Salmon Again!

I felt very enouraged by how easy my Salmon Pesto Mayo recipe is, so I did some experimenting and came up with another keeper. It's amazing.

With our very large salmon fillet, I used about 1/3 cup mayo.

Then I added (without measuring, sorry):
a drizzle of olive oil
a few big drips of lemon juice
generous dashings of salmon seasoning (yeah, totally cheating there)
thin sprinkling layer of smoked paprika (smoked is very different from regular, trust me).

Stir well! Broil salmon, spread sauce on it, broil again till sauce is bubbly. :) Follow pesto mayo recipe for cooking directions.

It is really good. I ate it during a week that I thought salmon sounded kind of gross, with all my pregnancy food-yuckiness, but Michael brought salmon home...and well, it was amazing. SO good.

Rice

Well, I've learned that some people have never made rice without a rice cooker. I've been told some of the advantages of using one, but they were so unimportant to me that I've already forgotten what they were. Not to be snooty, I'm just saying. Learn this way too.

1. Usually 2 parts water to 1 part rice, but read the instructions (and that right there sums up this post, I guess).
2. Put in pan together, bring to boil (as in, DON'T bring the water to a boil and then add rice)
3. Turn heat to low/simmer. 
4. Set timer for 20 minutes. 
5. Stir a couple times if you want, not really necessary.
6.  Makes about 4 cups cooked rice. 
7. With brown rice*, just let it cook for 45 minutes instead of 20, but the rules are the same.  

*Brown rice will never get as soft as white rice does--it just has a different texture. As for wild rice, I don't know how different that stuff is, I've never cooked with it yet (I hated it as a kid but now I think it's cool).

That's it.
Now here's what I always do in addition to that basic recipe:

With 2 cups of water and 1 cup of rice, I add 1 TBS butter and a few dashes of salt (like I shake the shaker over it all a few times). And sometimes I add the littlest bit of extra water and let the rice sit just a few minutes longer than 20 so that it will be soft for sure. I really like soft rice--it can be eaten "al dente" like some noodles, but...yeah, it's up to you.
Then I consider the rice PERFECT.

Here are some fun things you can try in your cooking!

Cook the rice with coconut milk instead of water. (This also makes a great dish when you add sliced sausage and black beans, yum!)

Add a sprinkle of cinnamon! Be generous if you want, it's a very subtle hint of flavor.

Add sugar! 

Omit butter/salt and drop a bouillon cube or ~1 tsp granules. 

Experiment!




Here are some simple and cheap rice dishes (with finished, cooked rice):

The sausage one mentioned above-- use hot-dog-like sausages, not ground. I don't remember which kind is best, but usually something spicy. I want to say German. Even though this is a southern dish. Add black beans and sausage to cooked rice, continue to cook till everything's hot. Very good.

Put some cream of chicken soup over the rice. Serve with biscuits, too, if you want.

Add a generous sprinkle of sugar and pour a little bit of milk over the rice. Hot or cold, your preference. Kind of an old people cereal, but it's kind of tasty! :)

Add scrambled eggs, diced ham, teensy-chopped chives, and perhaps peas... and stick it in a frying pan to stir fry till everything's hot. Fried rice!

GOURMET

You have to try my salmon recipe. And then even better, you have to try it with a layer of thin-sliced raw almonds under the pesto mayo. WOW! WOW! It was perfect, it was amazing. How can I convince you?
I do not like weird crunchy things with dishes when the crunch seems to interrupt. I don't like M&Ms in my ice cream...I don't really even like sprinkles in it. I don't like fruit blobs in my yogurt. I've only recently come to not mind celery in my soup. Maybe you don't care, but that's why it's important to use thin-sliced almonds. They're not quite slivers, don't get almond splinters or anything. When they roasted under the sauce on the salmon, they softened enough that they simply added a deluxe chew to the dish, and the flavor was incredible.

*NOTE: since this is such a forgiving dish, you could technically mix the almonds into the sauce before spreading it on the salmon. The reason I wouldn't is I think the almonds wouldn't soften QUITE as much, and their flavor wouldn't seep into the salmon QUITE as well. But I'm absolutely certain it would still be really delicious. (Just don't put the almonds on TOP of the sauce because they will turn black within seconds. In which case, you scrape it all off and try again...like I said, it's a forgiving dish! I know. I've learned).*

That's what we made for my birthday dinner, a repeat of Michael's birthday dinner (differences: didn't blend side dishes, had pre-made rice so didn't add cinnamon, used a little more sauce, bla bla, I just went with it). It's just so good...a favorite for both of us! Here's the full menu:

• Salmon Pesto Mayo with Almonds (just pack them on the salmon in a somewhat generous layer, then spoon the sauce over; it will probably spill on the sides a bit, doesn't matter)
• Rice (make sure you use butter and salt when you cook it-- you can even add a sprinkle of cinnamon for a subtle, mysterious hint of luxury)
• Freshly sliced avacado (when it's cold it's an even awesomer blend with the salmon flavor. You can eat it separate, or you can dish the slices onto your rice, or you can take a bite of it with the salmon-- it's all good)
• Sauteed mushrooms
• Some kind of romantically sparkling drink (we used pear this time-- yum!)

Maybe a professional chef would tell me that these foods don't go together. But that chef would probably change their mind after tasting it all, because all these foods have a sultry, buttery taste that's contrasting enough between them all to add variety but close enough to keep the meal as one delicious experience from taste to taste. It's amazing, I'm serious. The avacado smooths into the salmon flavors and just...ahhh...and the rice butters it up with a warm new texture, and the sauteed mushrooms are the perfect touch for romance. Of course, the salmon tops it all. It is so, so, sooooo fantastic.

Also? This is all really fast and easy. Especially if you made the rice ahead of time (if not, rice cooks in about 20 minutes) (for all you rice-cooker-addicts, I will do a post of how to make rice...yeah, I'm not kidding).
The salmon, depending on its thickness, broils in about ten minutes, usually less.
The avacado? You slice it.
The sauteed mushrooms take something like...I don't know, less than ten minutes.
Ding! That's it!

The only thing not on the menu this time around was the glazed pineapple. That's okay. But it's a really wonderful dessert to top it all off.
But...and please don't get tired of me for saying this, I can hardly help myself...I didn't even feel like I needed dessert because the flavors were so delicious and perfect that I wanted them to sit in my mouth all evening. Mmmm.