Recipe: Salmon with New Potatoes, Spinach, and Cider Cream

Salmon with New Potatoes, Spinach, and Cider Cream

Food & Wine Magazine, Mar 2025, p 86
4.9 stars

Really nice dish! Restaurant-worthy, but lots of notes below.

Ingredients: salmon fillets, spinach, baby new potatoes, hard apple cider, heavy whipping cream, canola oil, unsalted butter, Kosher salt

Tips/Notes:

• Used apple lemon ginger juice instead of hard apple cider
• Made half of the heavy whipping cream/cider sauce since we didn't make 4 salmon fillets
• Spinach wilts! Used 5x and would probably make even more spinach next time
• Make sure to cook the spinach separately as the water from the spinach thins the sauce -- so cook separately and then add to the sauce
• Didn't bake the salmon -- cooked it on the stove

Recipe: Chicken Salad with Haricots Verts

Chicken Salad with Haricots Verts

Bon Appetit Magazine, May 2014, p. 102
4.9 stars

I love salads that have potatoes and green beans in them -- this hit the spot and is definitely a restaurant-worthy $28 salad. Note that we used salmon instead of chicken. I may not need to order this in a restaurant anymore!

Ingredients based on our recipe: salmon, mixed greens, potatoes, haricots verts, radish, shallot, garlic, Sherry vinegar, Dijon mustard, thyme, sugar, olive oil, black pepper

Recipe: Roast Salmon with Sweet Chipotle Glaze and Hominy Puree

Roast Salmon with Sweet Chipotle Glaze and Hominy Puree

Bon Appetit Magazine, Apr 2011, p. 25

4.9 stars

I loved this meal so much -- restaurant worthy!

Note: You have to be in the mood for salmon that's like this where the glaze is the prominent flavor.

I would make this dish with our normal butter, lemon, thyme salmon as the hominy puree was YUMMY!!!

Ingredients: salmon, hominy, chipotle chiles, apricot jam or preserves, cilantro, red wine vinegar, ground cumin, vegetable oil spray, butter

Tips/Notes:

• Didn't have apricot jam so used orange whisky jam that we had on hand
• Served this with steamed broccoli and Parmesan bread

Recipe: Chipotle-Shrimp Tacos with Fennel and Beans

Chipotle-Shrimp Tacos with Fennel and Beans

Martha Stewart Living, Jun 2021, p. 102
4.8 stars

Reading the ingredients, I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out -- it was delicious! An easy weeknight meal. The longest part of prep is shelling (and deveining) the shrimp. We served this with black beans and rice.

Ingredients: tortillas, shrimp, pinto beans, fennel, chipotle in adobo, cilantro, garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, lime, vegetable oil, Kosher salt, pepper

Tips:

• Didn't grill -- sauteed them in a pan
• Make sure to buy sour cream as that would have made it amazing!

Recipe: Salmon-Shiitake Rice Bowls

Salmon-Shiitake Rice Bowls

Martha Stewart Living, June 2021

5 stars

I've been so impressed with the recipes in Martha Stewart Living magazine -- they definitely test their recipes, and there has rarely been a recipe we've tried from the magazine that we didn't like.

This one is restaurant-worthy. One of the best salmon recipes... and overall meals we've made!

Ingredients: jasmine rice, salmon fillets, English cucumber, shiitake mushrooms, frozen peas, white or yellow miso paste, honey, unseasoned rice vinegar, unsalted butter, Kosher salt, pepper

Recipe: Crispy Oven-Baked-Fish Wraps

Crispy Oven-Baked-Fish Wraps

Martha Stewart Living, Apr 2021

5 stars

I wish I had this recipe earlier during Lent. I was craving fish tacos but no one in town seems to make a GREAT one! We tried TJ's Seafood fish tacos a few weeks ago, and it was horrible, probably the worst I've ever had. (No seasoning, thick awful breading.) 

This recipe is so good that we made it last Friday and the Friday before -- and it's SIMPLE!!! Flavorful. Restaurant-worthy.

