Do you see me getting all these meals cooked. Two day! The meatballs, okra and tomatoes is for tomorrow. Today was salmon.
Vince went to Walmart today and I asked him to get some frozen purple hull or black eyed peas because I love to cook those and boil small pods of okra with the peas. He did get either the purple hull or black eyed peas . . I didn’t even look at them, but he said “I also got baby lima beans because I know how much you like those”. I do LOVE those. Kinda made up for his two meals per week statement.
For dinner this evening we had seared salmon, baby lima beans and mac & cheese that I had frozen a while back. We had sliced tomatoes too but they didn’t make the picture.
If you like fish, especially if you can cook it outside, this is the quickest, easiest meal and it’s fairly healthy . . if you leave off the lima beans and mac & cheese!
Here’s my “outdoor kitchen”. I’ve always thought an outdoor kitchen would be so nice. What I have is a table and a hot plate! 🙂
The hot plate in induction burner that we got at Aldi for less than $20. We’ve had it for probably 5 or 6 years and I use it a lot . . mostly on things that splatter and make a mess, smoke or stink. Three “S” – splatter, smoke and stink!
Get however much salmon you want. I like it better the first day and not so much as leftovers. When smoking salmon, I prefer the skin on. For this recipe, I prefer the skin off. This piece had the skin on so I cut it off.
On the table, you’ll see everything I used to make this and it really takes about 5 minutes. The seasonings are Lawry’s Salt, Cajun Red Head and black pepper. You can use any cajun spice or whatever you want . . just be aware that many cajun blends have a lot of salt. Cajun Red Head does not.
The clean plate in the front has the butter to be used for cooking and I’ll bring the salmon in on that. In the small bowls – brown bowl in front has maple syrup, next bowl has a few dill seeds – totally optional, and the bowl in the back has garlic. The larger bowl has the juice of one lime.
Heat the skillet til it’s smoking. Add about 1 T. butter, more if needed. Season one side of the fish and place the seasoned side down in the hot butter. Season the other side of the fish. It’s facing up! Don’t do as I did. I thought I had opened the side of the pepper to shake it but I had opened the side to spoon it so when I gave it a good shake over the fish, I ended up with about 1/3 cup of black pepper on one piece of fish!
I could have taken it inside and rinsed it all off but I used my finger and rubbed it off, mostly onto other pieces of the fish. It was fine.
Sear both sides of the fish. You’ll be able to see that it’s getting cooked all the way through. Remove the fish to the plate. Add the garlic to the hot skillet and stir til it’s looking toasted a bit.
Remove the garlic. Place the fish back in the skillet. Add a bit more butter if needed. You don’t want the fish to stick to the skillet. Turn the heat down so that it will gently boil the remaining ingredients. Pour the maple syrup and lime juice over the fish and let it simmer just a minute to thicken. Add the garlic back and let it all cook another minute
Remove the fish to a plate, pour the “sauce” over the fish. Sprinkle with dill seeds or fresh or dried dill weed.
The presentation isn’t great but it was delicious. It was about to rain and I didn’t want to get caught out there since our deck isn’t covered so I was rushing.
This really is a quick and easy meal. All the little bowls go into the dishwasher and the skillet is easy to clean.