New Years Resolutions in November (Cast Iron Roasted Salmon with Dill Yogurt Sauce)

A little over a year ago, I was asked to contribute monthly recipe for Southerly, a community magazine for the neighborhoods in the Croasdaile area of Durham, NC. It’s a sweet little magazine, with stories about local families and businesses and a recipe from yours truly. It’s been a fun addition to my recipe writing hobby, and I’ve learned quite a bit in the process. 

Perfectly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside

It may be November, but our January deadline is looming. So today, I put pen to paper and did a measurement test and photo session (i.e. open the shutters and pray for good light - photographing food is REALLY difficult!) of one of our favorite weekday dishes, oven roasted salmon in a cast iron skillet. I gussied it up a tad with a yogurt dill sauce. Perfect for our readers who want to stay true to their New Years resolutions, come 2019.

The best part of this little project was the tasting - this salmon is so moist, the skin so crispy and the dill sauce is down right relish. I can't wait to finish this blog post so I can enjoy the rest of it!

Here’s how you do it:

Cast Iron Skillet Salmon with Yogurt Dill Sauce

Ingredients:

For the fish

• 1 salmon portion for each person to be served - get the thick rosy pink salmon portions from Trader Joes or Whole Foods (not the thin dark orangey red ones)
• Olive oil (to coat both sides of each portion)
• Kosher salt (a good pinch per portion)
• Fresh cracked black pepper (about 6 grinds per portion)

Yogurt Dill Sauce 

• 1 6 oz container of fat free strained plain Greek yogurt
• The zest and juice of a lemon
• 1TBS finely chopped fresh dill
• 1/8 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp onion powder
• 10 grinds of black pepper

Method:

• Put a cast iron skillet large enough to fit the fish without crowding into a cold oven. Set the even to 450 degrees and turn it on. 
• As the oven and skillet come up to temp, blot the fish dry with a paper towel and drizzle both sides with olive oil. Smear the oil around a tad and sprinkle the flesh side with a good pinch of salt and about 6 grinds of black pepper.
• Also use this time to whisk all of the ingredients for the yogurt dill sauce together in a small bowl and set it aside.
• When the oven comes to temp, put on two kitchen mitts and CAREFULLY take the skillet out and place it on the stove, with the gas burner* set to a medium high heat. Place the fish in the skillet, flesh side down. Set a timer for 4 minutes and let the fish sear. Do not touch or move it. Trust me, it won’t stick or burn. 
• At the end of four minutes, use a metal spatula flip the fish so it’s skin side down and put the skillet back into the oven. Set the timer for 5 minutes.  (Note:  I wear a kitchen mitt on one left hand and hold the spatula in the other, to make sure I don’t touch the hot pan when turning the fish, and then put both mitts on to put the skillet in the oven)
• AT the end of 5 minutes, put those mitts back on and remove the skillet from the oven. Immediately move the fish to serving plates so it won’t continue to cook in the hot pan.
• Serve with the dill sauce and enjoy!

*This recipe has only been tested using a gas stove. Consult the manufacturer of your electric cooktop before placing a hot skillet on the glass surface, to ensure that it does not crack.

Happy to be Home (Oven Roasted Lemon/Herb Salmon & Asparagus – 5WW PPV)

Roasted Salmon and Asparagus.
Clean eating at its best.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of airports, convention centers and meetings that were preceded by months of preparation and an intense push to the finish line. First Las Vegas. Then Barcelona. The yin and yang of convention venues. 

While I thrive on this kind of work, nothing feels better than coming home and getting back to normal. After arriving home in the wee hours of the morning, I took a mental (and physical) health day. It was wonderful to sleep in, unpack, check in with the dry cleaners and make a much needed run to Whole Foods for fish, and Harris Teeter for basic pantry and fridge supplies.  Among my purchases: the salmon and asparagus that became the perfect dinner to chase away that yicky feeling that comes from too many restaurant meals.

Barcelona was beautiful
and our meetings were successful
but there is no place like home.

Steve and a buddy escaped the cold weather for a little Florida Baseball Spring Training and golf, so I’m a solo act and hence the single dinner portion.  However, you can easily multiply the quantities to feed as many folks as you need to feed.  

As always, I encourage playing around with the herbs and other flavors – in fact, I think I’m going to do a riff on this with sea bass, cilantro, jalapeño, orange and lime tomorrow. 

