Dinner Tonight - Wasabi Salmon

The only way I ever had salmon as a kid was canned made into salmon patties. We had them at least once a week. When I was married to my first husband we lived very close to my brother. Money was tight then and I was making salmon patties for dinner one evening while my brother was at the house. Now my brother is a lot like my Dad was, very thrifty. He suggested I buy canned Jack Mackerel the next time instead of canned salmon. I checked it out at the store and it was a lot cheaper than the salmon. But it did not taste nearly as good. I never tasted fresh salmon fillets or steaks until I was well into my 30's and I had ditched the first husband. What a tremendous difference! I still will occasionally make salmon patties with the canned stuff, but I much prefer fresh fillets anytime!

Wasabi Salmon is a great way to prepare some fresh salmon fillets. This is a recipe from Cooking Light that is one of our favorites. The salmon fillets are marinated briefly in the soy/wasabi marinade and cooked off in a non-stick skillet in a matter of minutes. The short marinade time really imparts much flavor to the fish. I suggest you follow the directions and use a low-sodium soy sauce as the regular stuff will make it too salty.

For the side dishes we had tossed salad along with Broccoli with Orange Sauce, another Cooking Light recipe from 1995. This was good, but it did not overly impress us. I much prefer a lemon flavor with broccoli. I steamed the broccoli on top of the stove with my very old steamer basket, and it was slightly overcooked. I have a vegetable steamer, but I did not want to get it out and it takes longer to use. However, I prefer the flavor of it when it is cooked in boiling water for just a few minutes and then placed in an ice bath to stop the cooking. You could always toss the broccoli with the sauce in the skillet to reheat it. I may try that method next time.

Be sure to check out the ARF Tuesday roundup over at Sweetnicks tonight for some new recipes using lots of veggies and antioxidant rich foods! Sweetnicks does such a great job with this weekly roundup, I can't keep up with all the great new recipes to try!

Also, Alysha at The Savory Notebook has started a weekly Virtual Recipe Club. The theme this week is SOUP! A woman after my own heart! I could eat soup every night and never tire of it. Be sure to check it out this week!

For tomorrow we have another main dish from the Cooking Light archives that will use some of the canned crabmeat I stocked up on. Be sure to check it out! Until then, enjoy the recipes.

Recipes
Broccoli With Orange Sauce
adapted from Cooking Light, March 1995

Wasabi Salmon
adapted from Cooking Light, December 2003