Wednesday, February 01, 2023

Cooking with Blobby

I'll start out with a few word review:  they can't all be winners. 

There.  That's it. 


Of course, you know I'll expound.......so, hold on. 

My go-to for recipes lately has been the NYT. They have a decent food person(s) and some easy-ish dishes are have some depth of flavour........allegedly.  Some have been winners - like the chilie crip pasta, which I've now made a few times. 

We eat salmon about once per week and you know, some times, you just want to serve it a little differently. .....and so I did. 

Peanut Butter-Glazed Salmon and Green Beans

Who doesn't like peanut butter......................on fish?  

Before you curl your lip - and I know you are - the peanut butter was not the problem. But more on that as we do into the prep, cook and serve. 


INGREDIENTS 
Yield: 4 servings 

1 pound green beans, trimmed 
1 bunch scallions (about 6), halved lengthwise then cut crosswise into thirds 
1 tablespoon minced garlic 
3 tablespoons neutral oil, such as safflower or canola 
Salt and black pepper 
¼ cup smooth peanut butter (either conventional or natural works) 
2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus lemon wedges for serving 
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce 
1 tablespoon grated peeled ginger 
½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil 
4 (6-ounce) center-cut salmon fillets 
¼cup chopped unsalted roasted peanuts (optional) 
 
First off - I forgot to put the scallions in the picture. Secondly, I forgot to get a lemon at all.  Thirdly, I had the peanuts and forgot about those too. I don't think any of these made a difference to anything. 

Looking at the list, it seems a little labour intensive, but it's not. Not really. Trimming the green beans and peeling the ginger were the most laborious things about it.  ....and I got 710 to do the ginger!

PREPARATION 



Step 1 Heat oven to 450 degrees. On a large rimmed baking sheet, combine green beans, scallions, garlic and 2 tablespoons of the neutral oil; season with salt and pepper. Toss to evenly coat, then spread in an even layer. 

Ick. 

Less ick. 

Step 2 Prepare the peanut butter glaze: In a small bowl, combine peanut butter, lemon juice, soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil and 1 tablespoon water. Season with salt and pepper, then whisk until smooth. 


Step 3 Rub salmon with the remaining 1 tablespoon neutral oil and season with salt. Arrange salmon on top of beans and spoon half of the peanut butter glaze on top of the fish. Roast for 5 minutes, then spoon over the remaining glaze. Roast until salmon is cooked to medium and beans are crisp-tender, 5 to 7 minutes more, depending on thickness. 


Step 4 Divide salmon and beans among serving plates. Top with peanuts and serve with lemon wedges. cup chopped unsalted roasted peanuts (optional)


First off -  scallions!  I love the smell of them. It's always smells of freshness. And I'm good eating roasted scallions with sesame oil and garlic. 

As I said, the peanut butter, to me, was not the problem. Mind you, I thought it was thin out and "melt" a little when cooked. It did not. Adding the second coating was really really really not needed. 

For me - it was the ginger. It's all I smelled. It's all I tasted. Mostly, I can take or leave ginger, but yowza. Oddly, 710 didn't taste the ginger at all. I whisked all this together, so I know it just didn't show up on my piece of fish. 

But yeah, I didn't taste the fish. I barely noticed the peanut butter by taste. Consistency, yes. Taste, no. 

I would like to think not having the lemon juice in the glaze would not have made a huge difference, but maybe it would have mellowed - or diverted - the ginger senses?  I'll probably never know, as I'll probably not give this one a second try. 

As 710 said, "it was a good experiment".   Yeah, me as Dr. Bunson Honeydew, in the lab.  Notice he didn't say it was a good meal. I did. 

3 comments:

Old Lurker said...

Mee-mee-mee-mee-meep!

I can't imagine that conventional peanut butter and natural peanut butter behave the same way when cooking. Conventional peanut butter is so loaded with sugar.

Travel said...

You tried,

Anonymous said...

Lemon was probably for acid to cut the richness. Next time roast the green beans as you did, but skip the PB mixture and just coat the fish with Everything But the Bagel mix. Easier.

Will Jay