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

Broiled Salmon

We had the opportunity to visit with some friends at the Oregon coast over the weekend where we had a wonderful time sharing good food, conversation, and adventures.  The weather cooperated by only raining at night.  Sunday the temperature was about 65 degrees on the beach with sunshine and no wind – Amazing!

One night I made dinner consisting of: Love Your Wife Chicken, brown rice, and salad (my wife made the salad).  We finished our meal with wonderful slices of Flourless Chocolate Cake topped with whipped cream.



The second night our friends made dinner consisting of broiled wild salmon (no color added) marinated in soy sauce.  The salmon was placed in a baking dish with about a quarter cup of soy sauce and left to marinate for about five minutes on each side.  The marinade gave the salmon meat a nice dark color and added seasoning without making it too salty.

Once the salmon was marinated, it was placed on a piece of foil then on a pan and into the oven on broil.  The salmon fillets were broiled for about four minutes on each side until the fish became opaque.

They also prepared a whole grain rice medley consisting of: CalMati Brown Rice, Wild Rice, Sweet Born Rice, and Heirloom Red Rice.  Freshly steamed broccoli completed the dinner.

While the fish was cooking, our friends peeled and sliced five granny smith apples and mixed the topping for an apple crisp.  The apple crisp was made gluten-free and I wanted to see how that was different from the recipe in my How To Cook Everything cookbook.  I found the recipes were almost identical, the HTCE cookbook called for 1/2-cup of flour to be added to the topping mix and to cook at 25 degrees higher temperature.

Once the salmon was finished cooking the apple crisp went into the oven to bake for an forty-five minutes and we sat down to a wonderful dinner of broiled wild salmon, rice, and broccoli.  The salmon fillets were perfectly cooked and the soy sauce provided a wonderful seasoning to the meat.  We enjoyed our dinner with a bottle of pinot grigio and then we sat and talked until the apple crisp was cooked.

Before dinner we made a trip to the store to get some vanilla ice cream and we each had a quarter of the apple crisp topped with ice cream.  It was excellent, the apples were very tender, and the topping was crisp and crunchy.  The little bit of flour was not missed at all.

Gluten-free Apple Crisp

• 4-cups thinly sliced apples (~5-6 Granny Smith's) as many as can comfortably fit in the baking dish
• 1-Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1-cup gluten-free oatmeal
• 1/2-cup brown sugar
• 1/2-teaspoon salt
• 1-teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3-cup melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix the apple pieces with lemon juice and place the apple mixture into a greased 9x9 baking dish or glass pie pan.
3. Combine dry ingredients and then add melted butter.  Mix until crumbly and sprinkle on top of apples. 
4. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes (or 15-30 minutes longer to get a very gooey apple texture).
5. Top with ice cream or whipped topping

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell