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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Cajun Salmon

Good news! Salmon is super fast to cook and doesn't really need a whole lot of work to be delicious. I usually just cook salmon with a small pad of butter and a bunch of garlic. Today I tried something a little more involved to help shake up my routine a little bit.

From Cajun Salmon

Here is what you need:

From Cajun Salmon

Back Row: Chili powder (called an audible and didn't use it), Garlic Powder (0.05), Paprika (0.05), Cayenne Pepper (0.05), Black Pepper, an 8 oz salmon steak (2.02), and a pad of butter (0.10). That's a total of 2.27 for the protein portion of the meal.

Begin by melting the butter over low heat.

From Cajun Salmon

Add the salmon steak and move the heat up just a little to medium-low. You don't want to burn the ingredients as this will make them bitter. You also don't want to risk oxidizing any good fats that are present.

From Cajun Salmon

Here is a picture of my opinion of medium-low heat:

From Cajun Salmon

Lay down a liberal amount of paprika. Paprika adds a smoky flavor, but isn't particularly strong. This layer will form a delicious crust once we flip the salmon and fry it in the butter.

From Cajun Salmon

Put some cayenne pepper in one palm and sprinkle two pinches evenly over the salmon. You'll need about a tenth of what I actually poured into my palm in this picture.

From Cajun Salmon

Finally, cover the paprika and cayenne with garlic powder. After about 3 minutes, it will be time to flip the salmon.

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When you flip the salmon, give it the same seasoning on the opposite side. After 3 minutes, flip it back to help form a seasoning crust on the other side.

Remove the salmon when you're happy with the Cajun crust and finish it off by pouring the butter and fish oil that was released over the top. There is a lot of flavor in there. You can add some black pepper at this point if you want.

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It should look something like this.

From Cajun Salmon

I like to eat my salmon with a wedge of fresh lime to squeeze on top. A lot more people prefer lemon, but the citric acid from either fruit will help cut through the fat and give the fish a whole new dimension of flavor. My side dish was collards with bacon, but I wasn't happy with how they turned out, so I'm going to tweak the recipe and get back to all of you on that one.

The total cooking time is about 10 minutes, so this is a standby for me when I'm in a rush. I suggest buying a bunch of salmon steaks in bulk and freezing them as they thaw quite well without any serious drawbacks.