I love the honesty that accompanies this image of a beautifully plated piece of salmon. Yakman admits that the veggies were frozen and that the pesto came from a jar, but is also careful to state that the fish is fresh from a local market. I like the combination of time saving convenience foods with the lovely piece of salmon. Sometimes that's just what you have to do to get dinner on the table.
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I have a secret to share with you all. Most of the time, when I'm just cooking for myself (but want something more than just a bowl of cereal), I recreate the foods I grew up eating (there was a lot of salmon/chicken/turkey burgers paired with broccoli/string beans/zucchini in my childhoo). I don't branch out or try new recipes. I steam a veggie and quickly bake/broil/ saute a piece of protein and I call it a meal.
Last night was the perfect example. I had just enough cooking energy to defrost some frozen salmon (from Trader Joe's and of decidedly unknown age), bake it with a little butter and lemon and steam a head of broccoli. It wasn't ground breaking or exciting, but it was tasty and filling. When it was done, I sat down at the table, taking my first sustained computer break in at least four hours and ate. It was quiet, simple and really restorative. Oh, and yummy. Because what's the fun in eating if it doesn't taste good!
Some great foods to buy from local businesses, including scones and soda breads from The Keltic Krust, sweet breads and pastries from LollipopTree, and tapioca pudding from the Spice & Rice restaurant.
We've all heard about eating fish to get more Omega-3's fatty acids in our diet. I was browsing through CNN.com and ran across an article on omega-3 in canned fish.
Of the types of canned fish discussed the focus was on tuna and salmon. Tuna varieties have varying amounts amounts of omega-3's. Albacore, also called "white meat tuna," has the most with a four-ounce serving packed in water having 1.06 grams. You get 0.5 grams from a four ounce serving of albacore packed in oil. I thought this was interesting that the water pack is better for you having more omega-3's. The article says, "Since omega-3s are oils, they don't disperse when the fish is packed in water, and draining the water allows most of these beneficial fatty acids to remain in the fish. But tuna packed in oil provides an environment where the fish's natural oils intermingle with the packing oil, so when the can is drained, some of the omega-3 oils are lost."
I didn't realize that canned salmon has even more omega-3's than tuna, with a four ounce serving having 2.2 grams. Unlike tuna, the omega-3 levels among salmon varieties are basically the same.
After watching an episode of Chef at Home, I've been experimenting with chef Michael Smith's recipe for salmon and potato cakes. The Food Network Canada website has his recipe here, but it looks like they've jumbled a few of the steps around or perhaps left a step out. Step two reads, "Meanwhile heat a sauté pan over medium-high heat and when it's hot, add oil." Step three: "Using a potato masher, mash them together." Obviously something is amiss. At any rate, if you have salmon leftovers (not to be confused with these guys), this is a good way to use them up. Let's assume we're starting from scratch, however. Smith suggests pan-frying a salmon fillet, which I did the first time I made this recipe. The second time, I broiled it, which I think is more convenient and I didn't notice too much of a difference in the taste of the final product. So, either pan-fry or broil a skinless 1 pound salmon fillet until it's just cooked through and flakes easily. When I broiled the salmon, this took between 15 and 20 minutes.
I have fond memories of the classic Club Sandwich. I would sit patiently in the clubhouse doing homework while my Mom played out her tennis game, then share a sandwich with her, quietly pulling it all apart while watching her and her all-white-clad lady friends chatter on about life.
See, that was what I had to do -- pull the sandwich apart because the double-decker is too big to eat like a normal sandwich. Today, I still have the same problem, and wonder why the sandwich was built this way in the first place when it will eventually have to be dismantled into one regular sandwich and one open face sandwich.
The question will remain unanswered, and we certainly can't change a classic. Or can we? Though the Club sandwich is typically made with turkey breast, bacon, lettuce, and tomatoes on toasted white bread with mayo, I recently had a Salmon Club sandwich on grilled sourdough. It was delicious, though I still ended up eating half of it with a fork.
