Prosciutto-Wrapped Salmon and Lentil Salad

Excerpt from Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics

This dish was created to be light-but-filling, bright-yet-rich, and filled with the fresh produce easiest to get this season.

I made this meal for two, but it would be very easy to adapt for one or for four. 

Inspired by British chef Jamie Oliver, I decided to experiment with Vital Choice Wild Pacific King Salmon fillets wrapped in the thinnest of sliced prosciutto and roasted just a few minutes, until the prosciutto began to crisp.

Prosciutto is a dry-cured Italian ham that is often served thinly sliced and uncooked. When roasted, it crisps up to a paper-thin coating around the salmon.

The combination was delightful and incredibly flavorful – just six minutes was all it took to deliver a silky, perfectly cooked king salmon portion surrounded by a tiny bit of crispy, smoky prosciutto.

To balance the richness of the fish, I prepared a very fresh and light salad of warm lentils, crisp baby arugula and pink grapefruit sections, dressed with a light-on-the-oil grapefruit vinaigrette.

Lentils are incredibly easy to prepare and are a nutritional powerhouse. They’re a great source of fiber, plus they’re packed with minerals (potassium, calcium and zinc), B vitamins (including folic acid) and lean protein. 

This recipe makes a substantial mid-day meal or delightful dinner for two. I hope you enjoy! Give this a try and let me know how it turns out!

A few notes for the cook
King salmon, the state fish of Alaska, is the fattiest and highest in omega-3 fatty acids among all wild Pacific salmon species.

These stellar qualities make king salmon the richest and most flavorful wild Pacific salmon available. 

To preserve their fresh-caught quality, Vital Choice’s premium quality king salmon is line-harvested by hand from small boats, immediately put on ice, and then flash-frozen within a few hours of leaving the water.

One note: the Vital Choice Wild Pacific King Salmon portions I happened to have on hand were not skinless. However, a sharp paring knife was all that was needed to carefully de-skin the portion before wrapping it in prosciutto.

Prosciutto-Wrapped King Salmon with Lentil and Arugula Salad

1 cup green lentils
4 cups fresh baby arugula (or other fresh green)
½ cup Italian parsley leaves (or other fresh herb), roughly chopped
2 teaspoons grapefruit juice (left over from sectioning, see below)
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 pink grapefruit
2-6 oz. portions of Vital Choice Wild Alaskan King Salmon, thawed
2 very thin slices best-quality prosciutto

Preheat the oven to 425º. 

Bring 4 cups of water plus 1 teaspoon salt to boil. Stir in lentils, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20-25 minutes, until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally. Drain lentils and set aside.

While the lentils cook, section your grapefruit. Using a sharp knife, remove the top and bottom peel, including all of the white pith, to expose the flesh. Cutting down the sides from top to bottom, remove the peel completely, so all that remains is the fruit. Carefully cut along the side membrane to remove each individual section of grapefruit. Reserve the remaining membranes and flesh for the vinaigrette.

To make the vinaigrette, squeeze the remaining grapefruit membrane and flesh over a strainer to remove the excess juice. Add two tablespoons grapefruit juice to a bowl with white wine vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard and whisk to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Combine warm lentils, baby arugula and chopped Italian parsley in a large bowl. Dress with vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper.

Line a baking sheet with foil and season salmon portions with salt and pepper. Wrap each skinless salmon filet with one piece of prosciutto, tucking the ends underneath the salmon portion. Drizzle each piece lightly with olive oil and roast in the center of the oven 6-8 minutes, until prosciutto crisps and salmon is flaky yet still moist.

Serve salmon portions with lentil salad and grapefruit sections. Enjoy!

Adapted from content initially published by Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics.

Pure Joy and a Plum Tartlet (Or Two)

From In the Kitchen with Bossygirl archives.

I have recently started working for myself again, and it seems the first thing that means is that I’m cooking for myself again, too! Not just to feed the hungry at home, but to nurture myself.

