Eats

I made what may be one of my more composed dishes, so far: grilled salmon over a warm spinach salad with risotto and a brown butter sauce (at least, that's what I'm calling it). I've done salmon and risotto plenty of times before, but without doing much with the greens. My sauce was the most successful so far, too.

I started the risotto and then toasted a handful of whole almonds in a separate pan while the risotto rice was toasting. Then I seasoned my salmon and brushed on a little bit of aged balsamic.

When the risotto was well along, I put on the salmon. I had pulled the almonds off well before this; now I used that pan to melt a couple tablespoons of butter and soften about a half a red onion, chopped coarsely. At this point I had all four burners going- it was pretty toasty in the kitchen.

Once my red onions were soft, I put in most of a bag of spinach and tossed them with the butter and onions to braise it. As soon as the spinach cooked down, I plated it and started a pan sauce with another pat (3-4 tablespoons) of butter, a splash of white wine, a teaspoon of balsamic, and a ladle of broth. I haven't gotten around to mastering any of the mother sauces yet, but I did notice that a lot of them included broth, and I wanted to pull the various flavors on the plate together.

I had a little timing issue with the salmon, trying to cook it more slowly. It came out perfectly, so really I just cooked everything else too fast.

I reduced the sauce by about 70%, seasoned and tasted- a definite go. The spinach and onions looked great on the plate; I chopped the almonds and sprinkled some over the salad, along with a quick hit of parmesan. I plated the risotto next to the salad, with another sprinkle of almonds, and put the salmon on top of the veg. I put a little sauce on top of the fish and a little extra around the bottom.

This was a really enjoyable dish to cook. I like the feeling of being able to manage four burners at once, and when I started cooking Jessica was at the pool with the kids so I was able to get going with a clear mind and some good music. By the time they got home, everything was well along. Elli declared that everything smelled SO GOOD and she perched herself on a stool in the middle of the kitchen so she could take it all in.

My apologies for the crappy pic, but here's an idea of what we ate tonight: