Honey Chili Lime Glazed Salmon

Don't you just adore friends bearing gifts--we do!  In his bachelor days RT did a lot of fishing, but sadly that came to an abrupt end when we started farming SERIOUSLY.  But every now and then an old fishing buddy will arrive with a few tales and other "fishy" stuff.  Last week a friend  traveling between Alaska and New Mexico stopped with the most gorgeous salmon filets!!

I am killer good at grilling salmon but it was way below freezing so I decided to broil it--NOT a good idea.  The heat was too close and too intense and the salmon overcooked.  HEARTBREAK.

Having another beautiful filet I did some heavy research and decided to bake it with a protective glaze to keep it moist and beautiful.  I found a great recipe for a lemon, mustard, parsley glaze at Natasha's Kitchen but I was out of  parsley and lemons, and who wants to go shopping on a beautiful Sunday afternoon!  I did however have fresh cilantro and limes so I changed it up a bit.

Honey Chili Lime Salmon glaze

Glaze before emulsion

I squeezed one and a half limes into this bowl, reserving a few slices from the center.  I poured in a good tablespoon of honey, added fresh minced garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes,  chili powder, salt and pepper.  Tasting my concoction and deeming it perfect I added olive oil and whisked it into this beautiful emulsion.
 

Glaze emulsion

Roasted onion and cilantro infused EVOO--you can see the gorgeous filet just behind the bottle

 Our nephew gave us this amazing roasted onion and cilantro infused extra virgin olive oil--perfect for this recipe.  (See what I mean about friends bearing gifts!)  Any good tasting olive oil will do but I was just thrilled to use this gift.

Freshly minced cilantro

 I was not sure if the cilantro would survive the baking so I reserved it.  I popped a slice of lime onto each filet and put them in a hot hot oven, setting the timer for six minutes just to be safe.

Salmon filets glazed and ready for the oven

After six minutes I checked on the filets and re-glazed them.  I set the timer for another six minutes and warmed our plates.  I let the salmon cook for a total of 18 minutes and then let it rest another few before dressing each filet with fresh cilantro and a last little drizzle of glaze.

I paired the salmon with Roasted Vegetables with Moroccan Couscous.  

Perfetto!

Honey Chili Lime Glazed Salmon

Preheat oven 450.

2 limes

1-2 cloves garlic, minced finely

1 TB honey

½ tsp. chili powder

¼ tsp. red pepper flakes

salt and freshly ground pepper

1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1/3 c. fresh cilantro, minced

3-4 salmon filets

Line a deep-sided baking sheet with foil—seriously, do not skip this step.  Rinse and pat dry salmon filets with paper towels and set skin side down on the baking sheet. Sprinkle each filet with a bit of salt.

Slice the limes in half and make a slice for each filet.  Squeeze the limes into a small mixing bowl.  Add the garlic, honey, chili powder and red pepper flakes, a pinch of salt and pepper.  Stir to mix all ingredients and dissolve the honey.  Taste it at this point and adjust it to suit your tastes.

Whisk the EVOO into the other ingredients creating an emulsion, a lovely thick dressing type glaze.  Coat each filet with glaze, top with a slice of lime and bake for 6 minutes. 

After baking for 6 minutes, remove the baking tray and re-glaze each filet.  The thinner portions of each filet cooks faster than the thicker, so I moved the slices of lime to protect the thinner parts.  Return to the oven for another 6 minutes and continue to cook until done. 

When cooked through, remove filets from the oven and add another optional glazing and finish with fresh cilantro.

Roasted Vegetables with Moroccan Couscous

Sometimes a great meal comes from the strangest of circumstances, like lunch today.  I had a handful of mushrooms and a couple of broccoli crowns that were fresh this weekend and some rather sad lemons rolling around in the produce drawer.  Okay, roasted veggies--then I realized I am leaving the farm (gasp) for the weekend and wanted to leave a few morsels for RT.  Darling Sara sent us some beautiful spice blends that I have been dying to use and while digging in the pantry for them I found some Israeli couscous, a can of garbanzo beans and a box of somewhat tired raisins begging for use.  Voile!  

