Skip to main content

Weekend Dinner

I found a recipe in December's issue of Bon Appétit that is worthy of sharing. I'm sure there are more sharable recipes in this issue, but I've only made one so far. It's a plate full of salmon and a vegetable mixture all topped with a great sauce perfect for a chilly night.

It's a little complicated, so it probably won't due for a weeknight, but if you prepare ahead and have all the stuff measured and chopped before you start cooking, it goes smoothly and really doesn't take more than 30 or 35 minutes. Yum.

You can make some adjustments to simplify because here's what I think—I think if you pass on the salmon and double up on the stuff in the veg pot, you'll have a great meal. You might want to serve the stuff over a bowl of brown rice, or just eat it as is. Don't skip the sauce, though. It's a keeper. Pour it over everything but dessert.

Roasted Salmon with Yam, Swiss Chard, Cabbage, and Red Wine Sauce
Serves 4

Sauce
2 cups dry red wine (I used Marsala instead and used less. I made the difference up with the broth)
2 cups vegetable broth
2 medium shallots, chopped
3 garlic gloves, roughly chopped
2 fresh parsley sprigs
1 fresh rosemary sprig
2 fresh thyme sprigs
12 black peppercorns
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon flour

Vegetables
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 3-oz package pancetta, chopped
2 cups yams, peeled and diced into 1/3-inch cubes
2 cups thinly sliced Swiss chard with center ribs removed
2 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup dry vermouth or white wine
1 cup vegetable broth

Fish
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 6- to 8-oz. salmon fillets

For sauce: combine all but the butter and flour in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 35 minutes. While it's simmering, cook the vegetables.

For vegetables: in a large sauce pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add pancetta and cook until browned and crisp, about 5 minutes. Stir in yams, chard, and cabbage and stir until softened, about 5 minutes. This would be a good time to start cooking the salmon so everything finishes at the same time. Stir in the butter and vermouth and simmer until almost all liquid is absorbed, about 2 minutes. Add broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For fish: In a heavy skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Season salmon fillets with salt and pepper and cook skin side up until browned, about 4 minutes per side.

Back to the sauce: whisk the flour in with the softened butter and whisk in the reduced sauce.

To serve: divide the vegetable mixture and the salmon between four plates and drizzle with the sauce.

Comments

savannah said…
i'd like to give this a try, but i'm leaning towards your suggestion of skipping the salmon. the veg & sauce seem as if they'd overpower the salmon, but then again, it's not like i'm that great a chef! ;) xoxo
dive said…
Boy howdy, Robyn. This sounds yummy.
Yams and Swiss chard are something that I don't tend to cook with so here's my excuse.
Mrs. G. said…
I love it when you post recipes.
Alifan said…
That sounds like I need to give it a try, not many yams around here, can I use butternut squash?
I really like salmon and this sounds like a good dish, Robyn.

What time should I swing by? and I'll bring the wine.
Shazza said…
You lost me at salmon.

I wish I was a more adventurous eater but I'm an Irish meat and potato gal.

Popular posts from this blog

My Sitemeter is All Bloated and Not Quite Itself

I'm tempted to let it sit on the couch with its feet curled up under a blanket, a hot cup of coffee in hand, a block of cherry almond bark Chocolove within reach, and An Affair to Remember spinning in the DVD player. I'm one of those obsessive bloggers, the kind who checks her sitemeter as often as possible throughout the day, the kind who gauges the quality of her writing by the number of readers who regularly stop by. I've become less interested in the overall number of hits and more interested in the number of repeat hits. The return visitors are the ones I long for. When my sitemeter reads forty at the end of the day, and the majority of those hits are webpals who have conversed, I'm happy. Forty may seem low to many of you, but I've only been at this since August. To me, forty is a jackpot. A few days ago, I sat down at my laptop and discovered a number somewhere in the eighties. Eighties! Yippee! Yeeha ! Hoo-rah ! I've been discovered by the webworld , o...

Happy Birthday...

to me! Update: Since you have asked, I only got one actual packaged gift, a beautiful hand-made bracelet from a friend, but both girls were home for the weekend, and we had dinner at the lake and a relaxing weekend. Thanks to all of you for your lovely wishes!

Ish People

Tell an Ish person to show up around 9 a.m., and you'll see them somewhere around 9 a.m. Tell them to show up at 9ish, and you'll see them anywhere from 9:05 to 9:20. You have given them license to dilly dally, and who wouldn't take advantage of that? The other night at the big shindig dinner party, one of the drummers said the rehearsal the next morning would begin at 9ish. "I am an ish person," he says. Immediately the clanker goes off in my head--oh, good, I thought. I can deliver my daughter a little late. No Ish person is early, so if you say 9ish, that does not mean give or take 5, 10, 15 minutes. It's exclusively a taking phrase. Take an extra 10 minutes to drink your cup of coffee. We won't mind. We're Ish people. Sunday's rehearsal started at 2:00. Because it was conducted by the same people who conducted the Saturday rehearsal, my understanding was 2-ISH. My daughter is worse than I am about taking liberties with Ish time frames, so she d...