January 21st - Pepper and Coriander Coated Salmon Fillets

I'm So Excited...and I Just Can't Hide It....I'm About to Lose Control and I Think I Like It!

So some very exciting news...  I was asked to do a dessert for a very prominent Chicago culinary society's annual fundraising event.   They are getting some of the most popular pastry chefs in Chicago (like Gale Gand and Keli Fayard) to do it as well.  I'm going to be showcased with people like that!  Could you just die??  People will actually be bidding on my dessert!  That's so freaky. 

The pressure is on now.  What am I going to do?  I feel like I have amnesia all of a sudden.  The theme of the dinner is fashion.  Ughhh...  It's got to taste great (that's no problem), look spectacular (yikes), and be very hoity toity (ummm). 

I've got three months to actually do it, but only 1 week to let the organizer know what I'm going to do.  I'm making such a tzimmis out of this.  I need to relax.  I'm not going to worry about it today.  In fact, I've got to keep my head in the game for the Polish dinner on Saturday.  But isn't that exciting???  

The Recipe

I'm always looking for recipes that feature new spice combinations or highlight a spice I don't use regularly.  When I saw this recipe, I was excited.  I haven't really used coriander seed before (except for pickling things).  Then, I went to the grocery store and found that a small bottle is $6!  That's crazy!  So now, the expectations where high.  This better be good.

Ingredients:

Italian Parsley (Had - chopped and frozen)

Orange Peel: $0.89

Coriander Seed: $5.99

Dark brown Sugar: Had

Black Pepper:  Had

Salmon: $7.99

Butter and Canola Oil: Had

Total:  $14.87

NOTE:  I should tell you that when a recipe says it makes 6 or more servings, I usually scale it down to just 2.  Otherwise, the food is going to go to waste.  (I'm practically cooking every day of the week. So we have meal upon meal in our fridge.)  Plus, I'm trying to stick to a budget, so I just make enough for Brian and I and maybe a little extra for him to take for lunch at work.

The Results

Fast:  I didn't use a spice grinder to grind the coriander and the pepper; instead, I used my mortar and pestle.  So, it took me longer than it should have to grind the spices.  Otherwise, this is a recipe that should take you less than 15 minutes (including the cooking time of the salmon).

Easy:  Yes indeedy.  Just coat the salmon with the spice mixture and saute in a pan.  That's it.

Fresh:  The orange and parsley add the freshness to this dish.  It really perks up the fish.

Overall:   

This recipe sucked! I did not like it at all...sorry, Bon Appetit. The recipe sounds good in theory, but does not execute very well. The brown sugar melted into this caramel like coating which gave a funky texture to the whole dish. The coriander was good, but the coarse pieces were annoying. The salmon flavor took better to the parsley and orange rather than the pepper and coriander. Maybe if the spices were ground finer (the recipe says coarse) it would have meshed better. But in the end....not so good. Don't waste your $14 on making this.

Tomorrow...I kind of cheated.  I'll explain next entry.