Category: Fish and Seafood

FRIEND FRIDAY GUEST–CORINNE JENSEN!!

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Where should I start with this dear friend?  There are just so many things about her that I love!! Corinne is an amazing mother and grandma,  a true friend through and through, she is a great listener and she gives great advice, she’s one of the most generous, unselfish friends I know. AND I just love hanging out with her. Corinne is my Harmons Cooking School pal and that is always a treat (no pun intended ha :). She is such an amazing cook and could open up a restaurant of her own because she is THAT good :).  Today Corinne is sharing with us one of my favorites–Warm Salmon Salad Nicoise. This one is AMAZING!! I know because my DH and I were invited to eat with them :).

Look at this beautiful family and yes, Corinne is the mom!!! Some of my favs right here :). Soooo here’s Corinne…….

Peggy and I have been to some very fun cooking classes at the Harmons in Santa Clara. Lead by the team of Chef Jackie and Chef Shane, we have a great time learning, cooking and laughing. I highly recommend anyone interested to check these classes out.


One of the recent classes we attended was called summer salads and it has become a house favorite! I am not great at following the exact recipe, I usually shop for the vegetables that look fresh and add them to this version of the salad. So be creative with what your family likes!

WARM SALMON SALAD NICOISE

First off I make my dressing, which I love this dressing the most!

1 clove garlic minced

1 shallot minced

Chives minced

Add 1 part (1/4 cup) of pear champagne vinegar

Add 3 parts (3/4 cup) of grape seed oil

Tsp spicy brown mustard (don’t use frenchs, anything else is fine)

Salt and sugar depending on taste

Add salt and sugar at the very end. You will need a little of both. Add slowly and taste each time you add until you are satisfied. One other trick that really makes this dressing yummy is adding a few drop of truffle oil. But just a very few because it is potent! Blend everything in a food process or Vitamix. Refrigerate as you prepare the salads.


Boil 3-4 Yukon gold potatoes. When tender, set aside to cool slightly. While my potatoes are cooking I prepare my greens. I love to mix flavors of red and green leaf for pretty color. Boil 1 egg per salad. Prepare green beans and asparagus or whatever vegetables you like! I steam these vegetables to al dente. Wash and slice tomatoes into wedges. 3-4 wedges per salad is great. Peel and cut up potatoes and eggs.

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Prepare salmon by adding a little salt and pepper. Heat a pan on the stove or grill until hot! Add olive oil and lay salmon presentation side down first (so the skin is up). Cook 3 minutes or until the salmon no longer sticks to the pan. Turn the heat down to medium and turn for an addition 2 minutes or until it is done to your liking.

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Assemble salads! I like to put greens in the middle. Lay the vegetables around the edges with the salmon.

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Pour the dressing over the salad. Call your favorite friends over and enjoy!

Grilled Lime (Lemon:) Salmon with Avocado-Mango Salsa and Coconut Rice

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Emily’s guest post on Friday had me craving some mango salsa on some salmon and one of my favorite cooking blogs is called cookingclassy.com, so I adapted my recipe from this blog.  It was definitely a keeper!

4 (6 oz) skinless salmon fillets
3 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for grill
2 tsp lime zest (I used lemon because I didn’t have any lime)
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice (again, I used lemon)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cups Water
1 1/4 cups canned coconut milk
1 1/2 cups jasmine rice, rinsed well and drained well
1/2 tsp salt
1 large mango, peeled and diced
3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper, (1/2 large)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup chopped red onion, rinsed under water and drained
1 large avocado, peeled and diced
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice (lemon juice)
1 Tbsp. coconut milk
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the salmon:

In an 11×7-inch baking dish whisk together olive oil, lime zest, lime juice, garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste (a fair amount of each). Place salmon in baking dish, cover and allow to marinate in refrigerator 15 – 30 minutes, then flip salmon to opposite side and allow to marinate 15 – 30 minutes longer. Preheat a grill over medium-high heat during last 10 minutes of marinating.

Brush grill grates with oil or I used my the indoor grill on my panini grill. Place salmon on grill for about 3 minutes per side (I cooked mine about 5 min on my panini grill) or until just cooked through (turn carefully as the salmon will be fragile).  Fish will continue cooking still when pulled off the grill, so I like to slightly undercook.

