Baked Salmon with Sautéed Corn and Black Bean Salad

I must confess that when I first started cooking I was extremely nervous to work with seafood.  It’s expensive; it cooks quickly and if you ruin it, you’ve wasted the ingredients as well as the money used them buy them. When I fry shrimp, I cook them on high alert with a little knot in my stomach.  

I've also learned that with seafood, especially something as luxuriously rich as salmon, less is more.  When I splurge on salmon fillets, I simply bake it and pair it with a baked potato or a light vegetable salad.  I had inspiration for this dish, Baked Salmon with Sauteed Corn and Black Bean Salad, for months and I finally cobbled it together with different recipes and my own baked salmon.  It’s light, refreshing, impressive and deceptively simple.  In other words, it’s perfect for summer!  Especially if you’re in the middle of this brutal heatwave!  

Baked Salmon

1 ½ pound fresh salmon fillet

Butter

Seasoning Salt such as Lawry’s

Pepper

Garlic Salt

Olive Oil

Corn and Black Bean Salad

adapted from recipe at epicurious.com

2 cups sweet corn, removed from the cob or thawed if frozen

1 15 ounce can black beans, thoroughly rinsed

¼ cup green onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

3 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped

Salt, Pepper

Olive Oil

1 tablespoon of lime juice (from about 1 lime)

2  tablespoons fresh orange juice

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Pinch ground cumin

Salmon

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. 

Line baking sheet with aluminum foil, drizzle with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and spread evenly.  Place fish on baking sheet. 

Season fish moderately with seasoning salt and pepper and conservatively with garlic salt.  Cut 2 pats of butter and cut or break it into pieces with your fingers.  Dot fish with butter. 

Place fish in oven and bake for 13 to 17 minutes or until fish is an opaque pink. 

Corn and Black Bean Salad

Heat skillet over medium heat and add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  When oil is hot, add corn.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.  Toss or stir frequently until corn is begins to brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. 

Remove from heat and set aside to prepare vegetables and herbs. 

Add corn, black beans, green onions, cilantro and basil to medium bowl and mix to combine.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Mix lime juice, orange juice, pinch of cumin and olive oil in a smaller bowl. Add most of dressing to corn salad and stir to combine.  Taste.  Salad should be moist, but not wet.  Add the rest if needed.  Set aside for 10 minutes. 

Place a portion of salmon on place about spoon on corn salad.  Drizzle with remaining dressing if you wish.  Enjoy! 

Saturday Chef Original: Pan-Fried Catfish Sandwich with Lemon Aioli

The ball has dropped. You're finding confetti in some very strange places. The champagne is gone. It is a new year! 1/1/11! Time for a new beginning. While I’m not exactly singing about it like Jennifer Hudson on the Weight Watchers commercials (she looks great!!!!), I am starting this New Year, like many of you, with a new outlook on life, food and where I want to be in 2011. And I’d like to be a few pounds lighter, and you know what that means…


Wait. Stop. Don’t leave! I’m swear on my new baking sheets that I’m not abandoning the delicious, often decadent things that you and I love. I’m just going to make healthier recipes too, use more vegetables and fruits, maybe even some whole grain. No brussell sprouts (yet) and rice cakes here. Promise!

We’ll start with one of my favorite foods EVER: Catfish. I love it the most out of all of the fishes in the sea. Sorry, salmon. I was a picky eater as a child, but I would eat an entire catfish happily.

I’m used to eating catfish breaded in cornmeal and fried with a side of spaghetti or my mom’s famous fruit salad. To switch it up, I’d decided to riff on blackened fish and just play with a bunch of spices. The result was a flavorful, healthier sandwich that is ready in 20 minutes or less. It’s a great meal to ring in 2011 or any day of the week!


Catfish Sandwiches with Lemon Aioli


2 medium-to-large catfish filets, fresh or thawed
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Paprika
Garlic Powder
Cayenne
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 to ½ cups wild arugula
4 hamburger buns, toasted

Lemon Aioli, recipe as follows

Directions

Rinse fish. Pat dry. Cut in half cross-wise.

Season both sides of fish with all spices. Make sure to be a bit more generous with the paprika and more conservative with the cumin and cayenne, unless you want it spicy.

Heat a cast iron and 1 teaspoon of olive oil in pan over medium heat. When skillet is very hot—but not smoking—add two filet halves. Cook until golden to dark brown on both sides, about 3 to 5 minutes per side.

While fish is cooking, toast buns if desired.

When fish is done, place it on skillet to rest for 1 to 2 minutes. Spread aioli on the bottom bun. Add fish fillet. Add arugula and top bun. Enjoy.


Lemon Aioli

½ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 clove of garlic, minced
Salt, Pepper

Mix mayonnaise, lemon juice and garlic powder together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If possible, chill in fridge to marry flavors.

Fish Tacos with Chipotle Cream

I like a variety of different foods--fried, Italian, French, comfort--but there is nothing more delicious than a wonderfully messy plate of tacos.  I usually make my tacos with ground turkey and leave those unhealthy sauce packets at the store.  For my father's 55th birthday dinner, however, I changed it up a bit and went to the seafood counter for Tilapia, one of his favorites. 

The fish taco is something that has intrigued me since I heard about them, and it has taken more than a few recipes to find a good, simple, healthy one that doesn't require deep frying. 

This Ellie Krieger recipe, with a few Saturday Chef tweaks, is a surprisingly flavorful and filling meal that is of course a bit of a mess, but that only makes it taste better.  The cabbage adds a needed heartiness while the corn supplies a pop of sweetness.  The best part about it is that it can be ready in snap, making perfection for a summer weekday meal or even a birthday celebration for a guy who loves to eat his presents.




Fish Tacos with Chipotle Cream
Adapted from Ellie Krieger's recipe at foodtv.com

Ingredients


Fish:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound tilapia filets

Chopped parsley

Chipotle cream:

1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 to 2 teaspoons of adobo sauce

Tacos:

8 (6-inch) corn tortillas

1 1/2 cups shredded green cabbage

½ cup sweet corn (thawed if frozen)

Directions

Line a strainer with a paper towel. Place strainer over a bowl and add yogurt. Let sit for 20 minutes to drain excess moisture and thicken.

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, lime juice, salt and pepper. Pour over fish and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes.

Place a skillet over medium heat and add a few turns of olive oil. Remove fish from marinate and add to skillet, cooking about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Fish may fall apart a bit which is fine. Once all fish is done, flake with a fork and season with chopped parsley for color and season to taste if needed. I add a bit of seasoning salt and a pinch of cayenne to my fish and reheat in the skillet for 1 minute.

In a small bowl combine the thickened yogurt, mayonnaise, and adobo. You may add some chopped chipotle peppers if you like extra spice.

Heat tortillas according to package directions.

Build tacos as you wish and top with 1 tablespoon of chipotle cream.