Hello, all! I’ve decided to post a meal monthly – recipes, photos, what we drank, the whole deal. This month, I’m sharing dinner we made a few nights ago: 

King Salmon with Baby Rainbow Potatoes and Shaved Fennel Salad. 

What I love about this meal:

There is almost no prep required for all three of the dishes. The only prep for the salad is getting the zucchini and the fennel thinly sliced, but if you have a mandolin, you can get that done in a couple of minutes.

Also, there’s no overlap with stove, oven, etc. The salmon is cooked in the oven, the potatoes in the microwave and the salad can be kept in the fridge until the dinner is ready.

The salmon is the star, but the two sides are always a hit, and so easy.

The potatoes have a nice flavor that isn’t overwhelming and goes with pretty much anything, which made it an easy choice for the starch. Also I make these all the time.

The salad is a safe bet as well, it has a fresh flavor that holds its own but doesn’t compete with the salmon.

 

Salmon:

My husband is the (good) cook in our house, so I was excited when he suggested salmon for dinner. 

For four of us total, we bought just over 2 pounds of salmon. Generally we try to get one fillet, but it worked out better this time to get two. 

Salmon: As I said, there is very little prep work that needs to be done for the salmon. Preheat the oven to 275 and take the salmon out of the fridge and put it out to reach room temperature or thereabouts. We let the salmon sit for about 10 minutes on a baking sheet with parchment paper beneath. 

The only other things you need are olive oil, one lemon, and salt.

The amount of each varies depending on the size of the fish; for the 2 pounds we got, we used 1 lemon, enough coarse salt to sprinkle evenly but not heavily over top, and a little bit of oil – king salmon is very fatty on its own.

Cook the salmon for 20 minutes and check it to see if it is cooked to your taste. If you like it pretty rare, maybe just for 15 minutes. Otherwise, check the salmon pretty frequently after the 20 minute mark. You don’t want it to be dry – I’d say maybe every 2 minutes.

When you’re happy with it, put remove it from the oven and cover it with foil for about 3-5 minutes.

Rainbow Potatoes: 

These are ridiculously easy and always good! All you need is a bit of olive oil, garlic salt and of course the potatoes. I generally find these in a small purple mesh bag – I’d say about 18-20 per bag. I used the whole lot for the four of us and had some left over. 

Rinse the potatoes and put them in a bag with 1/2 T. olive oil, and 1/2 T. garlic powder. When the contents are all mixed, empty the bag into a microwave safe bowl.

I turn on the microwave for 4 minutes, then prick them with a fork, and move some of the potatoes on the bottom of the bowl to the top. Usually they will need another 3-4 minutes, and then they are done.

You will want to play around with the amount of garlic salt you use for these (I use more but I LOVE garlic).

Shaved Fennel Salad: 

I’ll just give you the link to the recipe here; this is one of my two favorite salads to make. The dill gives it a really fresh flavor, and the pine nuts and cheese give it just enough richness without being overpowering.

https://food52.com/recipes/54290-shaved-fennel-salad

Drinks:

We started with a bottle of 2008 Pol Roger, and then moved on to a 2011 Montes Alpha, a Chilean red wine. These two bottles were more than enough for four people.

I wasn’t pleased with the photos I took on my phone, so I’ve left them out – next time I’ll use a real camera!

Please comment if you end up trying any/all of this and let me know what you think