roomie’s salmon birthday dinner

my roommate celebrated a birthday last month, and i’m just getting around to blogging about the meal – d’oh!

naturally the best gift i can give anyone is food – so i cooked for him. 🙂

nothing says “summer” like corn on the cob, eh?!  ANNNNDD, it’s salmon season.  the first runs started coming in early june.  whenever i think of making a special meal, i always think of salmon.  i can’t cook a steak to save my life, and i’m a snob when it comes to eating out.  so, i splurged on the $24.99/lb. salmon and conserved with the sides 😉 {these two filets ran me about $17 — but in new york, i probably would’ve paid only about $11, boy do i miss living by the ocean!}

fresh, wild-caught, as local as can be for colorado {alaska – ha!} and oh-so-tasty.  the lovely thing about eating with the seasons is you get the true, authentic taste of the food you are eating.  ever had a blueberry in january?! didn’t know they could be that bitter, huh?!  life is amazing, it WILL adapt – but it doesn’t always THRIVE.  in other words, we can have what we want when we want it – but the question really is – do you want quantity over quality?!   for me, the answer is always no. quality is of the utmost importance to me… and that goes for anything in life.

just gorgeous!  even when you buy farm-raised fish  – which, don’t get me wrong, can be amazing and responsibly farmed if you buy from the right source.  but even natural, responsibly raised fish have a little beta carotene added to them for colour.  which makes them more of that “orangey” type salmon colour versus this naturally-occurring colour here.  almost pink.  just beautiful!  so deep in colour, and oily and fatty and YUM!  {p.s. – you can totally ask the seafood guys to take off the skin for you – i just prefer to have mine cut fresh from the whole fish, and with as little modification as possible, as to not ruin the integrity}

i used to always bake my fish.  it was just easier.  and sometimes i still do.  but salmon is so good and dense and it holds up nicely in a saute pan, so i’ve been cooking it that way lately.  i don’t marinate or doctor my fish.   in this case, i just added a teenie bit of oil to the pan so it wouldn’t stick, a little S&P and the juice of a lemon. eventually, i plan on purchasing some stellar pots and pans. you know – the non-stick, non-junk, copper-bottom, ceramic, can’t-quite-afford-them, last-you-forever, good-for-the-environment type pans.

i’m all about tasting the TASTE of my food.  i use a little S&P from time to time, but mostly i just like to eat things kind of plain. if you eat good quality, local, in season food – you don’t have to season the thing to death.  REAL FOOD TASTES GOOD!  i appreciate people who add lots of herbs and spices to food – sometimes that’s fun.  but me personally, i just like to taste what things are supposed to taste like… and sometimes i’ll mix them together 😉

i steamed up some supergreens for a side, as well as some corn on the cob.

i always begin with the flesh-side down {about 7-8 minutes}, and finish cooking the salmon filets skin-side down {watch for it to be cooked thoroughly.}  doesn’t that look beautiful?!  when the salmon is ready, it will literally flake right off the skin, leaving it in the pan for easy clean up.

real. simple. {DELICIOUS} food.  — for any special occasion!

happy birthday {again}, rooomie!  thanks for being my constant test-palate 🙂

Tags: birthday, dinner, easy, fish, food, healthy, meal, salmon, seasonal, special