Food

[Dave]

Natalie, being an experimental cook is fun, but unpredictable. Many times I've spent hours on a meal (researching, shopping, and preparing) only to have it turn out inedible.

Don and Quint, thanks for your recipes.

I prepared two small salmon fillets yesterday; one as close as possible to Don's recipe as my available spices allowed, and the other was a spicy blackened fillet cobbled together from several sources. The blackened one (which turned out almost identical to the Prudhomme recipe suggested by Quint) was indeed spicy (too much so for my wife but I thought it was great). Don, your version was excellent too; more subtle, more refined; my wife especially liked it. So we both enjoyed the meal, which included small smashed red potatoes prepared with EVOO and balsamic vinegar and seasoned with S & P.

I managed to get the timing about right: bringing the salmon to room temperature, preparing the two rubs, boiling the potatoes before starting them in the oven, then adding the salmon. When I thought these were about half done I started the blackened version in a very hot cast iron skillet.

And I have enough leftovers for a light lunch, plus another 6-8 fillets still in the freezer.

(Sorry, but no photos of either version - we were too eager to try them to take time for photos.)