Smoked Salmon Potato Salad

I've been on a real potato salad kick this summer! Last weekend, I attended a salad baby shower and decided to make a smoked salmon potato salad because 1. It was the single opportunity I've had in years where there would be fish eaters there and 2. I recently had a similar salad at the restaurant Lemonade and was interested in recreating it.  I think mine was better!  I adapted the recipe from Serious Eats and basically tried to recreate all the great things of bagels & lox but with potato salad.  I think I did a pretty good job and so did the guests! I got multiple requests for the recipe!!

I didn't take any pictures though :(

Smoked Salmon Potato Salad

Ingredients

2+lbs new or fingerling potatoes, cut into large chunks (the recipe calls for 2lbs but I'm sure I used more because that was a lot of potato salad)

16oz sour cream

juice of one lemon

2 3.5oz packages of lox-style smoked salmon, sliced into strips

1 bunch of dill, removed from stems

1 bunch of tarragon, chopped

salt & pepper

1 red onion, chopped

1-2 T white or apple cider vinegar

capers, optional

1. Put the potatoes in cold water and bring to a boil. Boil 10 min or until tender. Drain and place potatoes in a bowl. Immediately douse them in the vinegar.

2. Mix sour cream, lemon juice, herbs and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl.

3. When potatoes are cooled slightly or room temperature, toss them, the lox and the onions, the capers (if using) in the sour cream mixture

4. Keeps in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Smoked Trout Salad with Citrus Dressing

A few weeks ago, I sent my mom a recipe from Food & Wine magazine about a salad with smoked trout, citrus and a horseradish dressing. She made it and they loved it. Then she brought me an extra piece of smoked trout.  Of course, I had none of the ingredients to make the famed salad, so I made a variation, and it was delicious.

If you've never had smoked trout before, think of smoked salmon - the flaked kind not the lox kind but smokier.  It's delicious, buy some. I made enough salad for one person.


Ingredients
3 oz smoked trout filet, flaked
2 blood oranges
1 avocado, diced
3 Cups spicy spinach/arugula salad mix (or arugula)
1 T brown sugar
olive oil
salt
1/2  lemon

Directions
1. Over a small bowl to catch the juices, segment the blood oranges
2. Sprinkle salt over the avocado
3. Toss the avocado, trout, lettuce and blood orange segments in a serving bowl
4. Add the brown sugar, juice of half a lemon to the blood orange juice.  Whisk in oil until the right oil-->acid ratio begins to emulsify
5. Toss dressing with the salad and serve immediately.

This salad was beautiful but because I consumed it during a meeting at the office, I failed to take any pictures.  Nobody complained of a fish smell while eating and I was satisfied for the remainder of the day without a snack before dinner.

Salad Shrimp Red Curry

Tonight I was cooking for myself and I wanted something delicious and different. I decided to make curry when I was in the store and gathered together the ingredients. One of my downfalls is that I can never remember what I have at home in the pantry and tend to buy some ingredients over and over again. Such as coconut milk. I thought I had some but was so unsure I couldn't risk it.  I had some. Conveniently  the kind I bought had the curry recipe on the back!

This is pretty much the fastest meal you can make. It takes 10 minutes and you can cut down on any "prep" work if you have to by using frozen vegetables and ready to eat rice. It says this serves four, and that's probably about right if you aren't starving.




1 package Uncle Ben's Jasmine Microwavable readu rice (2 packages for 4 people)
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly lengthwise and then cut in half
1/2 C sugar snap peas
1 can lite coconut milk
1 T brown sugar
2 T red curry paste
1lb cooked salad shrimp (and shelled if the shells are on)
2 T fish sauce (or I think you could easily use the same amount of soy sauce)
4 basil leaves (optional)

1. In a large skillet or walk bring the coconut milk to a simmer over medium heat
2. Add curry paste and brown sugar and stir. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes
3. Add vegetables and cook 3 minutes
4. Microwave the rice for 90 seconds (or read the directions) and at the same time add the shrimp to the curry.  The shrimp is already cooked so you are just warming it
5. Add fish sauce & basil, stir
6. Serve the curry over rice

A Dinner Party - Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon

This evening, I held a dinner party for 12. It was fun to have so many friends over to share a meal and chat. This dinner was loosely themed around the food featured in the book Snow Falling On Cedars. If you haven't read it, don't bother.  This book takes place in the Pacific Northwest in a fishing village that is also filled with strawberry farmers.  The main character is Japanese. With the help of my friends, we decided to make a Japanese and Strawberry inspired feast.

