Recipe: Lemon Chive Seared Salmon with Lemon Soy Broccoli and Cinnamon Batsami Rice

Hi gang,

This is an exciting post for me.  It's been a busy couple of seasons around my life.  Lots of jobs, travel, snot, and random activity has kept me out of the kitchen more than I like.  As a result, I've also been a lot less healthy than I like.  But everything is getting back on track.  I've had time to chop and prepare on the go salad lunches.  I got in four full work-outs this week (and didn't die, which frankly surprises me), and now, I HAVE TIME TO COOK!!!!!  Like, make a real dinner, in my kitchen, including sauteing shit, cook.  It made me so happy to cook a meal.  It made me more happy that it turned out healthy and delicious.

First the ingredients: 

Lemon Chive Seared Salmon
1 14-16 oz salmon filet
1/4 cup chives
2 lemons
salt
pepper
1-2 TSP butter

Lemon Soy Broccoli
2 cups broccoli
1/2 lemon (juice)
2 tsp soy sauce
sesame seeds

Cinnamon Batsami Rice
1 cup batsami rice (uncooked)
1/2 cup yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1 TSP butter
1 TBSP cinnamon

Let's begin with the salmon.

Evenly season the filet with the salt, pepper, and chives, squeeze the juice of half of one lemon over the salmon, slice the remaining half and place on top of the filet.  Let sit for 30 minutes.

If you tilt your head and squint, it's a face.  

Next, we sear the salmon.  Evenly line your pan with butter (you won't need much, 1-2 tsp) and turn the heat on high.  Sear the salmon, skin side down for 4-5 minutes (depending on thickness), flip and sear for an additional 4-5 minutes.  I also squeeze a little more lemon juice into the pan once the salmon is flipped.  A lot of recipes/chefs will tell you not to flip, but this method works well for me.  It helps me evenly cook the fish, without it getting overdone or being raw in the middle (both have happened to me in the past).  This piece of fish was really thick in the middle and it turned out perfectly.  Medium in the middle, not overdone on the edges.  Happy salmon!

While your salmon is sitting in lemon & chive land.  Let's prepare our sides.  First up, is broccoli. 

I love steamed broccoli and this is one of my favorite broccoli recipes.  Steam your broccoli until soft, but still firm.  For me, this was approximately a 5 minute steam.  Move to a bowl and let cool.  Toss in the juice from one half of a lemon, 2 TSP of low sodium soy sauce, and mix well.  Top with 1 TBSP of sesame seeds.  Be careful not to use too much soy sauce.  Broccoli absorbs flavors so well, too much soy sauce and you'll lose all the other flavors.

Lastly, let's look at our rice.  Saute your onions & garlic until soft, but not browned.  Boil 1 cup of batsami rice and let cool for 3-5 minutes.  Mix in your onions & garlic, add 1 TSP of butter and 1 TBSP of cinnamon and mix well.

I felt like I overused the cinnamon, or perhaps needed an additional flavor.  I also considered the possibility that this dish just didn't match the other flavors of the meal.  I feel it might go better with a savory meal and this plate was more citrus-centric.  However, my man loved it exactly as prepared.  

The finished plate:

...and a cat with salmon fever:

Give me that fish or I will kill you slowly

So that's it.  The meal was delicious, our plates empty, my cats pissed that I didn't share.  

Thanks for reading!  Hope you like the recipes!

Melissa

Snacks Your Mom Would Approve Of

Hola,

It's summer!  Still!  I know, I already made a big deal about summer and it's luscious fruits.  Although, I really shouldn't.  It's basically summer all the time in Los Angeles and the rest of the country seems pretty pissed about the whole thing, so.....

Yay, air conditioning!  Better?  Great!

Today, I want to talk about snacks, healthy ones.  Sorry if I misled you, but the title should have been a give away that we weren't talking Doritos and cupcakes, which may or may not be my dinner once in a while. 


Yay!  Dinner!

I have a couple of very simple and healthy snack ideas that have proven successful.  We'll start with the one that my friends love so much you would think I sprinkled crack & diamond juice on top of veggies, but really it's just limes.


I make life taste good!

 You'll need:

1 yellow bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
2 avocados
2 cucumber
1 lime

Get ready for the bull-shittiest recipe ever.  It's not even a recipe, it's a snack idea, and some of you might say, "duh" and to you I say, "shut it". 

Thinly slice your peppers, avocados, and cucumbers, squeeze the juice of one whole lime over the top, add sea salt and/or cayenne pepper, if you'd like a salty and/or spicy zing to your healthy treat.  Commence face stuffing.  It's easy, it's yummy, and it takes about 10 minutes to prep.  I make stuff from scratch, I plan menus for days, I cry from fear and excitement when Thanksgiving rolls around and my friends have never made a bigger deal over something served at my table...except my guacamole, which is equally "duh" worthy but delicious.

Which brings me to....

Guacamole (Healthy, except for all the tortilla chips you'll eat)

6 avocados
1 roma tomato
2 jalapenos
1 small white onion
5-6 cloves of garlic
2 limes
cilantro
sea salt
pepper

Alright kids, everyone thinks they make good guac.  Seriously, every person I've ever spoken to who has at some point in their life assembled guacamole thinks they are king of the mutha f**kin guac kingdom.  I think mine is decent, however, let the record show that the last time I made guacamole for some party guests, it was gone before I had finished setting out the rest of the party snacks.  Long live the king of MFGK.


King of lameness

Begin by finely dicing your onions, garlic, and jalapenos*, throw those in your mixing bowl and juice one lime over the diced ingredients.  While they mingle, slice, peel, and pit your avocados, finely chop a handful of cilantro (yes, that's my real measurement), and dice and deseed the roma tomato.  Add salt & pepper to taste and mix.  Begin the mixing process with a fork to mash up your avocados, once they're smashed to your pleasure, add the juice of your second lime and stir until you're happy.  I mix my guacamole until almost completely smooth, but chunky is good.  There's no judgement here, this is a safe place.

A couple of additional notes about this particular guacamole.  First, regarding the jalapenos, I completely deseed them.  I love spicy, but in my opinion, too much heat takes away from the guacamole.  Next, I use very little salt in my mix and a lot of lime juice.  Tortilla chips are almost always salted, so you don't need extra, but you can never have too much lime....unless you've done too many tequila shots and limes now make you puke.  Seriously, I know a guy.*

So those are my picks for quick, delicious, summertime snacks.  Enjoy responsibly.

Footnotes:

*Be careful deseeding jalapenos and for the love of Jesus do not touch your face until your hands have been washed.  I learned this the hard way.

*I know no such guy.

Peace, love, and snacks,
Mel