Salmon With Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze & Green Beans With Chili-Orange Oil

It's new recipe night.  All the way around.  I'm still attempting to put seafood on the table at least once a week.  I made mussels Monday night.  The Dad and The Kid and The Girl tore them up.  You couldn't pay me to put one in my mouth.  I made fondue with artichokes, sausage, fruit and bread for me to go with the mussels.  How can you go wrong with liquid cheese?!

I digress.  I got both of these recipes out of the paper.  The kids are hard to please when it comes to fish.  Who can blame them?  But they inhaled this.  We all liked the green beans as well.  The recipe calls for asparagus, but says that green beans are good as well.  So that's what I went with.  Unfortunately, when I pulled them out of the fridge to prep them today, half of them were moldy.  Boooooo.  That's what you get when you shop at a ghetto Safeway.  I salvaged what I could and supplemented with a bag of frozen green beans the neighbor passed along.   I made brown rice to go with everything.

Here's the recipe for the salmon:

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, minced (I subbed red onion)
1/4 C red wine vinegar
1/4 C whole-grain mustard (I used Dijon)
1/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 bunch watercress (about 3/4 lb), thick stems trimmed (I omitted this)
1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

Heat broiler, with rack in top position.  In a small saucepan, heat oil over medium-high.  Add shallot and cook, stirring often until softened, about 3 minutes.

Add vinegar and cook until slightly evaporated, about 1 minute.  Add mustard and brown sugar; stir until warm and combined, about 1 minute.  Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.  (To store, refrigerate cooled glaze in an airtight container, up to 1 day.)

Place salmon fillets on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and season with salt and pepper.

Brush 1/2 C glaze on top.  Broil salmon until glaze is bubbling and fish is opaque throughout, about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on thickness; brush remaining glaze over fillets.

Serve salmon along with watercress and lemon wedges.


Here's the recipe for the green beans:

3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 wide strips orange zest, plus 2 Tbsp orange juice (I got both out of 1/2 an orange)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Course salt and ground pepper
3 bunches asparagus (about 1 lb each), trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths - or, as I said, sub green beans
1/2 C packed fresh basil leaves

In a small saucepan, bring oil, orange zest and red pepper flakes to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and set aside.  (To store, refrigerate cooled oil in an airtight container, up to 3 days.)

In a large pot of boiling water, cook asparagus until bright green and crisp, about 3 minutes.  Transfer to a colander and rinse with cool water to stop cooking. 

In a large skillet, heat 2 Tbsp of the chili-orange oil over high.  Add the asparagus and cook, stirring often, until warmed through and tender, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the basil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle with remaining oil and serve immediately.

Keepin' it real alert:  This is a picture on my plate, right before The Dad cut into his and said, um, it's still cold in the middle:

I immediately scraped everyone's fish back onto the pan and stuck it  back under the broiler.  During that time, the beans and rice got a photo op:

Here's my plate after round two of cooking the salmon: