OT Lazy Cooking with Cat!

[Catdancer]

Cooked salmon:

Salmon fillets are pretty inexpensive these days ( for farm raised salmon), and pretty versatile. And easy and quick to prepare.

Unwrap the fillet, lay in a shallow dish. Marinate for 20 minutes, turning occasionally, in one of these marinades:

Bottled oil-and-vinegar salad dressing, any style; raspberry dressing.
Or 1 part olive (or vegetable) oil, 2 parts vinegar, 2- 3 tablespoons sugar, mixed well.
Or 1/4 cup oil, 4 tablespoons soy sauce, 1/3 cup vinegar, 3 tablespoons brown sugar.
Or 1/4 cup oil, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 3 tablespoons white sugar.

Use enough marinade to come up about halfway up the side of the fillet. Save rest for another use, or discard (all the homemade ones can be used as salad dressings, or on pork or chicken breasts as marinades.) Turn fillets over at least once during the 20 minute marinade.

Drain fillet well, and discard the marinade the fish was soaking in. Then cook:

If pan frying, pour in enough oil in fry pan to coat the bottom. Heat pan and oil until hot. Lay in fillet, skin side down. Cook for about 5-8 minutes, until fish is no longer pink. Move the fillet around in the pan while cooking--this sticks easily. Add more oil if necessary. If the skin falls off, that's not a problem, only it makes it a bit more difficult to turn over. After the 5 minutes, turn the fillet over and brown the top. Stick a fork in the middle and twist slightly, drawing up the fork. If bits of salmon come you with it, and are slightly gray (not pink), it's done. Otherwise cook for a bit longer.

You don't want to overcook this! It will turn dry and unpleasant! Just needs cooking until it turns color from obvious raw to cooked! Remove from pan and serve.

OR: drain fillet, discarding any marinade. Wipe the dish clean with a paper towel (leaving some marinade residue on sides and bottom). Lay fillet back into dish, skin side down. Cover tightly with foil, place in preheated oven, 350 degrees, for 20 minutes. Remove foil, stick fork in center of fillet; if the fish flakes, it's done. Otherwise put cover back on and continue baking for another 5 minutes.

OR: prepare as for baking, but instead cover with microwave safe plastic, vent one corner (or with a sharp knife cut silt in top, to vent), place in micro and cook on high for 8 minutes, or until fish flakes.

[SalpalSally]

Sounds wonderful and hard. Not crazy about Salmon so I'll pass on that dish.
I wish I could still cook my own meals. I used to love to put concoctions together.

[Virginia]

Thanks Cat. I assume other fish could also be cooked in a similar fashion. Tonight I am going to put a boneless, center cut pork loin, in oven and just pour some barbecue sauce over it. It will cook in about 30 minutes. I buy these and freeze a couple of them. They look like pork chops, but are pork loin. They are good.

[Cat Dancer]

Thanks Cat. I assume other fish could also be cooked in a similar fashion. Tonight I am going to put a boneless, center cut pork loin, in oven and just pour some barbecue sauce over it. It will cook in about 30 minutes. I buy these and freeze a couple of them. They look like pork chops, but are pork loin. They are good.

They actually are a better cut than pork chops, more tender, leaner. I use them all the time for stir fry. Do you buy the whole loin (which is the cheapest)? Looks like a roll of pork (but isn't...it's solid, just round). Slice it in whatever thicknesses you want, use like pork chops, or like you're doing, pour sauce over them, and bake.

[Virginia]

Yes Cat, I do sometime buy the whole loin, but being just one person I am sure it is not very cost effective for me. When I get one of those I put it in the crock pot and just pour a bottle of barbecue sauce over it. Then I have to eat on it for at least 3 days. Still, I don't mind leftovers, so if I am in the mood for pork I get a real nice one (as small as I can get). I cook some vegetables and just heat everything the next day or two.

[Catdancer]

Do you have freezer capacity? I buy the loin and divide it up into one meal portions, then freeze what I don't use right away.

The salmon marinades work on firm thick fish like cod and paddock, but not on more delicate fillets. For those I simply fry in a mix of hot oil and butter, 2-3 minutes per side, sprinkle with lemon juice and serve..

[Virginia]

When you fry your fish do you bread them before hand, or just use the hot oil and butter. That sounds good.

[Catdancer]

When you fry your fish do you bread them before hand, or just use the hot oil and butter. That sounds good.

Either! For very thin filets I'll just brown in butter. Saves the mess of breading. If I'm not marinating the cod or while fish, then flour/egg/ panko or other breading, then into hot oil/butter.

[SalpalSally]

Yummmm I like the idea of the pork chops.

[Virginia]

Sally, sure wish I could share a pork loin with you - then it would be worth cooking the whole thing.

I went out last night for dinner with two brothers and nephew. I had blackened salmon salad. It was so good, but expensive. The salad had pine nuts, walnuts, cranberries in addition to the regular carrots, red onions, etc. I brought enough home for dinner tonight. That made me feel better about the expense, plus it was too much to eat anyway.

Cat, my only freezer is my side-by-side refrigerator, and it is one of the smaller ones. I have plenty of space, but unless I use things within a reasonable period of time, I am prone to letting them get to the back and I forget about them.

[SuzE-Q]

Virginia, that sounds yummy.

What kind of dressing did it have on it?

[Virginia]

Suze, they had their own dressing on it. If I go again I am going to find out what it is. It was yummy - both nights.

[Catdancer]

The Pizza Ranch restaurant that we frequent has a salad like that on their salad bar. It doesn't have a dressing on it directly, but one of the choices is a raspberry vinaigrette that is yummy on it. I would never have thought of adding cranberries to salad, and walnuts, but they sure are good!

[agate]

Craisins are nice added to salad, I think. Is that the type of cranberries under discussion?

[Virginia]

I think these were just real dried cranberries.
Cat, I've just got to get to the Pizza Inn here. I haven't been in years, but my brother and his wife go about every week and they say it is exactly the same as it always was, which is exactly what you have described yours as being.