Low and Slow in the Kitchen

With the sweltering heat that DC’s been melting under, there isn’t much incentive to turning on the oven, but I promise, this recipe will make it worth it!  And you can cook a whole large fillet at a time and have plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day.  Add a farro, wheat berry or similar salad as a side, top with tzatziki sauce got a light and protein-filled dinner without too much effort!

Slow Roasted Salmon with Tomatoes and Herbs

• 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1/2 bunch dill fronds
• 1/2 bunch thyme sprigs
• 1 3-pound piece center-cut skin-on salmon or steelhead trout fillet, pin bones removed
• Sea salt
• 8 ounces small cherry tomatoes on the vine

Preheat oven to 325°. Pour 4 Tbsp. oil in a roasting pan just large enough to fit the salmon. Make a bed of herbs in bottom of pan; top with salmon, skin side down. Drizzle salmon with remaining 2 Tbsp. oil and season with salt. Top with tomatoes, if using. Bake until salmon is just cooked through in the center (a small knife will slide easily through flesh), 25–30 minutes.  Use a large spoon or fork to serve salmon, leaving skin in pan. Serve with yogurt sauce and couscous.

The original recipe, with sauce and salad can be found on Bon Appetit here.

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Kid’s Kitchen

My friend and budding young chef, Charlie, emailed me the recipe for a delicious dinner he made for his family last week.  He loves to help in the kitchen and is a great baker, though this time, he took to the grill – it sure does start early in men!

And while we’re on the topic of young eaters, Nancy Tringali Piho will be signing copies of her new book, “My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus” at Citronelle on February 10th.  Her book’s a funny, serious and clever approach to introducing children to the foods adults eat, it offers sound nutrition, and draws on direct research with chefs and other food and health professionals. Click here for more info.

Here’s his recipe for Grilled Salmon

Ingredients:
2 pounds of salmon filet
Dried dill weed
Dried thyme
Fresh lemon/lime
Salt, pepper

In Print: Clips from Food Sections

5. – The Chicago Tribune Peach Classics Reinvented “This is a modern peach Melba: softer, less composed, easy to prepare and just as good to eat. Low-fat frozen yogurt takes the place of high-calorie ice cream.”

4. – The Boston Globe The Kitchen is Closed “a drove of local restaurants have closed their doors in the past year. The cause was quickly pronounced: the economy. Individuals have less money to spend, and corporations aren’t wining and dining like they used to.”

3. – The LA Times The Pioneer Woman, an Internet and Publishing Sensation “Ree Drummond likes to call herself an accidental country girl and she considers herself something of an accidental cook. But there’s nothing accidental about the success she’s built combining those two.”

2. – The NY Times E-Kitchens can get crowded “As the digital age seeps into the kitchen, it’s time to reconsider whether too many cooks spoil the broth.”

1. – The Washington Post No Longer an Underground Sport “But she soon realized that the soul of Scandinavian cooking was not to be found in restaurants and cafes. She started learning about local food from Norwegian neighbors and friends; she found the right place to shop for fish; she went fishing; she started to experiment with traditional recipes.”

photo from The LA Times

Asparagus-Stuffed Salmon

With such a beautiful presentation, what’s not to love about the combination of salmon and asparagus. The idea comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, Michel Richard’s “Happy in the Kitchen” If you can get your hands on King Salmon or another one of the fattier varieties of salmon, you’ll yield the best results. The asparagus helps to keep the salmon moist as it cooks and the shared flavors are delicious! This is a great brunch entree as it’s great served at room temperature and could be baked ahead of time.

Asparagus-Stuffed Salmon with Green Goddess Dressing

For the salmon:
2 lbs of asparagus spears, cleaned and blanched
sea salt to taste
pepper to taste
olive oil
1 1/2 lbs of center cut salmon filet (I prefer King Salmon)

For the dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup fresh parsley
1 scallion
1 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves
1 tsp white-wine vinegar
1 garlic clove
2 anchovy fillets

In Print on Wednesday: What the Rest of the Food World is Talking About

5. – The Boston Globe A Portion of the Proceeds “Every week this column explores the restaurants of Boston and beyond, and every week in writing it I’m reminded how lucky we are to have such a varied, vibrant dining scene. These days I’m reminded all the more. In the past weeks and months, we’ve seen the prices of wheat, rice, and other staples skyrocket worldwide, pushing an estimated 100 million people deeper into poverty.”

4. – The Chicago Sun Rhubarb Loves Company, Especially Sherry ‘‘ “My love for rhubarb has followed me throughout my career. It is an elegant fruit with great flavor. It is wonderful in jams and compotes as a complement to pates and terrines, which we make here at the Ritz. When I am not able to cross the pond for my mother’s rhubarb trifle, I make this recipe — and I always remember not to be stingy with the sherry.” ‘

3. – NY Times The Next Best Thing in Sliced Bread “A great New York sandwich is large; it contains multitudes. And new contenders are turning up all the time to challenge the mighty meatball parm and the elegant B.L.T. Whether invented, imported, or refined here — whether discovered in the boroughs or farther afield — the seven sandwiches here move the dialogue forward.”

2. – Washington Post Space Invaders “In a way, the pantry problem is a reflection of our frenetic food culture. Thousands of cookbooks are published each year, providing ambitious kitchen warriors with recipes for Laotian beef salad, Italian grape and hazelnut tart, and the like. Americans also eat out more than ever and, with the help of the Internet, they can try to re-create restaurant dishes at home. If it’s Tuesday, it’s Belgian mussels. The catch: What do you do with the rest of the sour Flemish ale?”

1. – Dallas Morning News Salmon Shortage Raises Prices “Several factors have converged to produce the current situation. Start with the high price of diesel fuel, now more than $4 a gallon, which runs all those fishing boat engines. Add the mysterious calamity in California and Oregon: No one knows why there are dramatically fewer fish this year, but both areas are closed to salmon fishing right now.”