It’s no accident that my last post was in January 2010 ... I had just started working full-time again. Sadly for me, 1 full-time job + 1 school teacher husband + 2 kids = very little blog-worthy cooking. Of course there were memorable meals here and there, but I definitely lost the space in my life for a marriage of my passions – cooking and writing.

So now I’m working my way back towards balance: more exercise, more time with my husband and kids, more laughter and more cooking!

I have some serious blogging catch-up to do from this week (watch for these to become links to fresh posts): Pattypan Squash Soup, Giada & Joseph’s basil pesto, Italian sausage–stuffed globe zucchinis and peppers. But tonight, I start with Shiro Plum and Almond Tartlets, because, honestly, Andrea asked me to, and what Andrea wants, Andrea gets!

Like everything else from this week, this amazing tart (of which I made two) starts with produce from my Ollin Farms farm share. This is the absolute favorite gift I give myself each year. We visit the farm each Monday and pick up a bounty of gorgeous, organic produce, which serves as the nutritious start to the week’s menus.

Starting with precious little Shiro plums, which look just like yellow cherry tomatoes, I made the tartlet from one of my all-time favorite, completely-falling-apart cookbooks, Patricia Wells At Home in Provence. I have made this recipe countless times, but always as a full-size tart – with apricots, plums, raspberries. So easy, so beautiful, so, so delicious.

As my nine-year-old pointed out, the crust smells like spritz cookies and tastes like the richest shortbread ever. This tasty cookie-like crust is topped with fruit halves and a luscious honey and almond cream. Yum.

But here’s my newest discovery: TARTLET, not tart. The recipe halved perfectly to fit in a six-inch tart pan. Why the supremacy of tartlet over tart? EVERY PIECE IS AN OUTER PIECE! Meaning lots of crust in every bite. Seriously, to die for.

The second best thing about this tartlet? I had enough fruit to make two, which made me a total hero at home. It only takes about 15 minutes to put together, an hour to bake, and about four minutes to gleefully inhale.  

And the very best thing? Making it on a Friday morning, at home with my husband and kids, puppy playing at my feet, windows wide open, for no other reason than pure, unadulterated culinary joy!

Roasted Mussels with Fennel

Excerpt from Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics

Thanks to El Niño, we’re having a very snowy winter here in the Colorado Rockies. Despite recent mild temperatures, I still have three feet of snow in some parts of the lawn.

And while I love the beauty of winter, my palate is starting to crave some of the brighter flavors of summer produce!

This simple dish, made with Vital Choice Frozen Pacific Blue Mussels, is perfect to satisfy that longing for summer flavors while using just a few items that can still be found in the dead of winter.

Roasting the mussels in the oven at high heat gives them a wonderful, somewhat smoky flavor. I promise you’ll be scooping every big of tomato and fennel from the bottom of your bowl, and I recommend serving this with a piece of crusty sourdough (or two) to dip in the fragrant wine and cream broth.

My 11-year-old daughter and I shared two pounds for lunch today and this was my best mussel preparation so far! Please give this a try and let me know what you think! 

A few notes for the cook
If you haven’t cooked with Vital Choice Frozen Pacific Blue Mussels, you won’t believe how easy it is to create a restaurant-quality meal in a matter of moments!

The beauty of Vital Choice mussels is that, after being cleaned and vacuum-packed, the mussels are immersed in 175°F water for 13 minutes. This process pasteurizes and partially cooks the mussels, making it very easy to pull the meat from the shell.

The mussels are also rendered sand-free by this immersion. In addition, the mussels can go directly from the freezer to the oven with no thawing, cooking in just 10 minutes.

If you don’t thaw your mussels in the refrigerator, run them quickly under cold water to remove the chunks of ice so you can pull off the beards before cooking. 

And here’s one CRUCIAL tip: Because they’ve been pre-cooked and pasteurized, even unopened mussels are perfectly safe to eat!

Roasted Mussels with Fennel
Makes 2 servings, easily halved for 1

1 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon cooking oil or butter
½ cup shallot, minced
1 cup dry white wine
½ cup heavy cream
juice of ½ lemon
3 sprigs fresh thyme (or ½ teaspoon dry thyme)
2 pounds Vital Choice Frozen Pacific Blue Mussels
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
salt and pepper to taste
crusty bread for dipping

Preheat oven to 450ºF.

