Salmon with Rhubarb Marmalade

Rhubarb is one of our favorite spring vegetables! We love it in all sorts of sweet applications, but I wanted to create a few savory dishes as well.

In this dish, I made a rhubarb marmalade to top over grilled salmon. The tartness of the rhubarb cut through the richness of the salmon, so I really thought the two flavors worked well together. I served it with a green salad and it was a quick (and restaurant quality!) lunch.

LESSON LEARNED: If you have extra marmalade, it is excellent mixed into yogurt for a healthy breakfast.

Recipe for Salmon with Rhubarb Marmalade

Orange Roughy in Paper

This dish looks deceptively fancy. It's really easy to make and extremely versatile. For example, I used orange roughy, but you could use any whitefish. For the veggies, I used zucchini, yellow squash, onion, red pepper, and green pepper, but you could use any veggies you have on hand.

The fish and veggies are encased in parchment paper with a slice of lemon and white wine, then baked in a hot oven until the fish is gently steamed. The fish was buttery, light, and slightly lemony. The veggies were swimming in a white wine sauce. So DELICIOUS!

Incidentally, the recipe idea came from Anne Burrell's Cook Like a Rock Star cookbook and after I tasted the fish, I proceeded to dance in the kitchen signing "I cooked like a rock star". Sometimes I get a little excited when I make good food :)

 LESSON LEARNED: Steaming fish in parchment paper adds a ton of flavor! Shhh...don't tell anyone that this could be considered diet food!

Recipe for Orange Roughy in Paper

Roasted Salmon with Whole-Grain Mustard Crust

Before moving to Arizona to attend graduate school, I never ate much salmon (or a lot of the other foods I've come to love!). One of my graduate school friends introduced me to oven roasted salmon at our weekly dinner get-togethers. Even though we now live hundreds of miles apart, I still think of her when I make salmon.

This recipe is super simple and can be easily adjusted to taste. The mustard crust only contains 3 ingredients: whole-grain mustard, minced chives, and olive oil. Once you season the salmon filets with salt and pepper, you spread as much of the mustard crust as you want on top and let it roast (i.e. bake) in the oven. Then, you finish off the salmon by broiling it so the mustard turns a deep brown. When we ate this dinner, I rounded out the meal with steamed green beans and buttered fresh fettuccine noodles. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!

 LESSON LEARNED: Roasting is an easy way to prepare salmon! When it gets closer to summer, I'll share my favorite cedar plank grilled salmon recipe :)

Recipe for Roasted Salmon with Whole-Grain Mustard Crust

Lobster Pot Pie

We decided not to go out to dinner on Valentine's day. Instead, I decided I would make a dish that I normally would never make: lobster pot pie. A while ago, I saw an episode on Food Network where Ina Garten made these adorable individual pot pies and I filed it away as something I wanted to make in the future. When I decided I didn't want to eat at a crowded restaurant, I immediately knew I would make lobster pot pie at home.

At first, I was intimidated because I haven't worked with lobster before. I knew I didn't want to get a live lobster and cook it at home, so I settled on lobster tail. I still had to cook it (I boiled it very briefly in salted water), but at least I wasn't dealing with a whole lobster. I only bought a single lobster tail because I only needed to make two portions, but the dish ended up with a BIG lobster flavor. The filling is a thickened seafood stock with sauteed fennel and onion along with peas, corn, parsley, and chopped lobster tail. Around the filling is a homemade pie crust which is thick, flaky, and buttery.

This was a DELICIOUS Valentine's day dinner at home!

LESSON LEARNED: We decided that making these pot pies (or any pot pies) in individual servings is the best way to achieve the perfect ratio of filling to crust.

Recipe for Lobster Pot Pie