While there are worries about mercury and other toxins in seafood, fish is still a healthy source of protein, high in omega-3 fatty acids and other vitamins and minerals, that people love to eat. But adding one more negative strike to seafood is the issue of sustainability. Some species are over-fished and others are simply discarded when caught due to a lack of demand. Farming can be a solution in some instances, but not all, and keeping track of what types of fish are the safest and most environmentally friendly can be a challenge.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a Seafood Watch (SFW) program that is designed to help make seafood consumers' lives easier. Their website aims to provide enough information to help people learn more about sustainable seafood and make more environmentally sound choices. They provide a printable guide that gives you an idea of the good and bad choices in different areas of the country, or you can browse the guide online, if you don't need to take it along with you.
A Harvard-based study suggests that eating oily fish high in omega-3 fatty acids may lower the risk of arrhythmia by improving the electrical signals that keep the heart beating regularly. The study also linked diets high in oily fish to lower resting heart rates, which are generally regarded as less of a risk than high resting heart rates, Food Production Daily reported. The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, was based on dietary data collected from more than 5,000 people in the U.S. in 1989 and 1990. Researchers of course noted that further studies are needed to explore and confirm the results.
The Salmon Farm Protest Group has announced plans to hold an Action Hour across the UK on the 14th October.
The protest, to be held outside the UK's supermarkets will run from 11am to noon. The purpose? the groups activists will distibute leaflets highlighting the damage that fish farms have done and are doing to the wild slamon and sea trout and to the environment.
They wish to highlight the hidden costs of buying cheap salmon from fish farms. These include the pollution of coastal and freshwater lochs, wild fish driven to near extinction by fish farm sea lice, significant levels of dioxins in farmed fish and the dominance of mulit-national foreign-owned companies has led to job losses in rural communities.
When I was in Seattle last weekend, I couldn't help but notice a popular (and clever!) bumper sticker all over the city: "Farm-Raised Salmon Dyed for You."
Meanwhile, an interesting article in the New York Times dropped some remarkable facts about recent trends in smoked salmon:
Many -- nay, most -- major retailers on both coasts and in the Midwest (Wegmans and Costco included) buy their smoked salmon from one source: Brooklyn's Acme Smoked Fish.
Whereas the industry shifted from nearly exclusive use of wild salmon in the 1980s to farm-raised salmon in the 1990s, recent bad press about farm-raised salmon -- like the aforementioned bumper sticker -- has caused the industry to swing back towards wild salmon.
Smoked salmon has undergone a remarkable shift of late: unlike most everything else, smoked salmon is less salty than ever before.
Still to be determined is how the Pacific Northwest wry bumper sticker industry will respond.
We've all heard about eating fish to get more Omega-3's fatty acids in our diet. I was browsing through CNN.com and ran across an article on omega-3 in canned fish. 
What do you serve at the fall's first dinner party? How about oven-roasted pork loin? 
While there are worries about mercury and other toxins in seafood, fish is still a healthy source of protein, high in omega-3 fatty acids and other vitamins and minerals, that people love to eat. But adding one more negative strike to seafood is the issue of sustainability. Some species are over-fished and others are simply discarded when caught due to a lack of demand. Farming can be a solution in some instances, but not all, and keeping track of what types of fish are the safest and most environmentally friendly can be a challenge.
A Harvard-based study suggests that eating oily fish high in omega-3 fatty acids may lower the risk of arrhythmia by improving the electrical signals that keep the heart beating regularly. The study also linked diets high in oily fish to lower resting heart rates, which are generally regarded as less of a risk than high resting heart rates, Food Production Daily reported. The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, was based on dietary data collected from more than 5,000 people in the U.S. in 1989 and 1990. Researchers of course noted that further studies are needed to explore and confirm the results.
The Salmon Farm Protest Group has announced plans to hold an Action Hour across the UK on the 14th October.
Salmon: the alternative to cold cuts. 
When I was in Seattle last weekend, I couldn't help but notice a popular (and clever!) bumper sticker all over the city: "Farm-Raised Salmon Dyed for You." 
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