Salmon Family Effort

 This week on Nueva Receta ... a meal involving the whole family. We checked the fridge before sending our son out to our favorite fishmonger (our only monger, actually -- we almost never buy seafood elsewhere). We noticed some mushrooms, and he was convinced that we could do something good with them and salmon. 

He picked up some Canadian wild-caught salmon, and at a nearby seafood restaurant later that day he noticed plenty of dishes using that combination. Knowing we had excellent salmon waiting for our use the next day, we all had other-than-salmon deliciousness at Turks (highly recommend). 

The next day came, and Pam took a turn, moving us from general concept to specific recipe, care of New York Times Cooking. Salmon With Sautéed Mushrooms, Shallots and Fresh Herbs called for a few things we did not have, but for which she could verify we had ready substitutes. (Good: no need to tangle with the robot at Stop & Shop again).

I then did the easy part: making these dreams a reality. Cooking is often easier for me than figuring out what to cook. The link above might be pointing to a subscriber-only page; in case it is, I'll describe this in a bit more detail, with the modifications I made (or would make next time). 

First, I started cooking rice as a side dish, later sprinkling some dried thyme into it.

Then, I put the huge fillet, skin down, in a casserole dish, with just a bit of olive oil in the bottom. I brushed a bit more oil on top and sprinkled with salt and fresh-ground black pepper. 

Next I heated oil and butter in our indispensable cast-iron skillet at medium high, adding most of a package of white mushrooms, quartered. I stirred these until they were softening and -- as the recipe says -- sweating a little. Then I reduced heat to medium and added minced onion (in lieu of shallots) and garlic, and finally salt, pepper, and dried thyme. Some combination of fresh or dried thyme and rosemary was called for. The combination would be nice, I'm sure!

Image: Johnny Miller & Susan Spungen

Finally, I added just a couple ounces dryish red wine (again, substituting for the dry white in the recipe) and cooked, stirring, constantly, until it had mostly evaporated. I spooned this sauce on top of the salmon as it was just cooked (opaque. to the top of the thickest part). This was delicious with the rice and the same wine I had used in the sauce.

All three of us declared this a success and we will have it -- with variations -- again. We do not, however, agree with the NYT assertion that we will never want salmon any other way after having this. Regular readers (or quick searchers) of this blog know that we know a lot of good ways to prepare salmon.