more recipes from ellie

For dinners, I've been cooking more recipes from "The Foods You Crave" book. One night was the "salmon with sweet and spicy rub". I used sashimi grade salmon, mainly because I was lazy and didn't want to bother with picking/pulling out bones. The salmon came out really moist, tender and delicious.

I served this with "asparagus with lemon and tarragon". She suggests nuking the asparagus, but I steamed mine.

This was a good match since fish is usually served with lemon.

Another recipe I tried was "salmon cakes with ginger-sesame sauce". Since I only had a can of smoked halibut, that is what I used. The halibut was firmer and smoky in flavor, (because it was smoked) so the cakes were a bit dry. Still, it was an easy recipe. Also, I didn't make the ginger-sesame sauce and instead made her "smarter tartar sauce" since I didn't think the ginger sesame sauce would match with the smokiness of the cakes.

I served this with steamed broccoli and the lemon and tarragon dressing, the same dressing as the asparagus. I think this dressing would work with steamed beans or actually any warm vegetable.

Since I only made half the recipe of the salmon cakes, I had one egg left in my carton. As I flipped through the book, I noticed that her recipes for muffins makes 12 with 2 eggs, so I cut the recipe in half and made 6 muffins with my last egg.

The muffin recipe I tried was the "apple-pecan muffin". The recipe calls for applesauce and buttermilk. I didn't have applesauce and wasn't going to buy (or look for it at the store) or make it, so I instead subbed some yogurt in place for both the applesauce and buttermilk.

I also didn't have wheat flour, so I added some ground flax. The muffins had just a touch of sweetness from the apples and topping. It was perfect for breakfast.

I hope to try even more recipes from this book. You can find most of these recipes on the Food Network site.

grilled salmon with tarragon sauce

When we were growing up, May 5 was remembered as Boy's Day. In many Japanese American families, koinobori or colorful decorated fish made from cloth were flown on a tall poles, one for every male in the family. This day is now called Children's Day in Japan.

Satoshi has been off since Wednesday for Golden Week. Today we had breakfast at our favorite cafe. It had been awhile since we had been there and the walk was nice. The weather is getting hotter, but at least it isn't humid...yet....
Tonight's dinner was Grilled Salmon with Tarragon Sauce. I found the recipe for the sauce on the internet and it came out really good, if I do say so myself. If you are trying to cut back mayonnaise in your diet, this sauce is a great substitute. :)
I didn't have shallots so I used onions. I didn't have fresh parsley, so I used dried. And we don't have nonfat yogurt here, so I just used plain yogurt with no sugar in it. The creaminess of the yogurt really matched with the onions, tomato, tarragon and parsley.

Tarragon Sauce
2 shallots, minced
2 tablespoons (8 g) chopped fresh tarragon or 2 teaspoons (10 ml) crushed dried
1 cup (228 g) plain nonfat yogurt
1 medium plum tomato, 3 ounce (90 g), seeded and finely minced
1 tablespoon (9 g) minced flat-leaf parsley

Enjoy!

Satoshi will be off to Ayers Rock for the next week, so, I'll have to find something to keep myself busy...I think it might end up being his dirty laundry...