The Home Cook: Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon

You may recall that post a few weeks ago, where in I proclaimed I was cleaning out my hutch. Such proclamations should not be made or undertaken lightly, as we've learned here at Casa de Teknicolor. As it stands I'm about 1/3 of the way through the task, as number one in "items of importance" and "items making the greatest contribution to a tidied storage space" is holding me up...thinning out the magazines. Oh my, yes, this has become a bit of a stumbling block as I realized that the only way to "organize" them is to get rid of them. Which at first seemed like a good plan...

1) Tag recipes that look good.

2) Photocopy recipes.

3) File recipes into existing binders.

4) Remove Cooking magazines from premises and unload on to unwitting relatives.

Currently I'm stuck on step 2. This copying business has moved from just plain tedious to doldrum and maddeningly time consuming. I have also found that repeated viewing of the luscious photography in magazines such as Gourmet and Cooking Light has done something else to slow the wheels of progress. Since that initial foray into new food territory on Valentines Day (Steamed Shrimp) I've been cooking up a new foods storm. There has been a new technique for steak fries, a cooking charrette focused on Baked Potato Soup, a blissful trial of Smitten Kitchen's Hoisin and Honey Riblets (Which you must go make, immediately, this second with NO delays...because when she said you would laminate and frame that recipe she WAS NOT LYING.) and something else that no amount of prodding from my husband has been able to do. Cook fish.

That great list of things that Kelli is hesitant to eat just shrank by one whole food family. Fish is on the menu. Growing up I did eat fish; fresh walleye, crappie, catfish, bluegills and the occasional trout made up our summer repertoire of scaled edibles. But mostly they were either breaded and fried or steamed with butter in foil packets on the grill. But for some reason I never made the jump from the local fish population to the wide world of shipped in fish. Oddness abounds in my diet. Salmon, tilapia, grouper, orange roughy, cod and halibut...staples for most people, is a bandwagon I just never considered joining. So throughout life when offered a choice between land loving and finned, land loving won. Until last week.

The Kitchen has been in a bit of a rut since late January, we have a quarter of beef that for all it's deliciousness is devouring every square inch of freezer space we have. In order to free up some of that prime real estate, there has been ground beef, steak, roasts and the odd bit of pork or chicken until it all got to be a bit much. Desperate for something different I was seized by a spirit of culinary adventure and a recipe from one of those magazines.



I will not go into detail about how very nice this recipe was, or how that in my 27 years as a member of Team Planet Earth, this is only the second time I've had salmon. Because if I do that I will loose any minute standing I have as a person who knows her way around the kitchen. Instead I will say that this recipe is yummy and also very basic. For most people this probably translates into "Fast Supper Idea" and/or "Boring", which it is...most likely on both counts. But for now, while slowly making friends with a whole new branch of the food family I'm ok with boring. Boring won't scare me and make me abandon my new culinary buddy in the wilds.

Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon

from May 2006, Cooking Light

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons low-sodium Soy Sauce

1 teaspoon finely grated Orange Zest

1 6oz can Pineapple Juice

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

2 teaspoons Canola Oil

4 6oz Salmon Fillets (about 1-inch thick)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground Black Pepper

Grated Orange Rind (optional)

Combine first four ingredients and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small sauce pan over high heat, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced to 1/4 cup (about 15 minutes) set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 F

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Sprinkle both sides of salmon with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper. Add fish to pan, cook 3 minutes. Turn over and place in oven; bake at 400 for 3 minutes. Remove from oven and brush with the sauce. Return to oven and cook 1 minute or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Brush with any remaining sauce and sprinkle with Orange Rind and serve.