Sunday, July 31, 2011

Wild and Crazy Salmon!

The clock is ticking on a lot of the items in the fridge. While most things are in pretty good shape I've been eying the cucumbers and green onions with a good deal of attention over the past week. The vegetables bave been in the fridge for a while now and the time for our attack has come!

Basmati Rice with Green Onion Pesto


I started by making a pesto using the remaining green onions, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I combined it with some cooked basmati rice and a little butter.

Summer Zucchini Cakes


The remaining farm zucchini got shredded and combined with panko, egg, diced farm red onion, farm parsley, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, diced mozzarella, salt, pepper, and Old Bay seasoning. I squeezed out the excess moisture from the zucchini before combining this all together and pan frying.

Pan Roasted Wild Coho Salmon with Cucumber Yogurt Dill Sauce


There was a nice piece of wild salmon in the fridge. That sounds like I don't know how it got there but I'm pretty sure it's the same salmon I bought on Friday night. While I'm not a huge fan of wild salmon I got this one because it was on sale and, it turns out, it was pretty good. I made a sauce for the salmon using yogurt, dill, cucumber, salt, pepper, and sherry vinegar.

Cavalry Brewing Marauder IPA


For beer I opened a bottle of Marauder IPA Cavalry Brewing. IPAs happen to be one of my least favorite types of beer but I do like supporting Cavalry as they are small and close by. This beer ended up being much darker than I'd expected and at 40 IBUs it was far less bitter as well. While most IPAs tend to be closer to 70 or even 100 IBUs this one was like an IPA with training wheels. This means I liked it more than most IPAs but I'm not sure how IPA fans would feel about it.

Cherry Ice Cream


For dessert we had this cherry ice cream that I made the other day. It made good use of a bag of hastily purchased cherries which had been in the fridge for nearly two weeks without being used. I also made a quick chocolate sauce which I poured over the top before we ate it.

Broken Immersion Blender


An unfortunate thing happened when I made the ice cream in that our immersion blender began making a super loud noise then actually fell apart as I blended the ice cream mixture. Luckily no pieces of metal or plastic fell into the ice cream though. At least none that we ate this evening. Perhaps there will be deadly metal or plastic fragments that will turn up later and cause us huge dental bills, thus becoming one of the most expensive bowls of ice cream in the world.

Well, the most expensive ice cream might still be reserved for that stupid ice cream with the gold leaf that always wins top billing in one of those stupid "10 Most Expensive Restaurant Meals Ever" lists in some dumb magazine.

What's the point? Might as well just make a fish en papillote using $100 bills.

10 comments:

Sandy said...

The same thing happened to my immersion blender. But I wasn't making ice cream at the time.

Unknown said...

What brand did you have? If it's the same as mine I may have to swear off that brand.

uberlours said...

Are you saying that you prefer farm raised salmon?

Unknown said...

That is exactly what I am saying.

uberlours said...

Why am I not surprised.

Unknown said...

C'mon, Gary "Beat Around the Bush" Ernst. Enough with the passive aggressive comments. Tell me what's on your mind.

uberlours said...

A fellow that enjoys fruity beers would obviousluy prefer a farm raised fish whose flesh has been dyed a pinkish color so that people don't gag when they see it.

Unknown said...

Ahhhh. I see your angle now. I would think that you would be against wild salmon given that it has so much less fat and is more expensive than farm raised salmon.

Actually wild salmon (particularly from Alaska) has color added to it after it is caught. Farm raised salmon isn't dyed (at least from reputable farms) but rather fed food containing beta carotene to derive their pinkish color.

All salmon is naturally grey if not consuming beta carotene.

Farm raised salmon, in my opinion, is more flavorful given the higher fat content. While I like wild salmon I prefer farm raised because wild is often previously frozen and a little too lean for my tastes.

uberlours said...

Not so sure about your comment on color being added to Pacific salmon. Been fishing there more than a couple of times and can't say that any of the fish I have returned home with were deficient in color to the point of requiring enhancement.

Unknown said...

Not too much in Pacific but in Alaskan wild salmon sometimes. Depends on their diet in the area. Reputable farms do not add color to the fish but rather feed the fish food which contains more beta carotene so their color will more closely match most wild salmon.

Some wild salmon is pretty good I just usually find it to be less fatty. Much healthier though, assuming they didn't swim through any toxic areas.