{thirsty thursday} — wild-caught king salmon dressed in basil vinaigrette w/ a rye lager

so, salmon season is pretty much over… i think we’ll get another run or two but that will be it. do you know how you can just kind of guess that the season is about over? well, have you been to the grocer and SEEN the size of salmon filets right now?!  massive!  like, i mean MASSIVE fish!  they’ve been cruising around eating up the other fish, gettin’ all fat and delicious on us… THAT’S how you can usually tell it’s the end of the season.  they’re HUGE!

whenever there is a one-day special or sale of any kind on salmon, i nab it up.  i don’t like freezing my fish, so i’ll just buy enough for a nice meal with the roomie or cook a little extra for salads.  all seafood is so much more expensive out here in the land-locked states, so i don’t eat it nearly as much as i would like. frozen fish just doesn’t taste as good… i prefer only eating wild-caught, in season, as local as possible fish.

the real secret ingredient to this dish and part of the inspiration for even buying the fish was to use some of this absolutely amazing marinade that was gifted to me as a generous sample.  it’s a locally made product which is a basil-based vinaigrette that i was immediately hooked on the first time i tried it when the vendor was demoing the product with some simple bib lettuce. i didn’t find a website for the actual producers, but i do know that this particular bottle in the above foto was made only 3 days prior to me consuming it.  talk about fresh!!  i’m so lucky.

if you can find it, get it.  you can buy it online and it’s actually cheaper than the store that way.  the ingredients are so simple, if you had the right combo of good oil and vinegar you could almost mimic it.  but i tell you, it’s the best dressing i’ve ever tried!!  i’m not sure i’ll ever go back to another dressing again!  and i have tried a TON of vinaigrettes!  italian-style dressing is my absolutely fav, but it simply has to have the right combination of good oil and good vinegar and the right kind of spices.  i mean, when you’re basing your dressing around FRESH basil, i guess you can’t go wrong…

so, i just made some salmon with it…

this was roughly almost a pound of fish.  they say to eat about 1/3-1/2 pound of fish per adult.  i love salmon, so eating half a pound of it ain’t no thing for me… and i must really love my roommate, because i shared this with him. this may normally run anywhere from $19.99/lb. to $29.99/lb.  i got it on sale for about half off – and this piece of fish was only $12.  see, i don’t mind waiting for a good piece of salmon every now and then.  i’d rather hold off on buying anything frozen or out of season and save the money for when there’s a good deal on good fish that is wild-caught and in season.  this way, we’re not overfishing our waters and we are ensuring more of a sustainable aquatic life as well as our own lives. and it just plain TASTES BETTER!

i’ll stop lecturing now 🙂

i usually bake my fish, but for whatever reason i didn’t this time… just pan-seared it in some EVOO on medium heat.

i cover mine for a little bit, to almost poach it a little…

flip it over just once… finishing with skin-side down.

i put my salmon on a bed of fresh spinach and poured the yummy marinade all over the whole thing.  i served it alongside some creamy “nutri-tatoes” 🙂

i enjoyed my delicious salmon meal with this unique and yummy rye lager from great divide.  they describe it as having notes of cherry and dark fruits with the combination of earthy rye that finishes crisp.  i love the colour! and although they didn’t suggest pairing it with seafood, it didn’t seem to interfere with my dish here. i do like how they suggest pairing it with german chocolate cake.  i’m so down to try that!

Tags: beer, fish, healthy, local, marinades, rye lager, salmon, seasonal, thirsty thursday, wild caught king salmon