spread some of the sauce over it. When the salmon is done remove from grill and serve with remaining sauce for dipping or drizzle some more sauce over it when plated.

I served this with brown rice and some grilled mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers and red onions.

Salmon with Mixed Pepper and Tomato Salad

Here is a dish that I invented this weekend when I looked in the fridge and saw a couple of peppers, a handful of cherry tomatoes and the salmon my wife said she wanted for dinner. Simple, but very flavorful.

Salmon with Mixed Pepper and Tomato Salad

For the salmon:
1/2 pound of salmon
2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

For the salad:
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 roasted red pepper, diced
1/4 roasted yellow pepper, diced
1 tbs olive oil

Heat a nonstick pan to medium high heat. Cover Salmon in olive oil and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat in pan until salmon gets crisp on edges then flip salmon over and heat for another minute or 2 until cooked to your desired doneness. Remove salmon from pan and set aside.

Add olive oil, tomatoes and peppers to pan. Cook until the peppers and tomatoes are heated through.

I made brown rice with this. I put brown rice in 4 oz ramekin and then inverted ramekin onto center of plate. When you lift it you will have a nice hill of rice in center of plate. Cut salmon in 1/2 and put 1 piece on the pile of rice, do this for each plate. Then spoon the tomato pepper mixture over the salmon.