Remove the stalks from the fennel bulb and reserve the tender fronds for garnish. Cut off the root end of the fennel bulb, remove the hard core from the center, then thinly slice the bulb with a kitchen knife or mandolin slicer. 

Heat the oil or butter in a large sauté pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the sliced fennel and cook an additional 4 minutes, until fennel softens.

Add thyme, wine, cream and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Simmer 3-4 minutes then remove from heat.

Arrange mussels over the fennel sauce and top with diced tomatoes.

Roast in the oven until the frozen mussels are plump and open, 8-10 minutes. If you thawed your mussels in advance, roast 5-6 minutes. Shake the pan once or twice during roasting.

Transfer the mussels to shallow bowls, top with tomatoes and fennel sauce, then garnish with reserved fennel fronds.

Serve right away with crusty baguette or sourdough bread to dip in the fragrant and flavorful wine and cream broth. Enjoy!

Adapted from content initially published by Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics.

Prawns and Scallops with Broccolini

Excerpt from Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics

This scrumptious, light-yet-satisfying winter recipe was adapted from The New York Times – you’ll be amazed at how full of flavor such a simple preparation can be.

My version calls for broccolini (or baby broccoli as it was called at my market), but you can easily substitute almost any other green vegetable: broccoli rabe, asparagus or even kale or Swiss chard.

Despite the misnomer, broccolini isn’t really baby broccoli – it’s a hybrid of broccoli and Chinese broccoli. It’s very tender, rich in vitamin C and also provides vitamin A, calcium, folic acid and iron!

I love broccolini because it takes very little prep – the spears are so thin and tender that they don’t require a great deal of trimming or breaking up like broccoli crowns, and they look beautiful on the plate.

I added Wild Atlantic Sea Scallops to the original preparation because I happened to have ½ pound in the freezer, but this recipe would be delightful simply made with Pacific Spot Prawns.

The pairing of prawns and scallops provides a wonderful mix of textures and flavors. If you happen to have both on hand, you won’t be disappointed.

I was able to do all of the prep for this simple meal while the oven preheated, including peeling and deveining the prawns. You’ll love how quick this is, and the addition of orange zest lends a surprising pop of brightness.

A few notes for the cook
Be sure to take your scallops and prawns out to thaw in the refrigerator overnight. If you haven’t worked with prawns before, here are a few helpful tips.

I highly recommend you wear gloves when peeling the prawns. The raw shells can be sharp, and I’ve gotten a few little paper cuts in the past from them.

Here’s the easiest way to prepare the prawns: Wearing gloves, remove them from their packaging and run them quickly under cold water, just enough to rinse off any remaining ice.

To remove the shell, use kitchen shears to snip from the base toward the tail end, gently prying the flesh out of the shell and deveining if you like (many of the prawns I cooked didn’t need to be deveined). 

You can leave the tails on for presentation purposes or remove them as you remove the shell – your choice.

Roasted Prawns & Scallops with Broccolini
Makes 2 servings, easily halved

1 pound broccolini (sometimes called baby broccoli)
2 tablespoons cooking oil of choice
¼ teaspoon sesame oil
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
12 ounces (1 tray) thawed Vital Choice Pacific Spot Prawns, peeled and deveined
½ pound thawed Vital Choice Wild Atlantic Sea Scallops
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Trim the ends of the broccolini (if needed) and toss with 1 tablespoon cooking oil (I used olive oil), sesame oil, 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes and salt. Set aside.

Peel and devein the prawns, then toss gently with thawed scallops, 1 tablespoon cooking oil, orange zest, remaining red pepper flakes and salt to taste.

Arrange broccolini in bottom of a large roasting pan, then layer prawns and scallops on top of the greens.

Roast for 10 minutes, turning once, just until the prawns are pink and the scallops are cooked through. 

Serve with an orange wedge if you like and enjoy!

Adapted from content initially published by Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics.

