The Miracle of Fish

Last night I made salmon, peas and scallions and served them with a pre-made grocery deli couscous salad.  Freddy (2) had three helpings of fish.  Molly (4) had two.  And they ate their peas.  I was really excited to bring this couscous home to them, too.  It had big pearl couscous, raisins, sweet potatoes, almonds, scallions and chickpeas.  The dressing was made with  honey, orange yogurt and fig.  Sweet and delicious, right?  They both hated it.  But they had multiple servings of fish, so, I'm ok with that.  There's enough couscous left for me to have as a little snack later.

Tonight I'm making the dish it has taken me three trips to the store to get ingredients for - you'll hear that story soon enough.  When I realized I *still* didn't have all the stuff I needed last night, I was very happy that I had bought the beautiful piece of salmon they were sampling at the store.  Now at least we didn't have to have pizza again.  I decided to shake off my frustration of not having all the ingredients of my planned meal AGAIN, and use it as a fun experiment night.  I tried some flavors I thought would go well with the salmon.  I peeled and sliced a lemon and a red onion, and cut some of the fresh dill I'd bought at the store. (I was totally seduced by fresh herbs at the store and now have a lovely bouquet on my kitchen counter.  Spring IS coming, right?)

I put a tiny bit of olive oil on the fish and seasoned it with salt and pepper.  Then I lay some dill sprigs down and covered that with alternating wheels of lemon and onion.  Pretty!  I brushed a little bit more olive oil on top and broiled it on low for 5 minutes.  Not done - and I decided to ditch the rack and lay the skin side right on my half sheet.  Six more minutes broiled on low, and the thinner section of the fish was almost there.  I switched the broiler to high and cooked it for three more minutes.  Beautiful!  The thickest part of the fish was still not cooked, but I served the part that was cooked, and put it back in on low.  I served it to the adults with a little of the lemon and onion on the plate, but they were really too strong to actually eat.  They gave the salmon a wonderful flavor, though.  By the time the kids needed seconds, the rest of the fish was beautifully done.  There were no leftovers.