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| Winter Warmth |
I remember the first time I cooked salmon – mostly because it was a resounding Fail. I was in junior high school, and one of my jobs was to make dinner for my family every night. I’d get home from school around 3:45 PM, eat a snack, and get something into the oven. I had figured out how make a beef roast, chicken breasts, turkey drumsticks, pork chops, meatloaf, spaghetti – of course back then my default was to put the meat-of-the-day into a roasting pan add a little water, onions, salt, pepper and garlic powder – or maybe a bag of Mrs Grass’s Onion Mix, cover the whole thing tightly with foil, and put it in the oven at 425°F for 3ish hours. This worked pretty well most of the time – or at least, I didn’t get many complaints.
Then my mom bought salmon. We didn’t usually have salmon when I was a kid. I’m guessing that for a large family, even in the Pacific Northwest where salmon is abundant, it was pretty expensive. So I am pretty sure that this salmon would have been a treat for us. That is, if I had known how to cook it. But, having no clue whatsoever about cooking fish, I did what I always did: the salmon went in the roasting pan. I added a little water, salt and pepper, and some onion slices. I covered the whole thing with foil, popped it into the 425°F oven, and went about my business (homework, house cleaning, laundry, computer games…) for about 3 hours. I took it of the oven about the time my Mom arrived home from work. I lifted the lid and it looked rather dried and charred and not at all appealing. A bit like poorly done salmon jerky. I remember the bewildered, disappointed look on my Mom’s face, but we served it up for dinner with potatoes and a salad, and I decided that I didn’t really like salmon anyhow.
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| Grilling salmon at the cabin |
Fast forward many years later, after I’d had grilled salmon and poached salmon by people who knew the art of cooking fish well. I too learned how to cook fish, and salmon is now one of my favorite foods to eat. It makes an easy yet elegant dish, and allows for creative outlets in cooking as well. When we are at the cabin, one of the favorite treats there is salmon cooked slowly in the smoke and heat of an open fire. It is brined first, then pinned to a wooden plank with wooden pegs, set into a metal frame over the open fire, where it cooks slowly; the top layer caramelizes a bit; the aroma of the smoke melds into the tender flesh of the fish; and the end result is better than candy.
Smoked salmon, if there is any left over after the initial fish fest immediately after the salmon is ready, is good in so many things. On of my most recent concoctions is to throw it into a quiche for a warm dinner and a cold lunch the next day. Putting it together is easy, and the oven does most of the work. Serve it up with a green salad, and you’ll have a table full of smiling faces as they dig in and indulge. The mild licorice flavor of the fennel is a nice complement for the smoked salmon. One other note: most quiche recipes call for using heavy cream. I never liked the idea of fattening up a wonderful meal for no good reason, so I use 2% milk in all of my quiches. I’ve never been sad with the result, but feel free to use heavy cream if that makes you happier! Also, you can substitute half of the butter for with sour cream (nonfat works fine) or greek yogurt if you want to lower the fat content of the crust as well. The result will be a slightly chewier crust, but it still tastes great!
Smoked Salmon, Fennel & Broccoli Quiche
Preheat the oven to 450°F or 225°C
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| Good to the last crumb. |
Crust
100 g/4 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 large carrot, grated
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Mix the in a bowl until thoroughly combined and a soft dough forms. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of a 10″ pie pan. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and lower the oven temperature to 400°F/200°C.
Filling
Whisk together, then set aside:
4 eggs
1 cup milk
Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Heat for 30 seconds, then add:
1/4 cup fennel, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
Cook until onion and fennel soften, about 5 minutes. The add:
1 cup broccoli florets, chopped small
Cook until the broccoli turns bright green. Remove from heat. Stir in:
300 g (about 1 1/2 cups) smoked salmon, cut into small pieces, taking care to remove all bones
1 cup mild cheese, shredded (mozzarella or edam work well here)
Stir mixture to combine, and pour into the prepared crust. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the top, and bake in oven for 30 minutes or until the top puffs slightly and the quiche is a dark golden brown. Let rest for 10 minutes. Serve with green salad.
Serves 6-8, depending on how hungry you are.
Note: if you are using salmon that has been grilled rather than smoked, I recommend adding 1/2 teaspoon salt to the egg mixture, as the salmon problem has a lower salt content and you’ll need the salt for balance in this recipe.
My recipe is from foodrenegade.com how to brew kombucha, double fermentation method. I will definitely check out the blog you mentioned, thanks! And the use real butter, eating from the ground up and gluten-free goddess caught my eye since they are my latest persuits! Btw, I love your story about your first baked salmon.
Yum! I love salmon, this recipe sounds real good. Your ginger ale sounds intriguing, I’d love to try it out. I’ve been trying my luck with kombucha and just did day 1 (take 2) of a sourdough starter… good stuff. Loving your “experiment” here!
Thanks Anne! I’d love to try kombucha. Where’d you get the recipe? Click the link on this site to the “Tea and Cookies” blog – she just did an experiment with sourdough. I had a starter going – both wheat and rye, actually, and then killed them from a summer of neglect. I’ll need to get one going again. Nothing beats fresh, homemade sourdough!