Simple and Relatively Frugal Salmon Prepared in Advance

Over the years, especially as we're now empty-nesters, I've gotten out of the habit of daily cooking. Also, I'm frequently too busy, or out of the house when my husband needs to eat dinner. So, when I cook for Shabbat, I cook for the week. This week it's more complicated. It's the "Nine Days," when our tradition is to refrain from eating meat/poultry. That means that most of the leftover Shabbat food went to the freezer. We're on a limited budget, so frugal shopping and cooking are necessary, but fish isn't cheap. And cheeses aren't all that inexpensive, either. Also, I limit my carbohydrates. After trying the less expensive fish, I've discovered that buying a large fillet of salmon is most practical. Frugal salmon is not an oxymoron.

Generally, I don't cook it all at the same time. Honestly, I can't even put the whole piece of salmon fillet in the oven without cutting off a bit. When I want just a serving or two of salmon, I take it out to very slightly thaw. Then I cut off what I need with a heavy/sturdy knife. It ends up costing less than half of what I'd pay for a package of pre-cut salmon.

On Sunday I saw that the remaining salmon was about a week's worth. I sliced it into serving sized pieces, placed them on a large baking dish, seasoned and baked. Every night we've been having salmon, which we love, heated up with whatever side dishes.

I've also used these large salmon fillets for serving lots of guests, also cutting into serving size pieces in advance, then cooking/baking.

Easy Recipes and Enjoying The New Kitchen

Yesterday we had guests for a Succot lunch. They had been great fans of my new kitchen during the years I just talked and complained. I got a lot of support from them, so it was very exciting to host them. I served a fish meal, mujadarra, eggplant, baked vegetables, salad and salmon.

Mujadarrah:
1 cup brown rice
1 cup lentils
small/medium onion cut
a bit of cooking oil of your choice
4 1/2 cups boiling water

Put all but water in pot, saute a bit, then add boiling water, cover, bring to boil, lower to a simmer until you can't see any water. Leave covered at least another 10 minutes. Serve.

"Impressive" Eggplant:
eggplant
tomatoes
onion
fresh garlic
vegetable oil

Slice eggplant partially, so it opens like a book.
Fill with sliced tomato. Sprinkle diced onion and garlic, then oil. Bake in medium-high (or whatever is recommended by your oven manufacturer) oven until cooked.

"Fancy" Salmon:
Filet of salmon
lemon slices
fresh garlic
mustard
Decorate your salmon. Wrap in foil, if you're baking it at the same time as the other dishes, so it won't overcook. Otherwise just bake in a medium-high (or whatever is recommended by your oven manufacturer) oven until it seems ready. You can check that the salmon has changed color and is flaky where thickest. Yes, it's that simple.

I enjoyed the meal and hope everyone else did, too.

PS It was so much fun being able to cook so quickly. I could fit all three baked dishes in the oven at the same time. I love my new kitchen!!

A Different Dinner

I'm one of those people who when home or my usual work routine likes to eat pretty much the same foods for various meals.

• breakfast is some sort of two-egg omelette with an onion plus, as I've blogged.
• lunch (or dinner) and frequently taken with me to work or other places are cooked vegetables with sesame paste as the protein. 
• dinner (or lunch) is cooked chicken (or beef) leftover from Shabbat cooked up with more low carb vegetables.

Today I didn't eat my regular meals. I had a late lunch out , a Broccoli Quiche and Salad, (bli neder will blog about it in the future) with a friend. And when I got home it was dinner time, and I just wasn't in the mood for chicken. 

So, I took a piece of frozen salmon, set it up on a paper-lined baking dish with a big piece of cabbage and an onion.  I dribbled some vegetable oil on top and baked it until it was ready. Sorry, no, I can't tell you how long for two reasons:

1. I didn't pay attention.
2. My oven is horrendously slow, small and slow. Yes, that's one of the reasons I need a new kitchen.

When it was ready, I served it with a bright red tomato. I didn't even season it. Everything tasted perfectly delicious.

Yes, there are days when you really need to break out of the routine.

Totally Delicious "One Pot" Fish Meal

I figured out how to keep the fish (salmon) nice and moist when cooking it up, actually baking, this "one pot" meal. I made all this for me and my husband to eat the second night of Rosh Hashanah. When we're home I serve fish, since there's a limit to the amount of meat and poultry one should eat in a two day period, and since you're not supposed to heat up the food until after you light candles, barely an hour before we eat, the fish heats up very quickly. I use an electric hotplate, which stays on all of the holiday, just like on Shabbat.

As you can see, I cut up potatoes, carrots, onion, pumpkin and a nice sized squash. The squash was a bit larger than the pieces of fish. I made four slices of squash lengthwise and then sandwiched the fish, plus sliced onion, between the squash slices.

Before baking in a moderate oven I dribbled some oil, but no other spices. Of course you can add whatever herbs and spices you like.

It was a very successful, delicious and easy to make meal. If you try it, I'd like to hear how it came out and how you changed this to suit your needs.

Prevent the Salmon from Drying Out

When I serve a fish meal to me and my husband on a Jewish Holiday, I usually run into a sticky situation. The salmon cooks more quickly than the vegetables. So this year I wrapped the fish in foil, adding lemon and garlic to it. And then I put it all in the oven, so we'd have a perfect "one pot meal" on Shavuot.

Easy "One Pot" Salmon and Veggies

This is all it is, just salmon and vegetables to be baked:

Along with the salmon steaks there are potatoes, and onions and pumpkin and squash and whatever else you want. To keep the delicate salmon from overcooking I covered it:

Add a bit of oil, and then bake until vegetables are soft.

One Pot Meal, Salmon and All The Trimmings

Bake and serve...

I prepared this in advance before Rosh Hashannah to serve me and my husband on Friday Night, Erev Shabbat.  There's a limit to the amount of meat and poultry one should eat, so I figured that a good salmon meal would be the perfect solution, and it was.

As you can see, there are a number of different vegetables, plus the salmon.  I also dribbled a bit of oil on top before baking it.  I didn't add salt.  I suggest serving with fresh salad.

Enjoy!

Easy, Homemade Lox

I had mentioned on my facebook page that I had too many cucumbers, so someone suggested that I pickle them.  Somehow that discussion developed into other homemade tricks, foods you can make easily and another friend sent me this, her daughter's recipe, and I got her permission to post it:

easy homemade lox - in case anyone is interested. basically - you take frozen salmon and soak it in salt and it turns into lox. even though lox is called "smoked salmon" it is "cold smoked" after being brined. the smoking step is actually optional. so just soaking the salmon in salt for a few days in the refrigerator turns it into lox.

in fact - it's best (safest) to use frozen salmon for this purpose. you can buy a whole frozen salmon fillet when it's on sale; make all (or part) of it into lox; and then freeze the lox in smaller packages, to take out as needed. the reason it is ok to thaw the salmon and then refreeze as lox, is because the brining kills the bacteria. just as you could thaw frozen food and then refreeze after cooking. but you wouldn't thaw frozen food and refreeze without cooking or brining.

so here are the instructions as I received them:

It is called "gravlax" and you can look up instructions online. Here is an easy version.

Buy a whole fillet of salmon and let it thaw out. Don't buy anything with bones because they'll be impossible to remove later. Also it's possible to do with pre-cut fish, but they're small and therefore harder to manage.

Take a bowl or preferably rectangular plastic box and start cutting the fish to size. Stack the fish as you do - first slice with the skin down, cover it all with kosher salt, then the next slice skin up. You can spread some more salt on it before turning it over, but I'm not sure how much that's necessary. If you still have more fish, continue stacking. At the end I put the last slice skin down too, and spread some more salt just to be sure.

You can also put dill or sugar or pepper between the slices. I don't usually do so.

You can put a weight on it, but it's not necessary. The stacked fish itself is heavy enough.

Leave it in the fridge for three days. Technically you need to drain it every day, but I only bother after the first day when the most liquid comes out. It should also be technically ready to eat after the first day if you're rushing or if you like rawer fish. (I once tasted it like that and it was ok.)

After three days: wash the salt off, and cut the fish - use a sharp knife and slice as thinly as you can. If you find the right angle, it shouldn't be too difficult, but sometimes it takes a while and it is the part with the most work in this recipe. You can cut it all up and freeze most of it in sandwich bags. The fish is still very salty, so when thawed, it will still keep for a while.

To serve - wash it thoroughly in water. Then leave it to soak in water. The more you soak (and possibly change the water), the less salty it will be, and also the faster it will go bad. But even then it can last a few days in the fridge. If you want to serve it immediately, you can soak it for just a few minutes before eating. You can also leave it in the fridge still soaking, and finish it off in the next few days.

It doesn't have the smoked flavor of store-bought lox, but it's close enough.