Deep Breath...

Today, I cooked salmon for the first time. Ever!

I really love cooking and trying out new recipes, and I think I'm pretty good at it too (patting self on back:). However, seafood has always stumped me. Frightened me. Unnerved me. But today, I was at Meijer and they had salmon, you guessed it, on sale, and it looked so nice. So I decided, "Its now or never."

I get home, and hop online to my favorite recipe sites - epicurious, Smitten Kitchen, Orangette, Food Network, and Pioneer Woman. Didn't see much that looked good until I went to the Tasty Kitchen section of PW, and (angels singing) there it was. Salmon in a Foil Packet. Its easy, there's little to no clean-up, and I like everything that goes in it! To paraphrase Joey from Friends, "Garlic, good! Wine, good! Lemon, good! Butter, gooooooooood!"

A few notes as I was making it...
~ Our salmon filets came with lots and lots of bones in them. Fortunately, they were big enough that they were easy to find. (Although I found myself wishing for one of those really fine needle nose pliers like they use on Top Chef. But I just wanted them to look cool.) Steve and I both noted that it did make us slow down and concentrate more on chewing our food which sounds strange, but is really interesting when you think about it. You taste more flavor and are more aware of texture. Plus, its good to slow down and unwind at the end of a busy day.
~ I would use more lemon. The garlic was pretty powerful, and I like garlic so it wasn't all bad. But the wine got lost in the shuffle. So next time: same garlic, less wine, more lemon juice.
~ Use good dill!  Whether its a newly purchased dried dill or a bit of fresh dill, use good dill! We just got the faintest taste of it and it was quite nice, though we would have liked more. Our dill was over 1 year old... too long.
~ And don't forget Ina's rule, "If you're cooking with wine, make sure its wine that you would drink."

And the salmon was delicious!

Salmon in a Foil Packet
Adapted from carmelasmythe on Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 pound salmon filet(s)
1/3 cup white wine
Juice from 1/2 medium-small lemon
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dill
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. butter, cut into small cubes

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place a large square of foil on a sheet pan and sprinkle lightly with olive oil. Place salmon filet(s) on top.

Drizzle white wine and lemon juice over salmon, and sprinkle on garlic, dill, salt and pepper. Dot the cubes of butter evenly on top of the salmon.

Bring up sides of the foil to fold/roll together and create a nicely sealed packet. Leaving packet on the sheet pan (to save a crazy mess in the stove, you know), bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven, but don't open the packet, and let it sit for an additional 5-10 minutes. Fish is ready when it is opaque and flakes with the touch of a fork (don't look for it to be that whitish-pink all the way through - it'll be overcooked).

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy...

"This summer, I will try more recipes for fish and healthy seafood."
So said I a month ago. But, I tried my first recipe today, which is only two days after the official start of summer, so I'm all good, right?

Steve's not a huge fan of seafood and I'm a little skiddish of making it at home, but a soup sounded like an easy way to go. And it was! It made our house smell great too.

Now, sure the recipe calls for bacon, oil, and cream, but don't let that scare you off. They're in reasonable amounts, and if you use healthy oil and fat free half and half, it helps. The bacon... well, its bacon. Not much you can do about that.

Side note on the fish - every chef or cook will tell you fresh seafood is better than frozen, which it is. But I had the tilapia in the freezer and forgot to thaw it. So I just cut it while it was frozen and it worked so well! The pieces were all a uniform size and cut really easily, and since it cooks in the broth, being frozen was not an issue.

The soup was really good! It was fresh-tasting, not too fishy, not too heavy, and with a little bread or salad on the side, makes a nice supper. The only drawback is (and this may not even bother you) that when it cooled, while I was putting the leftovers away, the soup smelled much fishy-er. I think it should re-heat fine, but next time, I'll just make enough for one meal and call it good.

Tilapia Corn Chowder
Not really adapted from Foodnetwork.com
Ingredients
2 ounces bacon (about 2 slices)
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 leek, white part only, halved lengthwise, rinsed and thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
8 ounces Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (about 4 ears)
1 1/2 pounds tilapia fillets, cut into bite-size pieces
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme (I didn't use this, don't let that stop you though!)
1 cup half-and-half
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Directions

Chop bacon and cook in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until crispy, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Add oil to the pan. Add celery, leek, salt and pepper and cook until the vegetables just begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add broth, potatoes and corn. Bring to a gentle simmer. Cook until the potatoes are just tender and the corn is cooked through, about 8 minutes. Stir in tilapia and thyme; return to a gentle simmer. Cook until the tilapia is cooked through, about 4 minutes more. Remove from the heat.

Stir in half-and-half, lemon juice and the reserved bacon. Garnish with chives, if using.