Some Recent Meals At The Ranch

Following our kids leaving and an Independence Day party, we had enough leftovers to eat for a week, so no much cooking happened and following that we made no meals worthy of a standalone blog post.  We have had a few that made for some good eats though, such as a favorite summer meal of fried okra, fried corn, cottage cheese and our home grown tomatoes – the corn and okra came from a local vegetable farmer.

It was very good, as always.

Bev had a mango and some pineapple that needed used so she went in search of a recipe coming up with Cajun Salmon with Mango, Pineapple, Avocado Salsa from mangos.org which worked well with some salmon we had in the freezer.  We just followed the recipe except the only avocado we could find was several days from being usable so we omitted it.

Cajun Salmon with Mango, Pineapple, Avocado Salsa

Ingredients:

4 (4-6 oz. each) skinless salmon filets

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

Cajun Spice Mix

2 tsp EACH smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 tsp EACH dried oregano, dried thyme , pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (omit for less heat)

Marinade

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce

2 teaspoons Spice Mix

Mango, Pineapple, Avocado Salsa

1 mango chopped

1 cup chopped pineapple

1 avocado chopped (omitted)

1/2 red bell pepper minced

2 tablespoons diced red onion

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1 jalapeno seeded, deveined, diced

1/8-1/4 teaspoon salt to taste

lime juice, to taste

Directions:

1. Marinade: Mix together all of the Spice Rub ingredients in a medium bowl. Remove 2 teaspoons Spice Rub to a shallow dish or large freezer bag (whatever you are going to marinate salmon in). Whisk in remaining Marinade ingredients. Add salmon and turn to coat. Marinate at room temperature for 30-60 minutes. You will use remaining spices later in the Rub.

2. Mango, Pineapple Avocado Salsa: Meanwhile, chop and add all of the Salsa ingredients EXCEPT AVOCADO to a large bowl. Toss to combine. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Chop and add avocado just before serving so it doesn’t brown.

3. Spice Rub: After 30-60 minutes (no more), remove fish from marinade and pat dry. Rub remaining Spice Rub evenly all over fish. The easiest way to do this is dip each fillet in the spice rub, front and back.

4. Cook: In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat (medium if your stove runs hot). Once hot, add fillets, turn heat down to medium and cook approximately 4 minutes, until crispy and blackened. Flip salmon over and add butter. Cook an additional 3-6 minutes to your liking (will depend on thickness). Check salmon after 2 minutes to ensure it isn't cooking too quickly - if it is, then turn down the heat.

5. Serve: Remove salmon from skillet to individual plates and drizzle with pan juices. Serve with Mango, Pineapple Avocado Salsa.

We sided it with lemon butter sprouts and garlic butter.

Since we had plenty of extra salsa, we used it the next night with some grilled chicken breasts sided with tomatoes and cottage cheese, green beans from the neighbors garden, and melon for dessert - Cindy's plate.

We really enjoyed both of these meals (Cindy raved) and we discovered the salsa was even better with the chicken so we’ll make it a day early next time (and shop for avocados several days early).

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/11 – 7/13/19 event dates