Grilled Salmon & Filet Beans

HAPPY DAY TO ALL US DAD'S

We haven’t been eating our New England seafood lately but Bev was finally in the mood and we opted for some salmon.  I had bought whole filets but cut them into smaller pieces for freezing, but still had two pretty big pieces so I cut them in half and we ate two for lunch (our big meal for the day) and the others will be used for something else.

I did a quick search and came up with an Anne Burrell recipe for Grilled Salmon With Herb and Meyer Lemon Compound Butter that sounded good, so I went with it.

Ingredients

1 stick butter, room temperature

2 Meyer lemons, zested

1/2 bunch dill, finely chopped

1/2 bunch thyme, picked and finely chopped (lemon thyme is even better)

1 small clove garlic, smashed and finely chopped

Kosher salt,4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, skin-on

Extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the butter, zest, herbs and garlic. Mix until everything is well mixed. Season, to taste, with salt. If using right away, keep the butter at room temperature. If making ahead, reserve in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before using.

Preheat grill to medium.

Remove the salmon from the refrigerator and let come to room temperature. Season with salt and coat with olive oil. Brush and oil the grill. Place the salmon, skin side down, on the clean, preheated grill. After 2 to 3 minutes, rotate the salmon 90 degrees to create cross-hatch grill marks on the salmon skin. Cook the salmon for another 3 to 4 minutes. As the salmon cooks it will turn from translucent orange to opaque pink.

Turn the salmon over and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. If the salmon starts to burn, or the flames flare up move the fish to a cooler part of the grill.* Remove from the grill and top with the room temperature compound butter. The butter should act as a sauce and melt over and coat the grilled salmon.

I made just one quarter of this recipe (I didn’t want any leftover) and modified it a little.  I used a regular lemon and our own herbs, which don’t grow in bunches, so I had to guess at the amounts for them.  Also I grilled them the way I normally do and pulled at an internal temp of 135* - perfect for me but too raw for Bev so she got a 150* one.

Bev just steamed the filet beans to crisp tender and added some spices to them.  Here’s my plate.

I thought beans needed more something, but we both loved the salmon.  The fish itself was very good, be both liked the crust I got on the top, which I usually don’t do and we thought  the compound butter went great on it.  Even though I read about you all using it all the time, this was my first time to ever make herbed butter, but it will not be the last – it’s just too simple for such a great flavor addition.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Blackened Mahi Mahi And Cajun Slaw

Larry

A Favorite Breakfast

I don’t know why or if it’s always been that way, but breakfast food is my clear favorite – bet you’d have never guessed.  I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this before, but thought I’d do a little rerun – especially since it’s such an easy meal.

I started by cutting off a slice of the homemade bread that neighbor Pat had given us the night before and topping it with sliced cheese – smoked Gouda in this case.  Then I put a tad of oil in the skillet and got it warming over low heat and started the cheese toast in the toaster oven – a four minute operation.

Then I diced up some tomato and mixed it up with some cottage cheese on my plate, adding S&P.  Next the egg went into the pan and I turned the heat up just a little and the toaster oven alarmed just as I was flipping the egg – I turned the fire off.  I retrieved the cheese toast and topped with the fried egg, added some raspberries and a sprig of parsley.  I’d say from the time I walked in the kitchen, I was ready for the photo in less than 10 minutes, so a good breakfast can be had, even on workday mornings – total clean up time without washing the pan was about 2 minutes.

I know I’ve also said this before, but I like the old time homemade cottage cheese, which for me was small curd and not too milky.  I’m a big fan of products from the local Mayfield’s Dairy, but their cottage cheese is more like milk with some big curds floating around in it.  I’ve found Breakstone’s http://www.kraftbrands.com/breakstones (Kraft) to come closest to the homemade stuff, so it’s my current favorite.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Grilled Chicken And Veggies

Larry

A Really Good Frittata

Bev and her sister went off to Knoxville for a visit to Sam’s to get Blogger Party supplies and I elected not to go.  They went to Cru Bistro (small plate restaurant) for which we had bought a half off coupon and left me to fend for myself for supper - bring it on.  We had some leftovers from our lake cookout, which I decided to turn into a frittata.  I diced up about half a piece of rib eye, a couple of small parsley potatoes and a slice of red onion and sautéed it in a little olive oil. 

Then I beat up two eggs and a couple of egg whites hanging out in the fridge and added the dregs of a bag each of Mexican and Pizza cheese.  When the meat and taters were warmed thru, I added the egg/cheese mixture, topped with a lid and reduced the heat to it’s lowest setting.

After about 10 minutes the top was set and rather than sliding onto a plate, I flipped it.

I thought I could save the leftovers for breakfast, but it was very good and I ate the whole thing.  Unlike Bev and friend Dave who add hot sauce to everything, it took me until half gone to add some Chipotle Hot Sauce, which did, in fact, make it better.

After a long period of unusually hot dry weather, we finally got an inch of rain Wed afternoon and I hope most of it soaked in rather than just run off.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Leftover Pork Tenderloin - Final Version

Larry

Garden Thursday - Hydrangeas And Cicadas

I decided to make a departure from veggie gardening this week and share something new I learned – I always thought I knew this but didn’t quite.  But first a final cicada comment.

Unlike locust which devour everything in their path, cicadas do very little damage from what they eat.  There damage, in addition to hearing lose from their noise, is the damage from their egg laying.  They lay them toward the end of young branches by splitting the branch and inserting the eggs.  This usually results in killing the end of the branch, which is no worse for it than pruning.

As long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of hydrangeas and we have several in our landscape, of varying colors.  Generally, they come in white, pink, or blue and combinations of pink and blue.  The pink or blue color is soil dependent but the white can only be white.  For a long time, it was my belief that it was iron that ensured the blue color so I always included a few nails in the hole when I planted them.

Then I understood that it was the soil acidity that made the difference so I added acid for blue and lime for red/pink.  Now after reading this site, it appears it is the amount of aluminum available to the plant that determines the color.  Making a red one blue is done by simply adding an aluminum source – such as aluminum sulfate.

Making them red is trickier as it requires removing the aluminum or at least making it more difficult for the plant to absorb it.  Actually, removing it is not practical, so making it less available is the best option and as it turns out soil pH has a big influence on this.  The aluminum is more easily taken up by the plant at lower pH so increasing the pH, by adding lime can help.  As it turns out, it is the soil acidity that controls the color.

This one isn’t quite sure what color it wants to be, but I like it like it is.

Remember those shrubs I cut way back in late winter  - here's a before and after of the Butterfly Bush.

A dwarf Crepe Myrtle that was very gangly is now nice and bushy.

The regular crepe myrtles had gotten very tall and needed to be pruned back as well.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Coconut Shrimp And Other Good Stuff

Larry

A Lake Cookout

Bev wanted to invite a few folks over for a little cookout at the lake and she had thawed some chicken breasts and rib eye steaks and wanted to stir fry some veggies.  So the menu became:

Grilled chicken breasts – brined for 4 hours and seasoned with Head Country
Grilled steak seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning
Parsley new potatoes – dug that morning
Stir fry veggies seasoned with Creole Seasoning – all but broccoli from our garden
The Neely's Rum Raisin Bread Pudding

Here’s the cook area ready to go.

This is my plate and it was all very good.

Everything was good but not great.  The veggies were the favorite of some, the meat some, etc.  I liked the pudding but thought it needed some whipped cream - which we were out of.

We're in full blown blogger party prep around here this week - it's always good to host a big shindig to get me to do some of the things I've been putting off.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Leftover Pork Tenderloin Version 3

Larry

Asian Sauteed Cabbage With Egg

Gosh I wish I could do what Bev does (and many of you).  I suggested we whip up an omelet for supper and she wanted to have cabbage, but omelet and slaw didn’t work for either of us nor did using cabbage in any form as stuffing.  So she when into the kitchen and whipped up this dish.

She chopped up some fresh garden cabbage (not quite half a medium head), 2 slices of fried bacon and two pretty big green onions, and sautéed them in olive oil and a little bacon grease.  She seasoned it to taste with 5 Spice Powder, Tiger Seasoning, Sun Luck Hot Chili Garlic Sauce, and S&P.

She cooked it until it was crisp tender then topped it with a fried egg.

I was less than enthusiastic at the thought of this meal, but I’d already said if she made it, I’d eat it and it was actually very good – I wish I could do that.  She sided it with a piece of leftover pork chop and orange and raspberries.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Shrimp Salad Ala Lea Ann

Larry

Grilled Chops And New Taters

Now that the garden is bearing, we’re trying to eat all we can from it.  For this meal we decided on grilled pork chops to go with new potatoes and salad for supper, but I didn’t get the chops out of the freezer until afternoon and by the time they thawed it was 4pm. 

I decided to go ahead and make up a simple brine and give them as much time in it as I could – brine was:

1qt water – half heated and half ice

1/4 cup light brown sugar  
!/4 cup kosher salt
1 Tbsp my pork rub (Billy Bones Competition and XXX Cherry)

Heat half the liquid and stir in the other ingredients until the salt and sugar are dissolved.  Pour into a measuring cup (leaves the pan heat behind) and add ice to make a quart.  Pour into a gallon plastic bag (leaves the heat in the glass behind), add chops, remove air and seal - I ended up brining for 3 hours, turning half way thru.

After starting the grill (gasser tonight), I removed them from the brine, patted them dry, and sprinkled on some more of the pork rub.

I cooked them over indirect heat to an internal temperature of 120, then moved them over high direct heat to develop a crust.  When they got to 130*, I glazed each side with Tennessee River Blackberry BBQ Sauce and pulled at 140* - knowing they would go up to 145* while resting.

For the potatoes, I scrubbed and boiled them in salted water until they were tender and the skins were busting open a little. 

In the meantime, I’d cooked some bacon about half way.

When the potatoes were done I smashed them with my hand and wrapped with two slices of bacon secured with toothpicks.  I brushed on some butter, added S&P, and put this side down, giving the same treatment to the top side.

I grilled to a golden brown and after flipping, I added a little more butter and some chopped fresh parsley and chives.

Here's my plate which included a nice salad from the last of our spinach.

From a cooking standpoint, the chops were excellent – moist and tender - but the flavor was just pretty good so I won’t use that combo again – I’m always looking for blow-me-away.  This is the second time to do potatoes this way and with the addition of the herbage, they were even better than the first time - and this post was mostly about them anyway.

While I was at it, I cooked extra potatoes so I could have this the next morning.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Leftover Pork Tenderloin Version 2

Larry