Today was a big day for me !! My friend Craig Burroughs is an excellent golfer and his little brother Clark is a former PGA tour professional. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I started playing golf when I was 50 years old and that I am not very good. (That is being kind). Well, today I played with Craig and Clark and another friend. I honestly have to admit that I didn't sleep very well last night in anticipation of playing with a pro. I never play well with people that I am not used to playing with, so I was naturally quite nervous. It showed, but Clark got me calmed down and made it very fun to play with him. Like usual, I had some bad holes but had some good ones too and those are the ones I choose to remember. Thanks Clark, for making it fun. Just wish I could hit a golf ball like that. He was two under and didn't really take it all that seriously.
I decided that I would come home in a good mood and do something I think I am good at. I made what I call a pick-up meal, and it turned out to be really really good. Pick-up just means that I din't have a preconceived menu or recipes picked out ahead of time. The pick-up menu was seared salmon on a bed of wilted spinach, topped with Beurre Blanc sauce. My neighbor Susie had borrowed a pie server from us and brought it back, along with a dish of really good pasta salad. That was our side. I hope to get the recipe from her and will feature that later on Grandpacooks. It was some of the best pasta salad I have ever had.
Here are the recipes for what I did:
Seared salmon:
Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 6-7 Oz. salmon fillets, skin removed
Extra virgin olive oil
Coarse ground sea salt
Coarse ground black pepper
Lemon pepper seasoning
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle salmon pieces with olive oil and rub over the entire surface of each piece of salmon. Season with the salt, pepper and lemon pepper seasoning. Place 1-2 TBSP olive oil in an oven proof skillet. Heat over high heat until oil just begins to smoke. Sear the salmon on one side, two to three minutes. Turn and sear the other side. Place Salmon in the 400 degree oven and finish to the desired level, approximately 4-5 minutes.
Wilted Spinach:
Ingredients:
1-2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
2 Cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 TBSP pine nuts
15 Oz. baby spinach
Coarse ground sea salt
Coarse ground fresh black pepper
Preparation:
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When oil begins to show ribbons, add garlic. Saute until soft and translucent. Add spinach and pine nuts. Saute until spinach has wilted and given up most of it's liquid. Season with salt and pepper.
Beurre Blanc:
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup dry white wine, like Chardonnay
1/4 Cup white wine vinegar
1 TBSP minced shallots
2 TBSP heavy cream
8 Oz. unsalted butter, cubed and slightly softened
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Preparation:
Combine wine, vinegar and shallots in a small(1 Quart) saucepan. Place on range on medium heat and simmer to reduce, until the liquid barely covers the shallots. Add cream and reduce again until cream is lightly thickened and very shiny. Reduce heat to low. Begin whisking butter a piece or two at a time into the reduction. Whisk continually and keep adding butter until it is all incorporated into the sauce. If the mixture gets too hot, reduce heat or remove pan from the flame. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
To serve, place wilted spinach on a plate. Top with a piece of the seared salmon and drizzle the beurre blanc over the salmon and spinach. The tricky part of this is that everything is kind of happening at once. To make it easier, wilt the spinach and then turn off the heat. It will hold for a while and then just turn the heat on a couple of minutes before you serve it. You can do the sauce a little ahead too and hold it on low low heat for a few minutes.
We had this meal with a nice Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon and it was excellent. Salute !!
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