Cooking salmon

Among the things I have learned on the Food Channel, while sweating away at 20% oxygen, is how to cook salmon. Specifically, from Emeril LaGasse, what to do with fresh salmon, skin on. To wit. Tonight, I heated the oven to 500 degrees F, and put a very large, double size cast iron skillet inside to heat - for nearly an hour. (Meanwhile, I stuck the first large tomatoes of the season at an affordable price in to roast in some olive oil and salt.) While the skillet was heating, I marinated a big slab of salmon, skin on, in some wine, garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and some seafood spice mix. When the skillet was very hot, I patted the salmon dry, and turned on the oven broiler. I rubbed some more dry spices into the fish, and then put the dried off salmon into the skillet, face down and skin up. Then I stuck it under the broiler on high. The skin sizzled and crackled and the salmon cooked very, very quickly. Took it out, drizzled some olive oil on it, and bingo. Very, very moist, with crackling salmon skin.

While that had been going on, I had taken some small purple skinned potatoes, washed them, and cooked them mostly done in the microwave in a bowl with some white wine, olive oil, salt, and garlic. The inside of the potato was mostly cooked through. I removed the fish, then added the potatoes to the skillet plus the wine and oil, added some more wine, deglazed the pan to get the fish juices all dissolved, then put it back into the oven with the potatoes under the broiler. They sizzled a while and got a little crispy, and the wine reduction sizzled. Mixed it all together and that was the potatoes.

Romaine salad with a dressing that included a tablespoon of hummous. Fresh green beans soaked and then cooked in white wine until just crunchy, and the oven roasted tomatoes.

Dessert was a bunch of blackberries on sale, soaked in a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar with some vanilla turbinado sugar on top.

Until watching Emeril, I had no idea that you could really do things with an ordinary oven broiler. But using a heavy cast iron skillet preheated makes all the difference in the world.