Ingredients: flour tortillas, cod or halibut fillets, panko, mayonnaise, coleslaw mix, small green apple, distilled white vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt, pepper, herbs such as cilantro and dill, lime wedges

Tips

• Used cod
• Substituted apple cider vinegar for the distilled white vinegar
• Had cabbage from another dish and red apples so used those
• Made fries in our Instant Pot air fryer

Slow-baked Salmon with Lemon and Thyme

Slow-baked Salmon with Lemon and Thyme

Bon Appetit Magazine, May 2011, p. 50

5 stars

Usually, we cook salmon on the stovetop (we've occasionally baked it in the past but not often); however, this recipe has changed our mind and we'll be baking salmon from here on out! Follow this recipe if you want amazingly moist, flaky, perfectly cooked salmon. The secret is to bake it on a low temperature (275 degrees).

Ingredients: salmon, extra-virgin olive oil, thyme, lemon zest, Kosher salt, pepper, lemon wedges for serving

Recipe: Seared Salmon with Miso-Honey Sauce

Seared Salmon with Miso-Honey Sauce
Bon Appetit Magazine, May 2019, p. 22
5 stars

Delicious easy weekday meal. Could make less miso sauce but ended up using it on the steamed broccoli we made (plus our leftover broccoli).

Ingredients: salmon, rice, ginger, scallions, white miso, honey, unseasoned rice vinegar, sesame seeds, vegetable oil, Kosher salt

Recipe: Pan-Seared Scallops with Chorizo and Corn

Pan-Seared Scallops with Chorizo and Corn
Bon Appetit Magazine, Sep 2018, p.44
5 stars

We made another delicious restaurant-worthy dish that I could see South Carolina Chef Sean Brock or Texas Chef Stephen Pyles making. It's surprisingly a relatively "quick" dish to make!

We had made this before, but bought chorizo that was too oily and that fell apart last time so I hadn't taken a photo or blogged about it. This time, the dish was perfect. When making this dish, make sure to use fresh corn, not frozen.

Ingredients: large sea scallops, corn, smoked Spanish chorizo, scallions, cilantro, garlic, serrano, buttermilk, butter, lime, extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt

Tips:

• Halved the amount of garlic (afraid it was going to overpower the dish)
• Used about half the amount of scallions
• Served gruyere bread on the side

Recipe: Salmon with Citrus-Chile Sauce

Salmon with Citrus-Chile Sauce
Bon Appetit Magazine, Nov 2019, p. 22
5 stars

Easy weeknight meal!
LOVED the flavor of the sauce -- delish.

[Once we make this again, I need to come come back and post more info as I'm writing this post a couple of weeks after making it and can't remember exactly what we thought!]

Ingredients:  salmon, broccolini, endive, grapefruit juice, grapefruit zest, jalapenos, unseasoned rice vinegar, garlic, honey, extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt, sesame seeds

Tips:

• Added some grapefruit zest (not as much as what the recipe called for).
• Didn't think the endive was necessary.
• Left out the sesame seeds.
• Had a bit of sauce left over so might make a tad less next time.
• Great with panko/togarashi crusted tofu on the side.

Recipe: Pan-Fried Shrimp with Lemony Pea Pesto

Pan-Fried Shrimp with Lemony Pea Pesto
Food and Wine Magazine, Apr 2015, p. 122
4 stars

A pesto made with peas!  This was surprisingly delicious (I was a bit skeptical on how this would turn out).  We used the small frozen peas from Trader Joe's which made for a pesto that had a bit of sweetness to it.  This is an easy weeknight meal that you can whip up in 30 min.

Pesto ingredients:  pine nuts, peas, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, Kosher salt, pepper

Other ingredients:  shrimp, baby arugula, olive oil, lemon juice, salt pepper

Tips:

• Added red pepper when cooking the shrimp
• Topped the arugula with cheese

Recipe: Salt-and-Pepper Shrimp

Salt-and-Pepper Shrimp
Bon Appetit, p. 50, Dec 2014
5 stars

This dish reminded me of my childhood -- going to the authentic Chinese restaurants in Chinatown and ordering the shrimp that was so flavorful but wishing that they didn't have shells (I didn't like having to suck the flavor out of the shells and peel the shrimp at the table).

