The Humble Kitchen

People seem intimidated cooking a whole fish but it really couldn’t be easier. I had this lovely wild sockeye salmon, headless, but you can’t have everything. Flipping through a Jamie Oliver book I saw a recipe for Roast Salmon with fennel, parsley and tomato. Having no fennel I substituted some thinly sliced onion.

Thinly slice lemons, onion (or fennel) and chop tomatoes.

Mix with chopped parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Season fish and rub with olive oil. Stuff with tomato mixture. Bake at 400º until just cooked, anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes depending on the size of the fish.

Serve with roast potatoes.

And something green, like asparagus.

With the leftover salmon I made another Jamie Oliver recipe, fish cakes.

Leftover salmon, boiled potatoes, lemon, parsley, eggs, salt and lots of pepper.

Formed into fish cakes, ready to cook or freeze for later.

Delicious.

-Jennifer

Thanks to Sarah for taking the roasted salmon photos.

I ran across this recipe on the Gourmet website. The only problem with the recipe is it only makes about 22 of these luscious little dumplings. I have doubled the recipe so I can stash some in the freezer for later. My daughter and I sit in front of the TV and set up a dumpling factory. The only real challenge is keeping the cat away, Muenster is her favorite cheese.

For the dumplings:

To serve:

• sour cream
• chives

Melt butter in heavy pan, add onions and a good pinch of salt. Cover and cook over a medium flame for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once onions are softened, uncover and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. Onions should be soft and nicely browned.

Meanwhile cover the diced potatoes with water and a good amount of salt, and bring to a boil. Cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain thoroughly and mash. Stir in onions and grated cheese.

Place a rounded teaspoon of the filling in the center of a wonton wrapper. Brush edges with water and fold in half to seal. Make sure to squeeze out any air pockets. Keep going ’till you’ve used up all your wrappers and/or filling.

To cook, heat oil in a non stick saute pan over medium/high heat. Place dumplings on their side in a single layer. Cook for a few minutes until nicely browned. Flip dumplings over, add 1/3 cup water and cover immediately. Cook about 5 minutes until water has evaporated and dumplings are warmed through. If any water is left in the pan, cook uncovered until it had evaporated and the dumplings have browned on the other side.

Serve with sour cream and some snipped chives.

To freeze remaining dumplings, lay out in a single layer on a sheet pan and freeze until hardened, then transfer to a plastic bag. You can cook them the same way you would the fresh dumplings.

-Jennifer

Mmmmm, poutine. It’s not for everyone, but that’s OK because that leaves more for us. We are testing a theory that you have to be of French Canadian decent to enjoy this mass of fries, cheese curds, and peppery velouté sauce. We are through my father, and we all happily gobble the stuff up. My mom tried it out of politeness, my brother’s wife would rather not be in the same room with it.

To make it at home, from scratch, is a bit of a process, but if you have help, it’s a fun process. Here’s a good website on the subject.

While my daughter was busy peeling and slicing floury potatoes my brother was making a peppery roux, whisking, straining and reducing sauce. I was on deep fryer duty.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is tracking down cheese curds. Trader Joe’s carried them briefly, but no more. I tracked some down at Whole Foods, made by Spring Hill Cheese Co. and they were good.

Once your velouté is ready, and your fries are made, it’s just a matter of assembly. Dig in and enjoy.

-Jennifer