The other day, DH and I went for our usual grocery shopping jaunt. First to the farmer's market (where we were very excited to learn fresh lamb would soon be available) then to the supermarket to pick up the rest of our needs, and items not available at our Farmer's Market.While at the grocery store, we picked up a nifty little find - thin sheets of maple, with twine, ready to be soaked and used for fish on a grill or in the oven. We (given the blazing / humid temperature outside) chose the grill. The packet with the wood listed a recommended recipe, so we decided to follow that rather loosely. We could've let the salmon marinate a bit longer if we had bothered to start it early enough. The wood however, soaked longer than the 20 minutes in a nice combination of water and chardonnay. :p
The fish laid skin-side down & we layered a little thyme & tarragon and we tied it nice and cute. :)
Patrick decided that with it we would have roasted (in this case, grilled) anise with blue cheese. I decided I wanted a carrot slaw, to which I added some zucchini. Something about a nice, acidic salad on a really hot day... I don't know what made me want a carrot slaw - I was thinking coleslaw in all honesty, but I really am not too keen on cabbage which means we didn't have any around. So it was just carrots & zucchini with a sauce that consisted of dijon, some reeeeeeeally lip-smackin' good local honey, vinegar, lemon juice, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, olive oil & sesame oil. Yum.
The rest was a garden salad consisting of greens picked off the balcony that we grew ourselves. I get such a feeling of pride going out there, picking fresh herbs, picking lettuce, picking mustard greens... I faithfully water all our plants in the morning before the sun gets too hot. And we have this fluffy pot of leaf lettuce that just won't end! I can only imagine the things we could grow and will grow when we get a house.
In the end, dinner was fab! And it was cooked outside... which was good because we were poaching as it was inside the apartment!
2 comments:
Your anise with blue cheese got me craving. I had the anise / fennel but no blue cheese so I just made a caramelized fennel tart instead. It was tasty but did nothing to scratch my blue cheese itch.
Alas, I am allergic to salmon and am restricted to merely reading about your salmon dishes. I'm not sure how more delicate flavoured fish (cod, haddock, perch, etc) would hold up to the maple smoke flavour. Any thoughts? :)
Oh Helly! You can certainly use a different fish! I liked the maple with the salmon but we also have some white fish of some variety in the freezer. I had originally intended for us to use that until I realised that Patrick picked up the salmon. The maple left a subtle flavour. It wasn't like eating a piece of fish and then licking a tree. It was nicely infused, and I think would go well with just about any fish.
I guess it'd depend on the wood you use. I wouldn't go with something like hickory with a white fish. Maple however, is just... enough. :) Apple would probably be good too. Must see if we can find some of that. Maybe they're with the cedar planks...?
Post a Comment