Sockeye Salmon and Asparagus with Lemon Caper Sauce

Except from Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics

Three cheers for the return of spring produce! I can’t tell you how excited I was to see nice, fat spears of fresh, organic asparagus in the market yesterday.

With asparagus as my starting point, I paired it with Vital Choice Petite Wild Alaskan Sockeye Portions for a light and healthy lunch for two, but it would easily double for four. It would also work well with larger sockeye portions.As you can see, this dish, while quick and easy, is colorful and just lovely. It would be wonderful for a festive spring brunch or Mother’s Day celebration.

A few notes for the cook
Vital Choice pure, wild-caught sockeye salmon packs a powerful nutritional punch, with over 1,000mg of omega-3s, over 700 IU of vitamin D3 and 4-5mg of astaxanthin (a powerful carotenoid) in every 4-ounce serving.

By roasting the salmon directly on the asparagus spears, you impart a bit of that rich, “classic” flavor of Wild Alaskan Sockeye to your veggie (feel free to substitute other healthy greens if asparagus hasn’t appeared in your market yet). 

The lemon and caper sauce below, inspired by Bon Appétit, is much lighter than a more traditional beurre blanc sauce (which is made with a copious amount of butter), but it still captures the brightness of the lemon and the delightful tang of capers.

You have some options with your sauce – you can either pour the sauce over the salmon and asparagus before it goes in the oven or spoon it over the dish once it’s done.

I chose to roast the salmon and asparagus with just a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, then top them with the sauce once it was out of the oven – it would be delicious either way (or both!).

Sockeye Salmon and Asparagus with Lemon Caper Sauce
Makes 2 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil (or cooking oil of choice)
1 tablespoon minced shallot
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon drained capers, roughly chopped
½ pound asparagus, trimmed
2 4-ounce portions Vital Choice Wild Alaskan Sockeye, thawed
Olive oil (or similar) to coat asparagus
Salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons fresh dill, minced
Lemon zest to garnish

Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

Whisk together olive oil, shallot, lemon juice and capers and set aside. You can make this a few hours ahead if you like and refrigerate. If you’re using zest as a garnish, be sure to zest your lemon before you halve and juice it.

Trim asparagus as needed and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper to coat and arrange in a single layer on a roasting pan.

Pat salmon portions dry with a paper towel, season with salt and pepper and arrange on top of the asparagus.

Roast until the salmon is just opaque (or cooked to your ideal level of doneness), 6-10 minutes. Mine was perfect after 8 minutes. The asparagus will still be quite crisp – if you prefer it more well-roasted, start it 4-6 minutes before adding the salmon to the pan.

To serve, arrange asparagus spears and salmon fillets on the plate, top with sauce and garnish with minced dill and lemon zest. Enjoy!

Date Night Metamorphosis, or How an Ugly Duckling Became a Beautiful Swan

From In the Kitchen with Bossygirl archives.

Don’t worry – this post is not about my magical transformation for date night. I was in yoga pants and Brooks running shoes the whole time.

No, this post is about how this:

Became this:

One thing I love about our weekly organic CSA farm share is that we’re given foods we either A) don’t think we like (kale), B) don’t know what to do with (garlic scapes) or C) don’t know what they are. This week’s mystery item falls squarely into category C.

So what is it? A red kuri squash. It looks like a small, technicolor cousin of the pumpkin, but it’s actually related to the Hubbards. Hey, me too actually! It’s described as having a chestnut-like flavor, and while I can’t really vouch for that (being a once-a-year chestnut eater), Ben and I both found it more flavorful and less one-note than butternut squash.

Last night we found ourselves alone, at home, with no children (woohoo!), but tired and still recovering from the seasonal crud. Sad as it may seem to some of you, we couldn’t imagine anything more delicious than a quiet, beautiful dinner at home followed by a little Cardinals baseball. You get older, you get lame. What can I say?

So, what to do with my red kuri squash? It was metamorphosed into the simplest, most gorgeous, most light-yet-satisfying soup. I used a recipe contributed by Alice Waters to Food & Wine. I figured Alice Waters ... how could I go wrong? She did not disappoint!

