DINNER FOR THE EXTENDED FAMILY

The Szlams really enjoy Easter with the CT family, luckily for us! They spent a week with us and a little tradition has started that Dave cooks supper one night, with me as sous chef and voyeur.  Regular readers will laugh, he decided to do chicken!

OK, I'll grant you that it does not look like any chicken I have ever served up, but it really has a lot to do with the presentation.  The tower is make up of:
Sauted and roasted slices of potato.
Sauted and roasted chicken thighs in a lemon and thyme butter.
Garnish is sauted scallions and mushrooms.
The piece de la resistance was the sauce, Pea and spinach and here is the recipe:

Blanche half a bag of baby spinach. Remove to an ice bath and reserve the water.  Once cooled remove the spinach and squeeze out as much water as possible.  saute/sweat a couple of cloves of chopped garlic in a splash of olive oil, then add about 3 inch part of the middle of the scallions. Add the liquid from the spinach and bring to a boil.  Put about half a pound of peas in a blender add the garlic/scallion water til it just covers peas and blend til smooth.  Add the spinach and blend again.  Put into small saucepan to reheat before serving, season to taste and add at least 2 TBSPS of butter.

I did this a couple of weeks later with salmon, it was delicious and looked wonderful of course, the pink fish with the bright green sauce - sadly didn't photograph it - next time!

JUST ANOTHER BUSY SATURDAY

Well, not that busy but I knew I would not want to spend too much time in the kitchen and I knew I wanted to eat fish tonight.  I turned to my 'could be better organised' folder of recipes that I collect from various sources that I like the sound of, and found Lime and Honey Glazed Salmon with Rice and Broccolini.  

This is really meant to be that perfect mid-week meal, pretty quick and all cooked in one pan.  However, I was never one to follow the rules and I'm glad I didn't, it was pretty good, I will do it again.  Of course I changed a few things:  substituted lemons for the limes (I had some that needed using) and I omitted the cilantro as Joseph does not like it.  The pan I used was a little small, which I knew but I thought it would look good!  I had to cook some of the broccolini separately, which was fine.  The rice was perfect which  I was relieved about, have tried something similar where it was not.  This is definitely a recipe to play with and I'm sure it will still be just as delicious.

SALMON FOR JOSEPH

Alan has been traveling lately and I am feeling very hard done by as a single working commuting parent! Last weekend Joseph and I only managed to have dinner together once and I wanted to cook something he likes that would also be healthy! Came across a salmon recipe when I was browsing through my various cookbooks for inspiration. I had printed it from the Weber site a couple of years ago and had never made it.  The recipe seems to no longer be on the site, but it was short and easy:

Pepper-Crusted, Maple-Glazed Salmon
Marinade:  In a freezer bag, mix together  3/4 cup of maple syrup and 1/4 cup of soy sauce. Add 4 skinned salmon fillets, about 6 ozs each. Press as much air out of the bag as you can and squish around to make sure all fillets are coated. Marinate in fridge for at least 4 hours but ideally 24 hours, turn occasionally.   Remove fillets from marinade and brush or spray both sides with oil, then coat top side only with 1/4 cup cracked pepper, divided between the 4 fillets.  Cook as per your favourite method.  We did not BBQ, I start the fish off in a very hot pan on the stove top for a couple of minutes then put into the oven til it is done through, mine took about 5 minutes but of course the thickness of your fish will determine the time.

Notes:  Can marinate for up to 48 hours but only prep with pepper just before cooking.  Easy to adjust the marinade for however many fillets you are cooking, keep proportion 3 parts syrup to 1 part soy; there was quite a lot of marinade,  I'm sure the above amount would be fine for at least 6, so if you are doing more do not increase proportionately.

I bought wild Scottish salmon from FishTails in New Canaan, which no doubt contributed to why it was so delicious!  I also bought a jar of cracked pepper, saved time.....  Apologies for picture being soft, taken on my phone as Alan has our camera with him - how sad is that, a shared camera......

SOMETHING FISHY WENT ON!

When I was planning the meal for some friends who were coming over for dinner last night, it was one of those freaky very hot days for April.  Had already decided to cook fish and remembered something I had done last year just for Alan and I that I mentally earmarked as a good dinner party dish.

GREEK STYLE MAHI MAHI was what I decided on. Only problem was that there was no Mahi Mahi to be found.  We have a pretty good fish monger in New Canaan and he had some Scottish salmon which had apparently flown in the night before! It worked really well and looked very pretty too.  Served this with TOASTED ORZO WITH SAFFRON AND FENNEL, as suggested in the fish recipe.  It was really good, little tricky to make as you do not drain once cooked, so you have to get the amount of water exactly right.  My quantities were different, so I calculated the amount of water, used a bit less and kept additional water just off the boil in the kettle.  I did need to add some more water and it all worked out fine.  Val did a delicious green salad to go with, which had a lemony dressing.  Her new trick was to add thinly sliced brussel sprouts which added some great crunch.

 Another delightful and delicious evening, around my table with friends.