A culinary star is born--Roasted Veggies in Moroccan Couscous.

It couldn't be easier than this.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Clean and quarter the mushrooms and cut the broccoli into florets and put all the veggies in a large bowl.  Add the EVOO, lemon juice, a generous pinch of red pepper flakes and some salt and freshly ground pepper.  Stir it all up and let it marinate for a few minutes.

Line a baking sheet with foil and pour the veggies onto the sheet, making sure that they are evenly distributed.  Pop them in the oven and roast until the broccoli begins to caramelize, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile open a can of garbanzo beans and rinse them in a colander with running water and leave them to drain.

Set a large sauce pan on medium heat and add a tablespoon of EVOO and the couscous.  Israeli couscous is a large couscous, about the size of a grain of barley. (If unavailable feel free to substitute barley or rice or quinoa.)  Toast the couscous until it begins to brown up, add the salt and Harissa and cook for another 30 seconds to let the spices bloom.  Add the water and bring to the boil.  Cover and reduce the heat and simmer the couscous until it is almost tender.  Add the raisins, cover and remove from heat.  Set aside and let couscous absorb any remaining water.

Pour some  balsamic vinegar into a small bowl and add the honey and garlic powder.  Stir this until the honey has dissolved.  Now is the time to taste the mixture and add more honey if you like.  Whisk in an equal amount of EVOO to create an emulsion--a perfectly mixed vinaigrette.

Now just put everything together in a large salad bowl and mix thoroughly together.  We had it warm for lunch, snacked on it in the afternoon at room temperature and put what little was left in the fridge overnight.  The next day RT scarfed up the rest right out of the fridge for his bachelor's lunch.

Roasted Vegetable Moroccan Couscous

8 oz button mushrooms, quartered

2 broccoli crowns (about 1 lb.), cut into florets

2 TB EVOO

juice of ½ lemon

pinch of red pepper flakes

14 oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 TB EVOO

1 c. large couscous (Israeli)

½ t. salt

½ t. Moroccan Harissa spice blend (recipe below)

1 ½ c. water

¼ c. raisins

1/3 c. balsamic vinegar

1-2 TB honey

¼ t. garlic powder

1/3 c. EVOO

Preheat oven 375.  Line a baking sheet with foil.  Place mushrooms and broccoli in a large mixing bowl, add 2 TB EVOO, lemon juice, red pepper flakes and mix thoroughly.  Pour veggie mixture onto foil lined baking sheet and sprinkle everything with salt.  Roast veggies in the oven for 20-35 min., until mushrooms are cooked through and broccoli is tender crisp and are beginning to caramelize.  (I like to catch it right before the broccoli burns!)  Remove from oven and return to large mixing bowl.  Add the drained garbanzo beans.  Cover the bowl with a large plate to let the veggies steam and marinate together.

While veggies are roasting warm 1 TB EVOO in a large sauce pan on the stove top.  Add the couscous when the oil is shimmering and toast the couscous for a few minutes, stirring frequently.  Add the salt and Harissa, letting the spices toast for 30 seconds.  Add the water and bring to the boil.  Cover the pan and reduce the heat to a low simmer for 8-10 min., keeping an eye on the water level and doneness of couscous.  When the couscous is almost tender all the way through, add the raisins, stir, recover, remove from heat and let couscous steam to finish the cooking.

Into a small mixing bowl add the balsamic vinegar and just enough honey to your liking.  (I like a nice balance between sweet and sour tangy.)  Add the garlic powder and whisk in the EVOO to create vinaigrette.  Add the couscous to the veggies and dress with the vinaigrette.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

I would love to have finished this with toasted walnuts, almonds or pine nuts and freshly chopped mint…but I did not have any so we did with out and it was divine.

**Harissa is a blend of herbs and spices mixed into a paste.  For this recipe I used a dry blend of spices.

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

½ tsp. caraway seed

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. coriander

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

Put all spices into a small jar with a tight fitting lid and shake to mix.  Store in a cool, dry, dark cupboard.  

This dish was inspired by Kevin at Closet Cooking.