Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Something Fishy

The other night, as Matt and I were just settling down to sleep, he said, "Do you hear that?"

I lifted my head from the pillow a bit and heard... nothing out of the ordinary. "No," I said, and relaxed back into the cool fluff.

"It sounds like someone's playing a radio."

I strained to catch even a hint of bass rhythm wafting through the air. "I don't hear anything."

Matt sat up. Oh, for petesake, I thought. It's obviously not the kids, and what are you going to do about it if it's the neighbors?

He got out of bed, and headed for the bedroom door. He paused as he went by my nightstand, and stopped. "I think it's your alarm."

I still couldn't hear anything. I sighed and turned over to face him, the nightstand, and the radio alarm clock. "No, I haven't had the alarm set since-" With my face three inches from the clock, I heard it. Faintly. Barely. The radio.

Someone (likely Penny) had turned on the radio, turned the volume almost entirely all the way down, and then wandered off. I turned the volume back to something normal and then turned off the radio.

How long had it been like that? Would I have ever noticed?

We all know my hearing sucks, but seriously, I felt like a LOLCat: "LISNIN: UR DOIN IT RONG."




There was condensation on the cars this morning. Penny stopped at the first window she came do -- my front passenger window -- and drew a large oval with her finger. Inside one end of the oval, she drew a circle, and filled it in. At the other end, just outside the oval, she drew two more, smaller ovals.

"Look, Mommy! I drew you a picture!"

Having seen this picture before, I knew what to say. "What a beautiful whale, sweetie! Thank you!"




Today is brief anecdote day because Alex woke up last night at 2:15, and then after Matt put him back to bed, he laid there and talked to himself for a while, so I couldn't get to sleep because I was braced for him to get fussy. That lasted until probably about 3 or so. And then he was up this morning at 5:15.

Today is not a day to split my morning coffee half-decaf, is what I'm saying.




I made salmon for dinner last night.

And I mean real salmon, not canned stuff. I actually bought a 12oz salmon fillet and cooked it.

I don't eat fish. I've never been big into seafood. Fishsticks, which hardly count, and canned tuna or salmon, but not real fish, much. I used to love shrimp when I was little, but somewhere around middle school or so I developed an aversion to their kind of poppy texture that I'm only just beginning to get around now.

But about 90% of my friends are going to Weight Watchers or on some other diet right now. (No, really. K.T., Kevin, Elizabeth, Dave, Karen, Sam, John, my parents, most of the women and a couple of the men at work...) And even though I'm not really ready to join them, it's making me think about how to not-diet in a healthier way, if that makes any sense. And I've been hearing for years how fish is one of those really super foods -- nutritionally dense, low in bad fats and high in good ones, etc. One of the things that everyone should eat at least once a week.

And then I was watching one of my cooking shows (I don't even remember which one) and they had a slab of tuna that they just barely seared and served still rare and it actually looked really good. Maybe it's time to try fish again, I thought. I decided I would try real, fresh fish -- the last time I tried it, I went with a pre-seasoned, frozen thing, and Matt liked it but it had this nasty, back-of-the-throat freezer burn taste to me. And I'd try salmon and tuna, which my palate has at least a nodding acquaintance with, via the canned stuff. (I know, I know, it's like comparing fresh, sun-ripened tomatoes with ketchup, but there's a similarity.)

So this week was the first experiment, and it was salmon. I found a recipe that sounded both tasty and simple (a glaze, and then broil the fish) and I cut my fillet into three pieces and charged onward. The smoke alarm went off because the bits of glaze that pooled away from the fish burnt and smoked, but what was on the fish did what glazes are supposed to do.

I took the fish out of the oven when the timer went off and regarded it dubiously. "...or until it flakes with a fork," said the recipe. I did this once before, with another kind of fish, and never did figure out what "flakes with a fork" meant. I tentatively prodded at one piece with the spoon I was using for the couscous, and three big flakes fell off. Well, that answered that.

I brushed the last of the glaze over the salmon, and put couscous on the plates, and served it.

Penny was extremely reluctant to try the fish until Matt pointed out that it was pink, which is her favorite color. She wound up eating about half her piece -- maybe about 2 ounces of salmon, altogether, but at least she didn't take one bite and then stop completely. Mostly, I suspect, she was just full from the couscous.

Holy crap, I made a fish dish, and liked it! Matt was enthusiastic, and Penny didn't hate it... I'm going to make this again!

Here's the recipe:

Line a baking pan with foil, coat it with nonstick spray, and on it put:
12oz salmon, cut into 4-6oz servings, skin-side down (Next time, I might go with a bigger piece.)

In a bowl, mix:
2 Tbsp maple syrup (I used the real thing, but I don't know if that's important.)
2 Tbsp soy sauce (the original recipe called for low-sodium, but I like salt.)

Brush about half of it over the fish, being sure to coat all visible flesh.

Broil for 7 minutes, then take it out and brush about half the remaining glaze over the fish.

Broil another 6-8 minutes ("or until it flakes easily with a fork"), and brush on the last of the glaze.

Serve with rice or couscous.




Speaking of Penny trying new things... At John and Sam's for Mother's Day dinner, John grilled up a bunch of fresh asparagus. I had a couple of stalks, I don't know if Matt had any (we were swapping out because of Alex), but Penny ate like... four or five of them. She preferred it to the chicken or any of the other vegetables I gave her.

It never would have occurred to me to try her on asparagus -- it's such a strong flavor, and it's traditionally one of those foods kids hate -- but she scarfed it right down.

Mind you, if I buy a bundle next week and serve it, she won't touch it.

4 comments:

Ami said...

Mmmm, salmon. We eat a lot of fish. We get big bags of frozen salmon at Costco and usually cook them similarly to the way you did. We just brush on maple syrup, salt and pepper it and bake it at 350 for 30 minutes. So easy, and so tasty.

Liz Brooks said...

Ooh, awesome. Having survived the fresh salmon, I might try buying frozen again. Just not the frozen/pre-flavored bricks that we got that one time.

I wonder if slow baking makes the sugar less susceptible to burning/smoking than the broiling?

And do you know if it makes a difference whether you use real maple syrup or just plain pancake syrup? Specifically, I'm wondering about trying out the sugar-free syrup, which would make the dish a diabetic freebie for Penny. But if someone's already had a disaster with sugar-free syrup, then I won't bother trying it.

Anonymous said...

Yay, fish! I've never tried salmon with maple syrup as a glaze-- I'll have to try that out. ^_^ As to whether sugar-free works, I think it depends on how well the sugar substitute holds up to heat. The glaze is there pretty much to lock in moisture (doing the job that oil would do in a marinade), so if the other can do the job, more power to you. You can also try lowering the pan in the broiler to reduce smoking (ours doesn't adjust, but there's an under-pan thingie we can take out when we want stuff further from the flame).

I find salmon is a very flexible and forgiving fish-- that is, you can do it up a lot of different ways and it seems to be harder (alas, not impossible) to overcook. Mom's favorite preparation is to mix plain yogurt with a little mustard and salt and pepper, and spread that over the filets and bake them.

Last night I found fresh littleneck clams at the supermarket (as in, still in shell and breathing), so I bought some and steamed them in white wine with herbs, and dipped them in lime juice. Mmmmmmmmm.

Anonymous said...

Have you tried white fish? My current favorite is Halibut. I have found that salmon has to strong of a flavor for me and most of the whitefish I have tried is not as strong and takes better to marinades and things. That said none of them are as forgiving as salmon so you have to be a bit careful with how you cook them. My favorite so far is Halibut with a horseradish crust on top, yum!