Friday Salmon for Lent or any other time

What a busy day. My goal was to frame two pastels, but the glass guy didn’t deliver the size glass he was supposed to. I spent most of the day doing simple elevations for the builder as he had a million questions about cabinetry that the official drawings do not answer yet as we are only in the schematic phase for the house. At 8:00 PM Jim came out of his cave and said, “Are we going to eat?” I had dinner ready in 30 minutes.
Today’s recipe also came from my trainer. She was here today and we discussed yesterday’s recipe that I was not real happy with. She told me the following. The recipe is better with the pork than the chicken, but better for you with the chicken. I told her my objections and we came up with some other solutions. Use chicken thighs, rather than the breast, or leave the breast whole and then at the end, shred the chicken. I said I would use 2 cans of black beans next time and only one can of water. She said that she also likes black beans and often adds more. Finally we both agreed that we might try it with turkey kielbasa.

Spiced Rubbed Salmon from Everyday Food

This was to be a grilled recipe, but today turned rainy and nasty cold again. So instead of grilling the salmon and cabbage, I cooked the salmon in my speed cooker and the steamed the cabbage.

2t chili powder
1t ground cumin
1 t brown sugar
4 5 oz. salmon fillets
1 small cabbage cut in 6 wedges
2- 3 T EVOO
1 large carrot
Orange wedges

In a small bowl mix the chili powder, cumin and brown sugar with ¼ t salt and 1/8 t pepper. Rub the spice mixture on the salmon. If you are actually grilling, brush the cabbage wedges with 1 T EVOO. I just put mine in a steamer with salt and pepper.

If grilling, they say for the salmon 4-6 min and the cabbage 6-8min. If using the speed cooker, set the time based on the instructions for the number of salmon pieces. I started the cabbage before starting the salmon. All was great at the same time.

While all the above is cooking, peel the carrot and using the peeler, cut in long wide strips. When the cabbage was done, I chopped it and mixed it with the 2T EVOO and the carrots. It needed a little more salt and pepper.

I served up the salmon and the cabbage mixture and instructed Jim to squeeze his orange wedge on the cabbage. Jim pronounced this meal excellent. For him to pronounce cabbage excellent is a miracle. He loved the addition of the orange juice on the cabbage. Supposedly this meal is $3.30 per serving. I don’t really know as I buy the fresh salmon at Costco and cut it up and repackage it to serve us. Also it serves 4 and we have none left. So technically I served Jim for $9.90 and me for $3.30. That’s cheaper than eating out. Also this is a great Lent Friday meal.  Jim served a 2003 Serra Fiorese Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, Classico Riserva. Simply said, this was a dry, rich white wine from the Verdicchio grape and went very well with the meal.