Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

With Cinco de Mayo coming up, Mexican food has been on my mind more than normal. Something I've never cooked with is poblano peppers, so I decided to change that. To get you excited, here is what I made:

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

Here is what you need to get started:

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

4 poblano peppers (0.88), 3 cloves of garlic (0.06), 2/3 of a cup of cream (0.60), 1 bunch of asparagus (3.59), and 3 salmon fillets (6.10 - farm raised, I know, yuck). This made 3 servings with the fish, with enough sauce/soup leftover for use in several more applications. That's a total of 11.23, or 3.74 per meal, with extra sauce to spare!

This recipe calls for a small amount of dairy, but it is far from the amounts I was using last week. I feel much better about the amount that is consumed with each serving of this recipe. Ok, with that off of my chest, let's get to it.

There aren't many ingredients, but there are a few steps. Before getting started, set aside a plastic container big enough to fit the poblanos in, a hand blender or food processor, aluminum foil, and some paper towels.

The first step is to cut the poblano peppers in half. Take out the seeds and the stem. Flatten all of the peppers out on to your broiler pan. Use the aluminum foil to make cleanup easier. Broil those for 10 minutes.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

While the peppers are broiling, cut up the asparagus into fourths. Throw away the root of the asparagus. It's too tough to use. Throw all of the asparagus into a pot of boiling water.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

By now, the peppers should be finishing up in the broiler. Pull them out and place them into your plastic container while they are hot. Set that container in the fridge and the peppers will steam themselves while you work on the asparagus.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

After the asparagus has boiled for about 10 minutes, it should be fairly tender. Separate the tips (they're the best part!) and put the stalks into a container for blending. Make a puree and set that aside.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

When the peppers have had a while to steam, pull them out of the refrigerator and you should be able to pull the skin off. It will feel like someone wrapped the pepper in cellophane. Blend the peppers up into a puree.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

Combine the asparagus puree, poblano puree, 2-3 cloves of garlic, and 2/3 of a cup of cream into a pot. I allowed that to heat up to help the flavors blend.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

The last part is easy. I cooked a salmon fillet in butter until it had a nice crust on each side and topped it off with some of the asparagus sauce and a few of the tips as a garnish. As always add salt and pepper to your taste.

My sauce was almost like a soup, so I may have some like that. I may also combine some with some frozen spinach I boiled to make a creamy spinach side dish. It seems like a versatile sauce that has a lot of veggies inside, so feel good about putting it on everything!

The batch I made produced A LOT of sauce, so if you're making this for yourself, you can cut this recipe in half or even by a fourth.

From Asparagus and Poblano Cream Sauce over Salmon

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