Salmon: Several Ways to Make it Fabulous!

Two months ago, I contacted Chef Dennis for some much needed advice. Similar to what Chef Dennis is doing, my family has also been trying to incorporate more fish into our diet. Not being the biggest fish fans, and stocked with a freezer full of salmon, I knew I needed some innovative ideas to kick my salmon up a notch in order to get my family to eat it.

Chef Dennis, an incredibly talented friend that I am very fortunate to have gotten to know through the wonderful world of blogging, came to my rescue with some great ideas! Once I had the knowledge I knew I couldn’t keep the incredible ideas to myself, they needed to be shared. Today, I am very pleased to share with you what our wanna-be fish loving family likes to call- Fabulous Ways to Make Salmon Edible by Chef Dennis.

The photos in this post are courtesy of Chef Dennis as well! Be sure to stop by his site- More Than A Mount Full and say hi. Once you do I know you’ll be back, over and over again!

Salmon is pretty versatile and you can do all kinds of things to it, one of my stock recipes was to grill it or roast it, and to serve it with a mustard dill sauce… pretty simple.

Start with some Dijon mustard, a little cream or Greek yogurt, and a little chicken stock; let it reduce for a bit and at the end if it needs thickening add a piece of butter that has been rolled in flour, sort of a quick roux, it’s called a Beurre manie. That’s how I thickened all my sauté dishes at the restaurant right before serving. If it doesn’t need to thicken, a piece of butter is always a good thing to add, and always at the end so you can taste it. I would serve shrimp with it also, but that’s up to you. If you do, just sauté them a bit in the pan before you start building your sauce and add them back in to finish right before you serve.

Stuffing salmon can be a good way to serve it also. Try spinach, roasted peppers, and some type of cheese- goat, cheddar, gruyere, whatever you like… and stuffing doesn’t mean it always has to be in the middle if they are not thick enough. Simply place it on top and bake it together. The stuffing can be versatile… an herb butter would go well with it, or even a cold yogurt dip with dill or other herbs.

Puff pastry is always a good choice for salmon as well. I would cook the salmon a bit first, let it cool, add stuffing of some sort, and wrap it in puff dough. Seal it well, and let it all chill….when it’s time to cook brush the puff with a little beaten egg or milk, and bake at 350 till the puff looks golden brown, this goes well with the Dijon sauce too.

Now it may sound strange but a Korean BBQ type sauce would add some nice flavor as well, serve it with rice and some bitter greens…

I also do a pistachio encrusted salmon with a fruit salsa that everyone loves; it’s actually back on my blog from last June.