A few notes: this recipe couldn’t be easier from an ingredient standpoint. It’s literally cubed squash, half an onion, one bay leaf and some water. Simmer, purée, done. Garnish with roasted fennel (what a revelation!), toasted pecans and a swirl of olive oil. Perfection in a bowl.

However, if you’re not comfortable in the kitchen, then this recipe does leave some details out. First, it calls for squash “peeled and cubed.” So, the squash isn’t remotely easy to peel (I used an Oxo peeler) and it neglects to mention that you’ll need to scoop and deseed the center (just like a pumpkin). Not technical, but more time consuming that one might imagine.

Second, it calls for a medium fennel bulb “cored and cut into thin wedges.” Have you ever cored fennel? This was my first fennel experience, so I ended up on YouTube searching for “how to core a fennel bulb.” Easy as can be, not at all technical, but I had no idea what that meant.

That said, the soup was incredibly flavorful, gorgeous in color and remarkably dynamic given its simplicity. The garnish is key.

I served this with sourdough bread, Fromager d’Affinois (one of my favorite double creams), and a simple salad made with delicate skyphos butter lettuce (another CSA favorite), avocado, cucumber and a white wine vinaigrette.

All in all, a huge date night success (and I didn’t even have to change out of my yoga pants)!

Sautéed Shishito Peppers in 3 Easy Steps

From In the Kitchen with Bossygirl archives.

When you have a cold and everyone else in your house has a cold and you can’t really taste anything, then your best bet is to whip up some delicious shishito peppers for bedtime snack. Because, why not? It may be the only thing you can savor, and savor you will!

So, here’s how to make Sautéed Shishito Peppers in 3 easy steps:

1) Get some. Seriously, you won’t regret this step. I got mine from my Ollin Farms CSA, seemingly the source of all organic goodness in our household this summer. I first had shishitos with great friends over sushi in Vail. They look like they’re going to be spicy, but they’re NOT. Except about 1 in 10. Then they are, but just a bit. Totally worth the gamble.

2) Sauté them. Heat a bit of olive oil over medium heat, then sauté for about 10 minutes until they’re a bit blistered and a bit charred. Sprinkle with salt (I used kosher) and douse with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Done!

3) Fight. You’ll likely have to battle your significant other for them while they’re still warm. You won’t regret this step either. They’re delicious!

Last night, I served my sautéed shishito peppers with a side of NyQuil. Tonight, I’ll be preparing them as a side for my absolutely favorite we’re-too-busy weeknight dinner, Bacon and Broccoli Rice Bowls.

If you manage to get your hands on some (see step 1), let me know what you think!

A Note on Alice Waters and Chez Panisse

I have a passion for cookbooks. New ones, old ones, popular ones, obscure ones. I have a modest collection just shy of 100. The more splattered, the better!

I’ve been keeping a cookbook out that I want to explore further and start cooking from. This is one step in my efforts to splatter up my cookbooks more.

We’ve been working through The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. Since we’ve made a few delicious things from this book already, I thought I should broaden my horizons and move a new book to the table.

Of the 90+ cookbooks I own, four are by Alice Waters, the chef and co-owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley. While I’ve not been there yet, I’ve read a great deal about Alice Waters and her unparalleled influence on American cuisine.

But, to be perfectly frank, I am wildly intimidated by her cookbooks. The techniques are complex and the ingredient lists are exotic. Today, I got out one of her books, the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook. As we lunch, I flipped through the book, growing less and less confident.

Smoky Garlic Sausage with Kale? Sounds good. Oh, wait, you make your own sausage?!? No.

Pigeon Salad with White Bean Toasts. Longmont has plenty of pigeons, but no.

King Salmon in Fig Leaves. Where will I get fig leaves? Or nasturtium blossoms? No.

Artichoke, Cardoon and Endive Salad. I love artichokes, but what in the world are cardoons? Alice says cardoons resemble “giant gray-green heads of celery.”

Sadly, I believe Alice is headed back to the shelf.