salmon and a long absence

What a long time since I posted! For a couple of weeks, we were eating out in Peru, but that doesn't explain the whole time. So I return with a flourish of salmon! As beautiful as they were, and as well prepared as they were (perfectly cooked, so moist and well-seasoned, with paprika and fresh dill, plus generous squeezes of lemon), they were somehow kind of tasteless. Go figure. But still, pretty to look at:

Salmon, in a new light

Now that my flash is part of our dinner experience, expect to see new versions of our old favorites, with better lighting. Tonight: salmon filets cooked on our preheated and sizzling iron skillets.

First, the raw salmon, sprinkled with paprika:

A few minutes later, we eat:

Almond-crusted bluefish

We really enjoy bluefish, and I love the way he covers it in toasted almonds. The smell of the almonds toasting makes my mouth water and makes it hard for me to wait:

Here's a close-up view of the great fish

And out a little further....

And here's the whole fish presentation.

We also had fresh noodles with butter and parsley
(with lots of salt and pepper of course)

And the salad was particularly good tonight, for some reason --
very simple, just lettuce and blue cheese and red onions. But the blue cheese was very sharp, and the cold crunchiness perfectly complemented the luscious fish.

grilled salmon

He came up with the greatest way to do croutons. You know how irritating it is to eat croutons, normally? You try to stick it with your fork, it breaks. You try to scoop the crouton onto your fork, but then you can't also get lettuce. Here's his solution: crunch the croutons into pebbles, then pour them with olive oil and lots of crushed garlic (and whatever else). Let it marinate, then pour it over the salad. Voila -- the salad is dressed and filled with croutons. He also grates blue cheese and puts in lots of thin-sliced red onion. OH MY.

Then he quick-grills salmon on our small iron skillets -- the outside is so crispy and the inside just melts.
He's a genius, really.

Seared tuna and grilled asparagus

That's a very pungent wasabi mayonnaise on the seared tuna, and the asparagus is coated with salty butter.

Dinner, September 2

Parmesan-crusted halibut steaks:

Finally, dessert. An anomaly on this blog, because this is the wife's specialty: brownies. Scharffenberger brownies.

broiled bluefish