Forty-ninth Post ~ Citrus Salmon with Sugar Snap Peas

This post is very similar to the Salmon en Papillote from a few months ago; however, it is a simplified version inasmuch as it is all about the fresh salmon and bright green veggies! No potatoes in this parcel!

I got a salmon fillet from Wegmans, and, after looking in my cart, realized I must be craving some serious Vitamin C - a lemon, a lime, grape tomatoes and a basil plant all graced my basket screaming out to me with the warmth of sunnier places!

Here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ One salmon fillet

~ Veggie of your choice

~ Lime slices and juice of half

~ Dried or fresh parsley

~ Dried or fresh tarragon

~ Dried or fresh basil

~ Course-ground salt

~ White wine (I didn't add any to this papillote package and it really could have used a little sweetness to balance out the pucker-power of the lime. It was still tasty, but could have benefited from a little vino!)

Place your salmon fillet on one half of your parchment heart. Add salt and herbs. Cut two slices of the lime and juice the other half. Place the slices over the salmon, add your veggie, and crimp the edges, pouring the lime juice and wine (about two tablespoons total) into the spout at the point of the heart.

Bake on 350 for about 12-15 minutes. I enjoyed tonight's meal with some light and sweet Vetter Vineyards Cracker Ridge Rose - a sauvignon blanc would probably also be great with it! The sweet rose actually helped offset a bit of the tartness from the lime, making it an enjoyably balanced meal.

All in all, a fresh, healthy, quick dinner!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-third Post ~ Salmon en Papillote

Parchment paper... where have you been all my life? If you think I'm being over-dramatic, consider the meal at your left. It went from raw ingredients to steaming hot on my plate in 20 minutes. I'm considering running a series in my blog called "The en Papillote Files" (which, translated from French means, "The In-Paper Files" which actually sounds quite boring in English, which is why I'll be writing it in French). Here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Parchment paper

~ 1 small potato

~ 1/2 lemon

~ White wine

~ Butter

~ Veggie (I used snap peas, because they're lovely)

~ Fresh herb of choice (I used thyme, as it is one of my newfound favorite herbs)

~ Salmon fillet (this one was farm-raised and dye-free, and came to a whopping $3 and change)

~ Salt/Pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Start a pot of salted water boiling. Slice your small potato and boil the slices until tender. Cut lemon in half, and cut two very thin slices off and juice the rest into a prep bowl. Add a good splash of wine. I used some Clean Slate Riesling from Germany.

While your potatoes are boiling, fold a large-ish piece of parchment in half and cut it into a heart, grade-school-style. Open the heart, and place the salmon in one half of it. Place fresh herbs on top with a couple dabs of butter. When the potato slices are pierceable with a fork, lay them on top of the salmon and herbs. Salt and pepper them to taste. Place the two slices of lemon on top. Now here's the part that's key to the whole "en papillote" part: starting at the top of the heart: fold the empty half over the top of the food and make little folds along the edge, sealing the packet. When you get to the V of the heart (the bottom) you'll have a little open "tail." Into this, pour your lemon and wine mixture. Seal the rest up.

Place it on a pan in your oven. Here's the best part: kill 10-12 minutes while your dinner cooks. Feed your dog, check your email, chat on the phone, whatever. In 10-12 minutes, your dinner is DONE, baby. Take the parchment package out of the oven, put it on a plate, and slice an X into the top of the parchment to reveal the goodness inside. Mine looked like this when opened.

So... what wine to drink? I had heard great things (on Food Network and in lots of wine blogs) about Cupcake Vineyards Chardonnay. I learned that its oakiness may be rendered in fact by oak chips in wine aged in stainless steel barrels, so I was a little disheartened. However, it was suggested that it would pair well with salmon, so I gave it a shot, with the nice, dry Clean Slate Riesling on hand as a back-up. The verdict: Riesling. The chard by Cupcake is so oaky, it actually overpowers the salmon. Which is quite a feat, for a white wine. It wasn't a bad pairing, but it definitely downplayed the delicate tastes of the fish (and salmon ain't that delicate, so...). The Riesling, like its name suggests, was clean, crisp, and refreshing.

So what to pair with Cupcake chardonnay? Aged Gouda. I got this 3-year aged Dutch Gouda from Wegmans, and it just sings with the oaky, buttery chardonnay. Consider it dessert after a very satisfying dinner!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirtieth Post ~ Wine Feature: Mas de la Garrigue with Lamb Tenderloin

The wine. And the meal.

