Magical Salmon, Where Are You?

It's finally that fleeting time of year when wild Pacific salmon is available fresh at the grocery store. It excited me, so I bought a couple of good sized steaks of fresh Sockeye Salmon. And I cooked both the next day. Salmon for lunch and salmon for dinner.

For lunch I improvised a salad topped with noodles and the salmon. The salad was cucumber and mixed lettuce with rice wine vinegar, soy, and sesame dressing. It tasted fine. The rice noodles had some soy sauce and vinegar as well as sauteed garlic and green onion. They tasted okay, but once again clumped together. Clearly, I don't really know how to handle them. But, "noodle cake" is not so bad although I did accidentally dump in a bunch of pepper. I need a new pepper shaker. The salmon was cooked in a skillet after seasoning with salt and pepper. I thought the magic of sockeye salmon would shine through. Here's my salad:
Alas, the salmon was much milder in flavour than I'd anticipated and could have used more. . . added flavour. But, the awesome thing was when I peeled the skin off the cooked steak and late crisped it up in a hot skillet. It was a crispy, fatty, fishy snack of great deliciousness to end the meal. Salmon skin really is a treat.

For dinner I went with a "real recipe" and I followed it pretty closely. Really, I did. And I think it's a winner. The recipe is "Baked Sockeye Salmon with Bell Peppers and Capers" by Marcella Hazan and is available here on Epicurious.

This is how it looked out of the oven and just short of being fully cooked:
I made about 1/4 of the recipe. I roasted and peeled one small red bell pepper, used a few spoonfuls of capers, and put one whole clove of garlic in the olive oiled dish with a salmon steak. I found that the recommended baking time of 16 minutes was woefully inadequate for my thick steak. It actually took closer to 25 minutes (I think), but should you make the recipe you should check on your unique piece of fish. The recipe is actually recommended for a long skin on fillet.

Anyways, let's talk about the flavours. I really think that the sweet, sightly smokey roasted bell pepper and the salty, slightly tart capers gave the salmon the flavour kick it needed. Actually, I really like roasted pepper and caper anyways. I also paired some bites of salmon with a bit of the garlic, which was also good. I don't think I ever would have thought to pair roasted bell pepper with salmon, but it's a great idea and I'm glad I found this recipe. It's a great on for baked salmon.

But, I am a bit sad that I couldn't have grilled salmon like we usually did at home because I don't have a barbecue. One of my favourite meals at home was a whole salmon (usually a wild pink salmon) stuffed with lemons and herbs and grilled wrapped in foil. If you have a barbecue and enough companions to warrant a whole salmon, I recommend trying that.

And finally, an update on a recipe that I posted previously here for some excellent blueberry muffins. I modified the recipe to make blueberry-maple-oatmeal muffins by omitting the lemon zest, reducing the oil to 2 tablespoons, using 1/4 cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup for the sweetening, and adding a trace more baking soda. The results look pretty good:

They tasted pretty damn good too and had excellent muffin texture. However, I found the maple flavour to be pretty subtle. I don't think I could be sure it was there. Maybe, considering the expense of maple syrup lemon zest is a better flavouring option.

"Best Muffins Ever"

I made blueberry muffins last Thursday because:
a) It's blueberry season, a magical yearly event. and
b) my sister and her boyfriend were coming to visit and I knew they would appreciate muffins/ I would not be forced to eat a dozen myself.

I can't remember ever having made muffins with fresh blueberries, perhaps because peak season for them is usually the hottest part of the summer. Actually, it was hot last Thursday but I pressed on with making muffins anyways. Little did I know how good they would be. My sister declared them the best muffin she's ever had. I find that hard to believe but make no mistake, they were very, very good. The texture was quite soft and there was a hint of acidity from lemon zest and yogurt that's hard to describe. Of course the fresh blueberries were awesome. I think the oatmeal adds a little extra complexity to the flavour as well. I can't really describe it that well. But, they were delicious.

Here they are right out of the oven:
And here's a field of perfect, delicious muffins:
Now that the food porn is out of the way, I'll get to the recipe. I followed the BHG recipe for Oatmeal-Blueberry Muffins but made some key changes, so I'll write it out my way.

Blueberry-Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4-1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen if you must)

Instructions
1. Grease twelve regular 2.5 inch muffin cups.

2. Stir flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Form a well in the centre of it.

3. In another bowl mix egg, yogurt, milk, brown sugar, oil, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add all the wet ingredients (ie: egg) to the dry (ie: flour) and stir until moistened, just. Do not over mix!!!! Fold in the blueberries. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.

4. Bake at 400 degrees F for 16-18 minutes. (I think mine took 15.) They're done when a tester comes out dry/ they're golden brown. Cool them a bit then remove from the cups. Eat.

If you study the recipe you'll notice the yogurt and lemon zest are my additions. Plus, I cut the oil slightly and added some extra blueberries. Seriously try making these this blueberry season. I heart blueberries.