A Feast of Salmon

We’re especially blessed here in Puget Sound country with fresh wild salmon almost the year around. Right now coho and kings show up in the seafood markets. Kings are reddest, most flavorful of fish, and the coho and sockeye vie for second place. They sell for a bit less, too. I bought a 2-pound side of coho at an affordable $6 a pound. It gave us six servings with a bit leftover for a salmon salad for two the next day.

Here’s what we had for dinner, with a cousin from Oregon and his wife and son:  Salmon baked with dill and lemon, carrots and peas cooked with ginger and chicken broth, baked red potatoes with butter, a tossed salad and choice of dressings, and for dessert strawberries with whipped cream.

SALMON WITH DILL AND LEMON
6 servings
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1 Tablespoon Olive or canola oil
1 (about 2 pounds) salmon fillet
1 ½ teaspoons dill weed
Salt and pepper
1 lemon, sliced
Garnish, optional: Curly kale or parsley
Tomato rose

Line a baking sheet with foil. Oil the diagonal strip the salmon will rest on. Lay the salmon fillet atop the oiled strip. Sprinkle it with dill, salt and pepper. Arrange the lemon slices along its length. Bake about 15 minutes, until the thickest part of the salmon is opaque. Serve on the baking sheet. The foil makes a beautiful background to the colorful fish. Garnish if desired.

Tomato rose: Peel a tomato or two. Chop the innards for the Salada Mixta which follows. Arrange the peelings in a flat spiral to resemble roses. Place among the kale or parsley.

Wild salmon gives you Omega 3 fats plus about 400 I.U. of Vitamin D per serving. You don’t get those in farmed salmon. Vitamin D, food scientists now tell us, can help ward off cancer and lessen pain perception as well as cooperate with calcium for healthy bones. Add some magnesium-rich food to the menu, along with Vitamin A to make the Vitamin D more usable, and to strengthen your bones so they’re less apt to break if you take a tumble. Some doctors advise an intake of 1,000 to 2,000 I.U. of Vitamin D a day for the sake of our skeletons, and to make us less susceptible to colds, flu, and pneumonia.

GINGER CARROTS & PEAS
6 servings
3 long carrots
1 ½ cups frozen peas
½ cup water
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon chicken granules
4 slices fresh ginger root, minced
Salt or more chicken crumbles, to taste 

Cook the carrots covered, in the water, butter, and chicken granules, until tender. Add the peas. Cook 4 to 5 minutes more, until the peas don’t taste raw anymore, but are still bright green.

Both the carrots and the berries gave us Vitamin A. We could have made the menu even healthier by putting yogurt on either the potatoes or the strawberries, and wound up the meal with nuts to munch on while we sat around the table visiting. They provide a good magnesium source.

SALATA MIXTA

6 servings
7 cups washed, dried, torn red and/or dark green lettuce  or 7 cups mixed salad greens
2 Roma or plum tomatoes, diced
2 slices red onion, chopped
Sliced olives
3 cloves pickled garlic (from oriental store), sliced
1/3 cup diced yellow bell pepper
1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced, optional
Salad dressing of choice: vinaigrette, ranch, mayo, or green goddess 

Place lettuce in a 2-quart bowl. Add remaining vegetables. Toss. Offer dressings separately. Let diners choose.

STRAWBERRIES & WHIPPED CREAM: Remove leaf clusters from berries. Slice berries into a serving bowl or into individual dessert dishes. Drizzle with honey. Gently mix. Let marinate while you eat the main meal. Spray-on whipped cream, applied by each diner to his or her liking, is fun. Hand whipped real whipping cream, flavored with vanilla, tastes even better, and you can control the sugar content, using Splenda® if desired, or better yet, sweetening to taste with honey.

To a pint of whipping cream, whipped, whip in a teaspoon of vanilla, and sweetening to your liking. That makes a big bowl of whipped cream, but trust me—they will eat it all up, especially if any teenage boys are present at the table. If there are, you might do well to supply some gingersnaps or other crisp cookies to go with the strawberries and whipped cream.

The raw vegetables in the salad and the strawberries give you valuable enzymes as well as antioxidant vitamins and minerals.