This recipe calls for shell-on shrimp, but we unshelled (de-shelled?) them.

Ingredients include:  shrimp, Sichuan peppercorns (ground), cilantro, Fresno chile, cornstarch, vegetable oil, Kosher salt, pepper

This is a FAST recipe to make and again, has so much flavor.

Tips:

• We used a jalapeno since we couldn't find a Fresno chile.
• Even though this was a spicy dish because of the Sichuan peppercorns, it needed another red spice like paprika or chile powder to give it another dimension.
• Serve this with garlicky green beans and steamed rice.
• Beware of the heat.  The spice from cooking the shrimp got into the air that I started sneezing!

Recipe: Shrimp Cotija Cheese with Hatch Chiles

Shrimp and Cotija Cheese Stuffed Hatch Chiles
Central Market Recipe by Chef Dean Liesenfelt

As you can see from the photo, we didn't stuff the Hatch chiles.  (How the heck do people stuff them when this type of chile is so thin and delicate?  They're not like chile rellenos or poblanos that are larger.)

We took the recipe and modified it to create a casserole-like dish.  This had amazing flavor, is healthy(!) and would go very well with rice.

Ingredients include:  Hatch chiles, fresh spinach, shrimp, Cotija cheese, olive oil, garlic, ancho chile powder, lemon juice & zest, crushed red pepper, salt, Mexican crema

Few notes:

• In the pan, don't cook the shrimp until they're completely done.  Since the dish is baked, the shrimp will finish cooking in the oven.
• Added guajillo chile powder in addition to ancho chile
• Go light on the salt -- cotija is a salty cheese
• Bake it for 25 min (instead of 30)

Wild Salmon

In this month's issue of Bon Appetit Magazine (June 2014), there's a nice section on wild salmon and the five types of Pacific salmon, specifically.  I tried to find the info on BonAppetit.com to link it here, but it's not online.

I'm including the info here, as reference (credit to Joanna Sciarrino who has the byline):

• Chinook:  Also known as king, its nicely fatty flesh is ideal for slow-roasting.
• Coho:  More subtle in flavor and texture than other types, it's a smaller fish, making it great for roasting or grilling whole.
• Sockeye:  Sometimes called red salmon, it has vibrant red-orange flesh and a profound flavor that stands up well to assertive seasonings.
• Pink:  It has a lower fat content and is mostly available canned.  If you find fillets, grill them.
• Chum:  Sometimes labeled dog or keta salmon, it's prized for its roe.  The comparatively low oil content of its delicately flavored flesh means it's better for smoking or for quick-cooking methods that won't dry it out, like pan-searing and grilling.

Here's more info about salmon at  BonAppetit.com

I love blog contributor the grandcruman's creations (though, he hasn't contributed in a while, ahem).  I don't have a recipe to share for this unless he would like to comment on this post with more details!

It's a pan-seared sea bass that was marinated in miso, seasoned rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce (I think that's what he said) served on top of a bed of rice and topped with carrots, celery, cucumber, chives and cilantro.  Cremini mushrooms are in a miso glaze served on the side.

Paired it with a non-sweet riesling, and it was a phenomenal meal!

Recipe: Shrimp, Chorizo and Corn Salad

This Shrimp, Chorizo and Corn Salad recipe from Cooking Light (July 2013, p.134) is a keeper.  We don't receive the Cooking Light Magazine, and I'm usually not a huge fan because their recipes often don't have enough flavor, but this one is GREAT, and we'll definitely be making it again as a quick weeknight meal.  Instead of having this as a salad, we had this for dinner as our main entrée over rice.

