Update: 2011 Summer Goals

Thought I'd give everyone an update on where we stand with our summer goals. 

1. Try not to kill our herbs. Specifically, the basil plant. 

Basil plant: alive (yes!!)
Cilantro plant: alive
Parsley plant: alive, but looks diseased. We'll put it out of it's misery. 
Rosemary plant (that we tried to resurrect): still dead
Tomato plants: kind of alive, but dying (Note: this is not totally my fault, as the workers fixing our building sprayed some sort of sealant, which killed all of the downstairs flowers AND grass. So I'm not totally to blame.)

2. Make flavored oils. But without giving ourselves botulism. 
Still working on this. Tried a quick ginger oil right around the time of the goal-setting, and it didn't knock my socks off. Maybe we can use some of the still-kicking basil plant for this. 

3. Stop shopping at the local chain grocery store.  
Um, pass.


4. ADDITION: Christine will learn how to grill meats. 
I have mastered preheating the grill for Paul. I ALMOST had to cook last night because Paul was on the phone (and I was out of control starving). I managed to get the grill ready, get everything outside, then found him out there cooking while still on the phone. In my apparent rush to mentally prepare for this foray into grilling, I burned the couscous. Oops. I'll get back to what I'm good at -- making sure stuff doesn't burn in the kitchen.

June 13: Grilled Salmon with New Potatoes, Broccoli...and a minor fail

We're big salmon eaters around here. Paul had picked up this nice big fillet at the store. We weren't sure how we should prepare the salmon, especially a large piece like this (about 2 lbs). I found a recipe online that looked easy and tasty. 

Fillet? Filet? I went with the two L version.

The only thing we were missing was mayonnaise to make the sauce. So, we decided to make our own. I decided to make it in the food processor. First, add an egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard. I only had one egg left, so it was do or die. 

So far so good...

I started the food processor, and used the feed tube to add in the oil. I think it went too fast into the mixture, because it didn't work. I couldn't get the mayonnaise to emulsify. 

Yerg.

So, we scratched the sauce, and simply went with the marinade on the salmon instead. (Note: I'm not sure it's technically a marinade since we didn't let it sit and soak into the salmon, but for the sake of keeping the marinade and the failed sauce straight, we'll call it the marinade). The marinade consists of vegetable oil, prepared horseradish, soy sauce, garlic, salt and pepper. 

Getting the salmon all ready to go. 

We decided to make some small red potatoes in olive oil and rosemary as a side. The potatoes were small enough that we figured they could cook alongside the salmon on the grill. 

Everything went on the grill. The potatoes went on first while I was making the marinade for the fish. The potatoes were on for about 20 minutes (you really can't overcook the potatoes here.) Paul cooked the salmon for about 5 minutes on each side. 

We think it was 5 minutes per side. Note to self: update the blog in a more timely fashion and you won't have friends cursing you while eating raw fish. 

Everything came off the grill looking quite tasty!

We steamed some broccoli to go with the salmon and the potatoes.

You also can't go wrong with rosemary potatoes in my mind.

YUM. I would totally make this marinade for the salmon again. It was really tasty! I'm glad turned out okay without the sauce. The fish was really nicely cooked, even the end pieces which can dry out. By making such a big fillet, we also had salmon lunch for each of us for a couple days. Normally I fear reheating fish in the microwave, but both Paul and I commented that it still tasted delicious a day or two later.