Because there were 12 people around I did not take any pictures (oh but look! Someone else did), instead I will do a series called "A Dinner Party" for each piece of the meal.

Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon

I've cooked fish at home maybe twice ever. Joey does NOT eat fish. He doesn't like the smell the look the presence at all. As a result, I keep it out of the house and eat it at lunch. I also generally prefer my fish in shells or raw (or both, oysters!) so I've never really made salmon before.However, I bought a large filet at Costco, and read that the easiest way to cook it was on cedar planks. I chose this method because otherwise you have to well-oil your grill (I am notorious for getting food stuck or falling into the grill) and then flipping the fish is hard and you are supposed to leave the skin on and my fish came without skin. To make cedar plank salmon do this:

Ingredients
Serves 9-12
2 Cedar Planks
2 1/2 lbs salmon filet (costco!)
juice of one lemon
2 T olive oil
salt

Go to the grocery store and look for cedar planks somewhere near the charcoal section. I found two for about $3. You can reuse your planks at least 2-3 times before retiring them unless you set them on fire...

At least 2 hours before dinner, start soaking the cedar planks submerged in water. If you choose the weigh them down with a can of tomatoes for instance, be sure to note that they will leave a mark on the wood. Choose something heavy that isn't metal if that bothers you.

Heat the Gas grill (okay you can use whatever kind, but you need to have a cool side of the grill). You want the grill to be about 350 when cooking.

Place the fish on the wet planks. Sprinkle with salt.  Place the planks on indirect heat (I turned off two burners and left on one to get this effect). Occasionally brush with olive oil and lemon juice to keep the fish moist

Keep the lid closed as much as you can and cook about 20 minutes until fish is opaque and flaky. Taste a little and see if it is right for you around 20 minutes--this all depends on the thickness of your filet.

Pacific Snapper over Spinach

Have you heard about Jessica Seinfeld? Jessica is Jerry's wife, it's true, but she is also a cook and cookbook author. I have one of her books--but while the meals are healthy, they can also be time consuming because most of them are filled with pureed vegetables. I thought it was the perfect book for cooking for Joey--a way to sneak in veggies. But I never used it because I felt bad about the sneaking part...and plus I don't have the time to peel, cut and puree all my vegetables.

Recently, Jessica published her second book. And, at the same time she taught one of her family friends how to cook. She taught her friend how to cook through a series of videos. But most importantly, she gave her friend family meal ideas that are quick, easy and healthy. The great thing about the videos is that she actually measures things showing you a healthy way to have some fats and salts too. On the food network, the chefs tell you how much to measure but then they don't do it. As a result I often don't measure things like olive oil or salt either. But I did this time, and it makes me feel better.

So today, my husband wasn't home for dinner. Normally when he isn't home for dinner, I rush out for Thai cuisine or sushi. Sometimes I just have leftovers or a chicken leg. But this time, I was going to the store anyway just before dinner, so I decided to whip up something fast, healthy and delicious. I recalled this recipe Jessica Seinfeld posted on her new website for baked halibut. My husband doesn't eat fish, so it was a perfect opportunity to try it!

I ran into a snag. The market didn't have halibut. I spoke with the fishmonger and decided on Pacific Snapper. It may come as a surprise to you, but while I LOVE sushi, I am rather uninformed on cooked fish--I never much liked fried fish and would prefer to eat fish raw--but I thought I'd try this. My dinner cost $7. It was fantastic. I followed the directions exactly from Jessica's video & website except that I cut it in half and used Pacific Snapper instead of halibut.

Next time I won't cut the spinach in half. I wanted more spinach. Next time I might try another fish. Maybe halibut. I want more of this delicious fish. Make this.

Did I mention this dish took 10 minutes from start to finish? $7. 10 minutes. Totally worth it.