Salmon with Aioli and Leeks

You could say it is a New Year's resolution of mine to cook more French food and less Italian. And now that I think of it, why? Italian food is quite delicious, and I pretty much know what I'm doing. I'm familiar with the ingredients and techniques, yet there is still so much I haven't cooked, so many territories yet to be discovered, enjoyed and documented. And I'm so much less likely to biff things up. But that would be so boring--delicious, but boring. I got a couple French cookbooks for Christmas, and I wasted no time jumping into a braised lentils recipe one dark and lonely night a couple weeks ago. But then friends called and I was out eating Creole rice with them mid-preparation. As a result (or maybe because of some other fluke), the lentil were heinous and inedible. Well, I did eat them, but I didn't enjoy it. And then I tried to bring the leftovers to work and the smell solicited dry heaves.

But instead of giving up, I went straight for the gold, the quintessential French accoutrement: aioli. Made of garlic and olive oil, what's not to like about the sauce? Well, there's a thickening process for one thing, and that always makes me nervous (unnecessarily in this case, and now I'm fascinated with emulsifying). And raw egg yolks, hmm, fishy. I'm no chef, but I'm pretty sure the lemon juice and vinegar cook the eggs. Truly, this recipe was surprisingly easy, not very messy and pretty quick.

I even got to use my garlic mincer last night. The mincer may have been the kitchen accessory that spawned my interest in cooking. Before then I thought the only garlic available was in a powder or salt. What's not fun about squeezing the guts out of a pungent clove?

But when I got to the part of the recipe that said "1 1/2 cups olive oil," I balked. "WTF? We're in an economic crisis here, I am not pouring five dollars worth of oil into aioli." It turned out I didn't even have that much oil.

So I halved the recipe (the remainder of the oil is back in that bottle), and voila, still more aioli than I was able to use on the salmon. What I love about this as well is that there is so much room for improvisation on this recipe. I've seen aioli with all manner of herbs and spices. One of my favorite restaurants serves it with their sweet potato fries--a-maz-ing. The salmon recipe is a tweak from The French Market by Joanne Harris and Fran Ward--do yourself a favor and skip the braised puy lentil recipe--with aioli and leeks instead of straigh dijon mustard (leeks are a mild member of the onion family, no worries, that's a vegetable I've looked up before on Wikipedia).

Aioli: 4 cloves garlic, minced sea salt (or kosher) 2 egg yolks 3/4 teaspoon dijon mustard 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar (yeah, I used balsamic) 1 1/2 cup olive oil pepper Mince garlic cloves (or bash up with a pestel and mortar) and whisk with salt. Add egg yolks (if you save the whites you can make macaroons--I am kicking myself for letting them go down the drain), vinegar and dijon and whisk together until smooth. Slowly whisk in the oil. Add pepper and more salt to taste. Salmon with Aioli and Leeks: 2 salmon fillets 1 leek aioli olive oil salt and pepper Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place fillets on baking tray and sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Brush aioli generously onto the fillets. Dice leeks to make little disks (as seen in the photo above) and place on the fillets. Bake for 12 minutes or until the salmon is flaky.

Jenny's Tilapia.

Jenny (photographic genious) sent me this in an email--not the food (unfortunately) just the photo. Tilapia with baked veggies. I have noticed the green beans are really delish this year (maybe they are every year and I just don't notice), plus mushrooms, hello, haven't I already posted at least once about my obsession with the fungi? My only question was if she drank that entire bottle of gewurtz in the background. She definitely should have invited me over to help out (too bad she lives in St. Louis). Send me photos and/or recipes of your food and I will totally post it--that way I won't have to cook as much, and you'll get the spotlight (we all win!). Send to lrseyler at hotmail dot com.

Megan Made Dinner ... All By Herself

Megan offered to make dinner for me and Eric last night; she claimed she owed me from all my culinary output during the last couple weeks. And I was told to note that Megan made the entire dinner all by herself without the assistance of Eric or Erica (who was miles and miles and miles away). She made a deliciously fresh arugula salad, tilapia seasoned with herbs and lemon juice and a creamy risotto. Excellent. And I must say, it is nice to have someone else make dinner for you. (thanks mom for all those years of underappreciated food). Eric made his mom's apparently famed graham cracker delight for desert. I must admit that I am not a big fan. Too mushy. The quick treat is made by putting milk, graham cracker and chocolate morsels in the microwave and then blending them altogher (hope I'm not giving away a big family secret here).

A Day (or Two) Late.

Labor Day was now almost two weeks ago. But I do still remember the food. I got back from Missouri just in time for dinner. Megan and I decided on a low-key meal, but it did involve the grill. There's an ordinance in Omaha prohibiting charcoal grills from apartments. Rather disappointing as gas grills kind of scare me with that propane tank and all. I am not proud to admit that I've only used my gas grill maybe twice this entire summer. A friend (Mark) left it in my possession when he moved out of Omaha and hasn't come back to claim it (I suspect he's moved on). I think he would be disappointed to know it's more useful as a shelf for my plants than to fire up burgers on a hot night. On this hot night in particular, we kept it simple. Megan heated up some leftover vegetables from Erica and Dave's wedding earlier that weekend--they turned out really well. And I made the recipe that caused me to be the only other fish-lover in my immediate family. I will never understand those people (father, sister, sister) and how they could turn up their noses at this dish. It's butter, lemon, herbs and fish. That's it. But oh so good. Here's the rough guide: 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon lemon juice dry thyme to taste seasoned salt to taste 2 white fish fillets (tilapia, catfish, whatever) Mix the marinade together. Add to fish. Place fish on aluminum tray. Cook on grill until fish meat flakes with a fork. I do have a photo of this meal. However, I misjudged the size of my parents' memory card, putting it into a slot in my computer where it is now stuck. Oops. Hopefully, will have it and some photos from Costa Rica after open heart surgery on my computer tomorrow.