Broiled Salmon – Take Two

For dinner last night, we decided to change our normal chicken and beef routine and have some salmon.  On a recent trip to Costco for other food items, I purchased a bag of frozen wild Alaskan salmon (no added color from feed that’s bad for you).

I started by placing two cups of brown rice in our rice cooker with three cups of water and turning it on.  I thawed out four pieces of the salmon in cold water for about twenty minutes, and then placed them in a gallon Ziploc bag.  Into the bag of salmon, I added about a tablespoon of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, which is a gluten free – low sodium replacement for soy sauce. 

I planned to serve lightly steamed asparagus, so I got out a bundle of very small and tender asparagus and I washed and trimmed the shoots.  When I was eleven years old, we lived in a suburb to the east of Yakima Washington, where we would walk about two blocks to a field where the asparagus grew wild.  We would cut as much as we wanted and take it home for dinner.  Now I have trouble growing one small plant in my back yard.

I turned on the oven to broil at 550 degrees and then after about five minutes, I removed the fish from the marinade and placed them skin side down in a broiler pan.  I placed the fish into the oven to broil for four minutes on each side.  While the fish was cooking, I turned on the pan for the asparagus, washed, and sliced some tomatoes for color.  When I turned the fish, I turned the broil setting down to 450 degrees as the salmon was cooking a little too fast.

After the eight minutes the fish was perfectly cooked; I broke one piece open to see that it was flakey and cooked all the way through.  I turned the salmon so it was again skin side down and quickly grated some parmesan cheese on the pieces.  The salmon want back into the oven and I watched as the cheese melted and slightly browned before I removed the salmon from the oven.

I served the salmon, rice, tomato, and asparagus.  For fun, I also grated some parmesan cheese on top of the asparagus to see how it would turn out.  We enjoyed our dinner, I found that most of the melted parmesan cheese came off the fish in the first bite like a spider’s web, but I was able to spread most of it back over the salmon.  The salmon had a nice flavor with a hint of the soy and salt from the Bragg’s liquid.  I didn’t think the parmesan cheese did much for the asparagus, but also did not distract from the taste.

I’m hoping for some better weather so I can take some of the recipes to the BBQ and write about some outdoor grilling, but I continue to watch the sun/rain/hail/wind/sun/rain as it hourly sweeps by our house while I hope for nice weather.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell