MIM: Magic Salmon

Tonight's meal was pretty darn simple. I've had a fear lately of cooking fish. I love fish. But I don't know how to cook it. Rather, it scares me to cook it because I love it so much and don't want to ruin it for myself by cooking it poorly. Then I read on the Pioneer Woman's blog about a foolproof recipe recently for salmon. Having had some wild salmon on hand in my freezer, it was worth a shot right? First I needed a side dish though. Enter: Super Simple Zucchini Mushroom Orzo.

Basically dice up some zucchini and saute it in 1 Tbsp Butter/1 Tbsp olive oil with 1 package of mushrooms for ~5 minutes. You can throw in some shallot if you're feeling fancy like me. Add some cooked orzo, stir in some pesto, and you're good to go. Side note: For at least 4 days after eating this meal, I kept complaining to my husband that my mouth tasted like I'd been eating metal. I attributed it to starting a new medication. Turns out however, that some people have documented reactions to pine nuts! I didn't even think about it because I've had plenty of pine nuts in my pesto in the past, but I think this was a different batch, or old or something? Anyway, lesson learned, pine nuts are now kept in the freezer, and I'll know the problem if I feel like I've been licking nickles in the future.

Now that side dish was done, onto the salmon. First I thawed the salmon in the sink with cold running water. While doing that, I made a glaze out of lemon & lime juices, fresh parsley, butter, and a little bit of brown sugar. Once the fish was thawed, I just smack some of that glaze on each size. Then through the wonder of silpats and my oven, magic occurred. I put the thawed salmon filets on a silpat/cookie sheet, and set the cold pan into the oven. Yep, into the COLD oven. Then you turn the heat onto to 400 degrees, set the timer for 25 minutes, and walk the hell away. 25 minutes later? Insta-salmon. I swear to you, I was sooo skeptical about this. How in the world could it possibly work? What if the salmon was too thick? What if the oven wasn't getting hot enough for long enough? All my fears aside, it totally did work. And it was good. I'm excited to have a new foolproof method! Not as fantastic as some sauteed and oven finished salmons I've had in restaurants, but it'll do for the average cook in a hurry.

Salmon: Swim into my belly