Oven Roasted Lemon/Herb Salmon & Asparagus (5 WW PPV)

(Serves 1, double, triple or quadruple as needed)

Ingredients:

• 1 salmon filet, skin on if possible (4 oz = 5 WW PPV if that matters to you)  (I’ve said it a million times – if you are buying fish, buy the very best and freshest fish you can.  For me, that means Whole Foods or a local fish monger. Yes, you will pay a bit more.  If you are watching your pennies, enjoy a smaller portion, but make it the best.  Sermon over.)
• 1 TBS Lemon Juice
• 1 TBS Lemon Zest
• 2 or 3 shakes garlic powder
• 1 tsp or so of dried oregano
• 1 ½ tsp or so of dried thyme
• 1 TBS of fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• Kosher Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper
• 6 to 8 stalks of Asparagus, woody end trimmed off
• Cooking Spray

Method:

• Heat the oven to 400 degrees
• Line a cooking sheet with aluminum foil and spray it with cooking spray
• Place the fish (skin side down) and the asparagus on the tray – season liberally with salt and pepper and spray lightly with the cooking spray
• Place the tray in the oven and cook for 13 minutes
• While the fish is cooking, mix the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl, stirring well to soften the dried herbs
• When the timer dings @ 13 minutes, remove the fish and asparagus from the oven and top the fish with the herb lemon mixture
• Return the fish and asparagus to the oven and continue cooking another 3 to 5 minutes, depending upon the thickness of the fish – touch it to test for doneness, you want it to just give to a light pressure and not be too soft – but equally important, you don’t want it to be hard.  (Nothing is worse than over cooked fish!)
• When the fish is done,  place the asparagus on a plate and then gently slide a spatula between the skin and the flesh, laying the fish atop the asparagus to serve. 

Enjoy!

Vinny on the TV, Dinner on the Grill (Rosemary/Garlic/Lemon Rubbed Salmon)

Among the things I will miss about California: Dodger games called by Vince Scully. We listened to him earlier this week as Steve grilled salmon that I served with a light sauté of summer veg.

With Vinny in the background and the smell and sounds of the grill, I felt like I was back home in Whittier. Vinny can call an entire game and never use the words “me” or “I.” Those goofballs who call the Angel games should take a lesson. Don’t get me started… but back to the grill…

Until the Webber BBQ came on the scene my father went through more hibachis than most people have in a lifetime. He literally burnt them out. I can still see him crouched down cooking dinner on his little cast iron hibachi next to the ubiquitous Southern California dwarf lemon tree and box garden of parsley and chives. Later the Webber Kettle BBQ came along and he got to grill standing up. No wonder he was among the first to have one!

Rain or shine. Daddy would cook prime Manning’s Beef steaks; succulent lamb skewers from our Armenian butchers, Souren and Voc; and fresh sea fish that he caught with his buddies in the deep Pacific waters off of Oceanside. I don’t remember anything every being over-cooked or over-thought. Everything was simply done and delicious.

While more bass and albacore graced the Billings family grill, I sure we had salmon now and then. The following recipe is my favorite preparation on this tasty fish. With a hint of lemon, rosemary and garlic it is a perfect light summer meal. If salmon is not your deal, this same preparation is also excellent on other fish, as well as chicken and pork.

Rosemary/Garlic/Lemon Rubbed Salmon

Measurements are sketchy on this one. Sorry, that’s just the way it is…

For each two-person portion of salmon, with skin on:

Prep the Rub:

Combine and chop up together so that the mixture is REALLY fine:

• Zest of one lemon
• 1 clove of garlic, minced REALLY fine
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped REALLY fine (do you see a trend here?)

Prep the Fish

• Put about a teaspoon of olive oil on a plate, put the fish skin side down on the plate and wiggle it around to lightly coat the skin.
• Sprinkle the fish with a pinch or so of kosher salt
• Pat the lemon zest/garlic/rosemary seasoning mixture into the flesh side of the fish.
• Pour about a tsp or two of olive oil into the palm of your hand and rub your hands together. Now pat down the fish so that the seasoning mixture is lightly coated with the oil.

Now to the grill!

• Heat your grill on medium high
• Cook the fish skin side first, lid closed for 7 minutes
• Flip the fish
• Cook flesh side down for 5 minutes or until cooked to the way you like it. We err on the side of underdone. It will continue to cook on the plate (as my father used to say).

Remove the fish, allow to rest for 5 minutes or so and serve.

Enjoy!