Few tips:

• We love garlic and so added extra
• We doubled the amount of red and yellow tomatoes
• Instead of Spanish chorizo, we used Andouille sausage
• Next time, we're not going to add as much lemon juice -- didn't think it was needed
• Added the basil at the very end

Paiche

We wanted fish for dinner, so I stopped by Whole Foods after work.  Paiche was on sale.  I had never heard of that type of fish, but the fishmonger told me that it was a mild white fish (and new to Whole Foods).  We tried it. . . sauteeing it with butter, garlic, salt and pepper.  I would buy it again!  It reminded me a little bit of Chilean sea bass.  Good texture and not a strong fishy flavor.

I looked up paiche on wikipedia.com:
The arapaima, pirarucu, or paiche (Arapaima gigas) is a South American tropical freshwater fish. It is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world.

Apparently it can grow to be 500 lbs.  It is unusual in that it is an air-breathing animal and it lives in the shallow, muddy waters of river-beds, popping up every 15 to 20 minutes for air. Marine scientists consider the paiche to be a living fossil, a direct link back to the Jurassic period.

It was an ingredient on Iron Chef with Masaharu Morimoto vs. Justin Bogle.  Maybe I'd know what paiche was if we had cable because The Food Network would be on 24/7!

Recipe: Fresh Corn Grits with Shrimp

Fresh Corn Grits with Shrimp

I really liked this dish by Top Chef Season 5 contestant Jeff McInnis.  It was featured in the Top Chef Challenge section (it's the market basket challenge) in the Aug 2012 issue of Food and Wine Magazine (p. 111-112).  I think the pecan butter makes the dish ~ it gives it a nice nutty subtle flavor.

Healthy and really easy.

Here are some tips:

• Because we made this during a weeknight and wanted to speed up the process, we didn't make the grits from scratch but used instant grits.
• I also didn't want to wear out our mini food-processor, so didn't actually didn't process the pecans and canola oil for 2 minutes until smooth.  Instead, I used a small handful of pecans and a tiny splash of canola oil and processed it for 20 seconds.
• For the shrimp saute, I used 2 tablespoons of butter instead of 6.
• We added red pepper flakes for a little heat.
• I used about 3/4 cup of lager.  I didn't want it soupy like it looks in the photo on p. 112.

Recipe: Asian Salmon Bowl with Lime Drizzle

We wanted fish for dinner this evening, so yesterday I searched epicurious.com, and under their Quick & Easy recipe section, this recipe for Asian Salmon Bowl with Lime Drizzle came up that was rated 4 forks by 2 reviewers.  I was a little wary of the recipe because 1) there were only 2 reviews and 2) it's attributed to SELF magazine. (While I believe in cooking and eating healthy foods, I don't usually cook recipes from 'health' type magazines because their recipes seem to always cut out significant flavor or texture -- and they tend to use low fat/fat-free and artificial sweeteners which I refuse to use.) 

This recipe turned out quite nicely and was definitely FAST and healthy.

Tips:

• Because we love spice, I added double the amount of red pepper flakes. 
• Instead of 4 salmon fillets, I bought one large fillet, so it took longer than 12 minutes to cook.
• I used butter to cook the spinach instead of canola oil.  Butter makes everything better!
• We had white sesame seeds on hand, so I used those instead of buying black sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Asian-Salmon-Bowl-with-Lime-Drizzle-51101210

Recipe for a Crab or Ahi Tuna Rice Tower?

For dinner this evening, we made the Crab & Lemongrass Jasmine Rice Tower from the Mahatma Rice website.  I mean, it was fine but not absolutely amazing.  I felt like it was missing an ingredient especially in the gazpacho. 
Does anyone have an amazing rice tower recipe that they could share?

Crab Part:  crabmeat, evoo, s & p
Rice:  Rice, rice wine vinegar, evoo, lemongrass (which we didn't use)
Avocado Salsa:  jalapeno, lime juice, avocado, cilantro, s & p
Gazpacho:  tomatoes, onion, garlic, cucumber, s & p