Surely you’ve had occasion to want to serve an elegant meal that doesn’t require a degree in the culinary arts, yet will be impressive and memorable. Search as you might through a flock of cook books, a simple salmon recipe can’t be beat. Cooking salmon to perfection requires no special gourmet techniques, little time and delivers a heavenly entree your guests will remember with pleasure. The delicate pink-orange color, rich but understated flavor and flaky texture all contribute to diner satisfaction. You really don’t need to be an experienced cook to deliver Heaven-on-a-plate. In fact, you can make a nice reputation as a gourmet, based on a single, simple salmon recipe. Let’s see just how easy it is.
For some reason I haven’t yet divined, salmon is still a reasonably priced food. It’s available fresh or frozen, year around. While the best of the best is at the other end of your fishing line, barring that availability, the supermarket has a quite admirable facsimile. Commercial salmon fishing boats have facilities to process and freeze the fish within minutes of the catch. This salmon is marked on the package as ‘wild’, meaning that it was caught on the open seas. Alternatively, there’s the ‘farm-raised’ salmon, raised in contained sea beds and harvested at a certain size.
So what’s the difference? Wild salmon is more costly at the market, for obvious reasons. The fisherman can’t count on his catch. Farm-raised salmon yields a predictable catch, and so commands a lesser price. Various cooking magazines have conducted ‘blind tastings’ to see if diners can discern a difference in taste between the wild and farm-raised salmon. The conclusion? Some gifted individuals seem to be able to detect a superior taste and texture in the wild salmon, but such individuals are few and far between. Unless you have the nose of a perfumier, it’s unlikely you’ll notice a difference. Freshness is what really counts. With modern freezing techniques, you’ll be hard pressed to tell the difference.
Now that we have those product differences out of the way, let’s move on to how to prepare the perfect simple salmon recipe, the one prompting a postcard to your guests’ Mom.
If you’ve purchased fresh salmon, plan to cook it that day. Frozen salmon should be placed in the frig the morning of your dinner. The fish will be thawed by evening. All you need do is choose the method of cooking, all of which produce a perfect result. You can microwave, broil, grill or poach. All fish cooks well in the microwave. Unlike beef, which becomes tough in microwave cooking, fish cooks easily, with a perfect texture, in a matter of minutes. With fish, the microwave oven is quite forgiving. Depending on the thickness of the cut, the salmon will cook within 1-2 minutes per side. You can open the door and check as often as you like. When one side is done (the meat is opaque and not transparent), you turn it over. Cook until done. Now that’s a simple salmon recipe! If you choose to broil, grill, or poach, the same rules apply.
You can see that the actual cooking time of your simple salmon recipes is so brief, that you’ll want to have the rest of the meal at the ready. For example, if you’re serving the salmon on a bed of rice, cook the rice first! If a dinner salad is your first course, have it ready. Warm your bread. Once you’ve used this simple salmon recipe, you’ll see that it’s the rest of the meal that involves work and some culinary skill!
The beauty of the easy salmon recipe is that this food stands on its own. All you need to add is a fresh sprig of dill or tarragon and a slice or two of fresh lemon. At the risk of gilding the lily, how about some Hollandaise sauce? (There are some excellent packaged mixes.) Now, set the table and light the candelabra!