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A little over a year ago, I bought a bottle of wine at a retail wine store, and it tasted a bit of cork taint. I took it back to the store and spoke with the manager. He gladly took my bottle back and in compensation, offered me a bottle of one of his favorite reds the store offered: Mas de la Garrigue from Força Réal in Côtes du Roussillon Villages in France. He gave me these words of advice: "Don't drink it with someone who'll say, 'Mm! This tastes like grape juice!' because you'll be sorely let down."

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Taking these words to heart, I tied a checkered red and white ribbon around the bottle and saved it for the appropriate person. This individual would have to appreciate the nuances of a fine vintage. This individual would have to have a discriminating palate. This individual would have to be a bit of a wine snob. This individual would have to be... Meg.

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So we set a date for "French Red Wine Fest," and I set to researching this particular wine and winery. Time on the internet put me in touch with Cyril, the son of the man who bought the Força Réal vineyard in 1989 and who trained at the Chilean winery Villa d’Este and in the Côte-Rôtie. He recommended a grilled red meat with the wine, and a red fruit salad for dessert. He also laid my fears to rest that the wine from this particular year would be fine to drink after its recommended date of three years.

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So here, my friends, is what you'll need for tonight's meal (first the basics, then the details):

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~ A spectacular vintage from Força Réal. Mas de la Garrigue is a blend of Carignan, Grenache Noir and Syrah varietals. I got this one from Colonial Wine and Spirits in Orchard Park.

~ Red meat: I chose lamb tenderloins from Wegmans (naturally)

~ Cheese plate

~ Fruit salad

~ Vegetable

~ Starch

~ Chocolate

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For the starch:

~ Tiny red potatoes

~ Olive oil

~ Salt/Pepper

~ Fresh (or dried) dill

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I got a bag of tiny red potatoes. At Meg's suggestion, I quartered them, salted, peppered, and tossed them with olive oil and fresh dill. Put them in the oven on 425. Stir a few times while you cook everything else.

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For the meat:

~ Lamb tenderloins (one of the only cuts of lamb that actually seems to expand as you cook it, so three per person is ample)

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For the glaze:

~ Cherry preserves

~ White wine (I used some Blanc de blanc from Vieux Papes)

~ Olive oil

~ Marjoram

~ Dried cherries

~ A hint of balsamic vinegar

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Start about a tablespoon or so of olive oil heating in a stick-free pan. Add some white wine. Add a good couple tablespoons of cherry preserves. Pass the jar and a spoon back and forth between you and your sous chef. Add a touch of marjoram and a dash of balsamic and let simmer. Talk about your days at work.

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In a separate pan, brown the lamb tenderloins with a bit of oil. Once the sauce has started to meld, add the lamb. Turn frequently and take out of the sauce just as the juices start running clear. Set the lamb aside and let the sauce cook down while you make the veggie.

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For the veggie:

~ Snap peas

~ Salt/pepper

~ Olive oil

~ Garlic cloves

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Sautee some crushed garlic and olive oil in a pan. Add the snap peas, salt and pepper. Sautee until just tender.

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For the cheese plate and fruit salad (optional, but highly recommended)

~ Vintage gouda (aged 3 years, Holland)

~ Dried cherries

~ Slices crisp, tart apple

~ Dark chocolate (Hershey's pure dark chocolate and pure dark chocolate with cranberries, blueberries and almonds, as per Meg's impeccable taste = perfection)

~ Red fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries for color and sweetness, tossed with some honey)

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The wine. Ahh, the wine.

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We decided to pour part of the bottle into a decanter to let it breathe for a bit while we finished cooking dinner. The first taste was reminiscent of the bright red fruit salad recommended by Cyril: tart, fresh, full-bodied. The finish was sweet and lingering. It paired beautifully with everything we ate this evening: the lamb brought out its Old World earthiness, the fresh herbs highlighted its bright, sweet notes, the carmel-smoothness of the gouda enhanced its crisp "biting into an apple" taste, the red fruit showcased this wine's full-bodied texture and flavor. What a wine. What a meal!

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Over four and a half hours we dined, we chatted, we drank, we dined some more, we discussed; we even watched a chick flick (the video store didn't have our original pick: French Kiss, so we thoroughly enjoyed Under a Tuscan Sun instead!). I've said it before, but it merits repetition. Good food, good wine, good conversation between friends: This is the merry triumvirate on which life can ever turn in its momentum of happiness.

