Salmon for Supper

Otherwise known as Kate's Kitchen Kapers and Kulinary Katastrophes

This one turned out fine, though:  it's easy, so go for it!

ROASTED SIDE OF SALMON WITH SHALLOT CREAM

Here is the picture from Cooking Light magazine.  They have promised both simplicity and guest-pleasing WOW-ness.  For once, we have no guests, so I will just try to WOW Chuck and my kids.  The magazine is also showing vintage serving dishes, dill sprigs and attractive sides.  Forget it!  We're just doing broccoli and roasted yams tonight.  I am pretty burned out on major cooking.

 Ingredients
1/4 C creme fraiche (I just used sour cream)
2 T finely minced shallots
1 T 2% milk
1 T chopped fresh dill
1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/8 tsp kosher salt, divided
1 salmon fillet (I got about 1 1/2 lbs)
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 T chopped fresh chives

These are fairly pedestrian ingredients.  You won't have any problem finding them.  Try to ignore the picture of my lemon, which shows it to be a lime.  Not my fault!  My father-in-law brought home-grown limes from his garden in Santa Barbara (am I spoiled?), and this one had a very pale skin.  I thought is was a lemon until I cut it open and smelled it.  Oh, well.  We forge ahead.

I will cook on wood this evening, so I need to get the fire going about 40 minutes in advance.

Directions
 Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

 The red wine and caramel corn are not on the ingredient list.  Those are (let's call them...) garnish.

 Do all your chopping and mincing, so you have tidy piles of shallot, chive and dill.  Do a little extra dill, because it is so yummy.

 Combine the first five ingredients and 1/8 tsp salt in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.  Or just use a spoon, because the dill gets all caught up in the whisk.

 Place the fish, skin side down, on a parchment lined baking dish.

 Rub the fish with oil; sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper.

 I put mine in the oven with four sweet potatoes that were almost finished, having roasted away during the preheat period.  Try to ignore the over-exposure of this picture - my oven doesn't have a light in it.  Also try to ignore the yam with foil wrapped around its end.  it was getting a little soft on one end, so I lopped off the soft part and covered it in foil to maintain its roasting integrity.

bake at 450 degrees F for 8 minutes.

If you have a broiler, remove he fish from the oven, preheat your broiler to HIGH, and broil the fish for four minutes, or until it's done.  When I am using the gas burner in my oven, I have broiler capability; but not when I use wood.  I'll just bake it a little longer and sacrifice that toasty brown color we saw int eh magazine photo.

Yay!  Whew, it turned out!  Sprinkle the fish with chives, cut it into portions and serve it up with the creamy sauce.  

And quick, take the foil off the one yam and slice it open and get it onto a plate before the kids notice that there is a yam that is not like the others and fight over who has to eat it.