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For the coconut rice:

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I kept it simple and used my rice cooker, but here is the recipe for the saucepan cooking method:

While salmon is marinating prepare coconut rice. In a medium saucepan bring water, coconut milk, rice and salt to a full boil. Cover and simmer until liquid has been absorbed (there may be just a little bit of excess liquid in center which you can drain off), about 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork, then let rest 5 minutes.

For the avocado-mango salsa:

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While the salmon is grilling prepare salsa. In a medium bowl toss together mango, bell pepper, cilantro, red onion, avocado, lime juice, olive oil and coconut water. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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Serve salmon warm with coconut rice top with avocado mango salsa.

Just a word about my FRIEND FRIDAY GUEST this week……….YOU DEFINITELY DON’T WANT TO MISS IT :).  It’s going to be awesome!

Raspberry Chipotle Salmon with Zoodles

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Salmon is definitely one of my favs and a quick fix when you’re in a hurry and hungry needing to get dinner on, not to mention the health benefits of this rich Omega-3 food :).

Ingredients:

2 Summer Squash, spiralized

2 Zucchini, spiralized (I LOVE this spiralizer from Williams Sonoma)


Salmon (I like to get mine at Costco either the frozen or I cut up the fresh into cutlets)

Trader Joe’s Raspberry Chipotle Sauce

Slivered Almonds, toasted

Kosher Salt

Pepper

1/2-1 C. Parmesan Cheese

2 T Salted Butter

2 T. Butter

2 Cloves Garlic, minced

Directions:

Sprinkle kosher salt and pepper on salmon and let sit while you spiralize the squash and grate the Parmesan cheese. 


Put butter, olive oil or garlic in pan on medium high heat. 


Once butter is melted and garlic is fragrant, put spiralized noodles in the pan. 


Cook squash 7-10 min or until done to your liking. Add Parmesan cheese and toss. Set aside.

Sprinkle more olive oil and butter in another pan on medium high heat. Melt butter and once pan is hot, place salmon in pan and cook covered for 4 min or until cooked side is nice and crisp looking. Turn and cook other side for 3 min until crisp looking. Remove salmon from pan and plate. Drizzle Raspberry Chipotle Sauce on top and sprinkle toasted slivered almonds. 


Enjoy! And FYI my hubby gave this one a TEN!! Wahoo!

Quick and Easy Salmon

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Hey Y’all! I’m still here. I’ve just been busy with welcoming this new little grand daughter into the world and helping with her adorable big brother. Seriously, grand children are the spice of life (no pun intended ha :). 

Isn’t she ADORABLE!!!  We all have so much love for her all ready and are so happy she’s finally here!! She’s perfect and her big brother is just as adorable. 

Now that we have the fun stuff out of the way, let’s move on to my next recipe to share. Lately, I’ve had limited time so I’ve opted for some of the quickest recipes that I can come up with. This idea came from a good friend’s daughter and I thought I would use it for a salmon marinade. It’s super simple–2 ingredient simple! Ready???

3/4 c. Low sodium soy sauce

1/4 c. sugar (you could probably sub part of this with honey if you’re trying to watch your sugar intake)

I like the salmon from Costco but if you live someplace where you can get fresh salmon, that’s best :)! Harmons has great salmon too. 


Mix together and place salmon portions in marinade. I let that sit for a 5-10 min and then I started some quinoa. 


I like cooking my quinoa in chicken broth. It’s so much more tasty! Make sure you rinse the quinoa before cooking it. If you don’t, you will get a bitter flavor and it’s nasty. Want to ask me how I know that? LOL. I just subbed out the chicken broth for the water on the cooking instructions on the package. 


Once the salmon is done marinating for a bit, I put a little olive oil in a pan and cook the salmon. Depending on the thickness of the salmon, the time will vary. I like cooking the first side around 4 min until it’s looking nice and brown. You could also grill it or some times I use my panini maker to cook it. Turn the salmon and cook the other side to your liking, just make sure you don’t get it too done. It gets dry and isn’t as good. I cooked mine for another 4 minutes and then I had one piece that was a bit more thick so I had to leave that one on for a minute longer. 

Enjoy!!

Also, tomorrow is my Friend Friday guest post that you won’t want to miss!! AND how many of you have tried Christina’s Overnight Oats recipe? It’s turned out to be my morning favorite. I now have it every morning for breakfast– it’s like having a breakfast treat!! My new fav! 

If any of you have a favorite recipe to share, I would love to have you as a guest for my Friend Friday post.  Please email me at itsapegslife@gmail.com. I would love it!!

Hugs to all!