Coconut Salmon ~ Mmm, Mmm, good!

I had an urge to make pudding last night. What to use? A bit of brown rice in the cupboard and part of a huge can of coconut milk! That’ll do the trick. But, what to do with the leftover coconut milk?

Salmon thawing in the frig for supper and why wouldn’t coconut milk fit the bill? Think tropics -- hand-caught fish and coconuts falling off tall trees. Well, enough of that talk. After all I’m in the middle of New York State. The nearest coconut tree I know of is at the Smithsonian Mall -- in the Conservatory of the U.S. Botanic Gardens -- in Washington DC, five hours to the south.

A basic pan-seared salmon fillet is my favorite. A couple of tablespoons of flour, salt & pepper. Warm the pan over medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil and one of butter. Dredge the salmon fillet in the flour mixture and shake off the excess.

As soon as the bottom is browned and the fish looks cooked just 1/8-1/4 inch up, turn the fish with tongs. Cook for another 3-5 minutes then start spooning on coconut milk. The milk will sizzle away when it drizzles down onto the pan. Keep spooning for a minute or two.

Turn off the heat under the pan and place the fillet on a plate. Cover the fish with a “tent” of aluminum foil tucked tightly around the edges of the plate.





Stir a few more spoonfuls of coconut milk into the pan.

After a minute or two, remove the foil tent and spoon the extra sauce onto the salmon.

I completed my meal with a mixture of mesclun (baby field greens) and arugula from my garden, topped with EVOO and red wine vinegar.




TV TRAY



As a single person, I sometimes often take my meal to the living room and eat off a TV tray while watching a movie or documentary. TV tray meals are usually carefully prepared thrown together with whatever happens to be in the kitchen, no measurements recorded.

Tortillas, ham, sour cream, chives, cream cheese, tomato, provolone cheese; broccoli


(Last but not least, I hope you'll take a few minutes to visit my other blog, CORNING NY STEP BY STEP -- a view of the city where I live.)

Stir fry salad

Many of my meals are invented on the spot. When I notice it's time to eat, I check the refrigerator, the freezer and the cupboards. It's like a clothing closet, when you think you have nothing to wear. Experiment, mix and match, see what you can come up with.

A couple of days ago, I made this Stir Fry Salad. It's simple, really, so I won't give you a long, complicated recipe. Only one photo today, but in the future, there will be more for each entry.

The base of this dish is mixed greens. Earlier in the summer, I would have used mesclun from my garden. Sadly, I note that the mesclun is all used up and I truly miss having it fresh each day. You can use your favorite lettuce. Or uncooked spinach. Or any mixture of greens.

I stir-fried zucchini slices, green beans and scallion slices in a bit of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) in a wok. Toward the end of the cooking, I added a quick splash each of sesame oil and Tamari sauce. On another day, I might have used plain soy sauce in place of tamari. If I'd added meat, I might have used Worcestershire.

After placing the stir-fried veggies on the greens, I added some tomato chunks. There was a small amount of salmon left over from the previous night's meal, so I broke it up and added it to the salad. Wish I'd remembered I had olives in the frig; they would have been a nice addition, as would artichoke hearts if I had them.

I drizzled the whole thing with a small amount of EVOO. So easy. So delicious. So filling.


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