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Yours in the love of all three,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Tenth Post: Salmon that Rests on its Laurels with Garlic Snap Peas

To me, salmon is the king of fish. Sure, your snapper is fresh and light, your tilapia is melt-in-your-mouth delicate, but salmon, well, it's the fish that eats like a sirloin steak.
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I went back and forth for a while with the patient fellow at the Wegman's fish counter over the best deal for the smallest salmon fillet available. Well, the best deal meant a lot of de-boning, and I just wasn't in the market for that this evening. The farm-raised was priced by the cut, so I ended up with a piece of fresh-caught salmon priced per pound. I got probably the tiniest fillet in the display, so the damage was just over $2.50. Not bad for a fish that spent its life gliding through glacial waters off of the shores of Alaska. And I might add that I may be ruined for salmon forever...
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Anyway. I also purchased some fresh rosemary to see if there was that enormous of a difference between fresh and dried. Let's conclude that I shall be purchasing a rosemary plant to befriend my basil one in the near future.
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Here's what you'll need to make tonight's meal:
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~ 1 salmon fillet (Take my advice; go for the best price. It'll always taste better if you know you haven't spent your week's grocery money on one meal)
~ lemon juice
~ salt and pepper to taste
~ olive oil (again, I heart EVOO)
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For the side:
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~ Sugar snap peas (take a couple right out of the bag and eat them raw - they're like the candy of the vegetable world)
~ 2 small garlic cloves
~ salt and pepper to taste
~ olive oil
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About two hours before you're ready to eat, open the package of salmon and tuck two sprigs of rosemary on either side of it, or sprinkle the whole thing with dried rosemary. Now squeeze some lemon juice on it, and add a dash of salt and pepper. Close the package back up, and go learn about the muscles in the face, or whatever else you have to study for the next two hours.
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Before you start cooking, mince your garlic cloves. Mincing, I've discovered, is a little nicer than pressing, and leaves some of the punch of the garlic for your actual mouthful, rather than in the pan.
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Get out one medium and one small pan. Put about 1.5 tablespoons of EVOO in each. Start the larger one heating. When the oil is just starting to release vapours, carefully place the salmon and rosemary (hopefully looking cozily like one unit) into the pan. It'll sizzle happily. When you see it turning opaque about one quarter the way up, turn it carefully (I used two forks). The rosemary may have to be re-tucked along the sides.
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Around this time, turn on the burner under your smaller pan. Place your snap peas in the pan and salt and pepper them to taste. Sautee them for about 3 minutes or so. Add the garlic, toss, and immediately remove from heat.
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Around this time, you'll want to turn your salmon again. This particular cut was tricky because the middle was quite plump, and I didn't want to overcook the outsides while undercooking the middle. I actually turned off the heat before the middle was fully cooked, and the heat of the pan and the fish finished off the middle while I got the snap peas onto my plate and the wine poured. I then transferred the salmon to the plate, keeping the rosemary to add a bit of it here or there to a bite.
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I paired tonight's dinner with a Cabernet Sauvignon from Medoza, Argentina from Bodega Norton vineyards. It was, in my opinion, a perfect pair. The fruitiness and tannic balance of this Argentine Cab served to keep the salmon from ever tasting "fishy" - rather, it gave the whole meal a sense of completeness in softening any harshness in the natural taste of salmon, enhancing the rosemary essence, and providing a strong counterpart to the garlic in the snap peas.
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All in all, a delightful meal. Interestingly enough, the whole meal (sans EVOO, salt/pepper and other seasonings, which can be considered cupboard-staples) ran about $4.00. Add one glass of this wine, which I got in a sale cart at a small, off-the-beaten-path plaza wine shop (you can find some serious gems in the non-franchised stores!), and you're up to $5.00. Try doing that at an upscale seafood restaurant! Plus, I got my salmon cooked just the way I like it!
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Yours in the love of food and wine and their harmonious balance,
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AL
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P.S. And for those of you who aren't ancient Greece and Rome geeks - the title of this post is in reference to the laurel crown given in the past to Greek victors either athletic or poetic. I thought the rosemary on either side of the salmon resembled it, and it seemed fitting for the King of Fish.
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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.