Day 9: Smokin' Hot Salmon

I don't go out to eat very often, mainly for budgetary reasons since feeding two teenagers and myself at a restaurant adds up very quickly. When I do go out, my one criteria for choosing a restaurant is that they have to serve something I can't make at home, which usually means we are eating at an Asian hole-in-the-wall or having In-n-Out burgers.

I haven't been out to eat since this experiment started and so I was ecstatic when The Geek offered to take me out for a sushi lunch today (and I only had to drop one hint!). We both love sushi and so it is no small affair when we go to our favorite All-You-Can-Eat sushi bar. That, combined with a late lunch hour, meant neither of us were very hungry at dinner time.

Here's where having a well-stocked pantry and a hot smokin' BFF comes in handy. The Geek hot-smokes salmon. (The smoked salmon that is typically available commercially - the thin fillets that are slimy - is made by a process known as cold smoking.) Hot-smoked salmon has the texture of cooked fish and fantastic smoky flavor. The Geek just happened to have a smoked fillet in his refrigerator along with some cream cheese and Triscuits. Voila! One of our favorite snacks!

I dug around in my freezer and found a wedge of brie and a wedge of Stilton (a mild blue cheese). I spooned some of AB's cranberry sauce (leftover from Thanksgiving) over the brie and microwaved it until just heated. The tangy cranberries and sweet honey  complemented the mild French cheese perfectly. Fuji apple slices rounded out the meal.

Busy Mom Modifications and Tips

• I frequently make a "meal" like this on nights when we're short on time or I am not in the mood to cook. I buy a loaf of crusty Italian bread, warm up some cheese (usually brie plus another, more pungent cheese such as chevré or blue cheese), add some fruit, and a protein such as summer sausage or smoked salmon. My daughter refers to this as our "European Peasant" dinner.
• TGI Friday's, the chain restaurant, used to serve a brie appetizer that I still like to make at home. Put a generous chunk of butter on top of the brie, sprinkle with slivered almonds, and bake in a 350F oven until the butter has melted and the cheese is soft. The melted butter is perfect for dipping fresh bread.
• Other fruit that goes well with this meal include firm pear slices, grapes, and cantaloupe.

My Shopping List

Nothing - we made do with what was on hand.

The Tally

• The day's tally: $0
• Total this month so far: $143 (Thanksgiving was an expensive meal!)

Day 4: Ssssssmokin!

There is something you should know about The Geek: he is a smoker. Not of cigarettes but of hickory, alder, oak and pecan. He smokes seafood, pork, chicken, and beef all to delectable ends and keeps my freezer chocked full of smoked salmon and other smoky delights. It has been raining the last few days so when the sun peeked out this afternoon, The Geek decided to smoke a rib eye roast.

Smoking is all about numbers: The size of the roast, time to cook per pound, the internal temperature, the ambient temperature, the temperature at which the meat is fully cooked but not overly done. Since he is a math wiz, The Geek has smoking down to a science.  The roast came out of the smoker promptly at 5:30 and was a perfect 141F. The combination of oak and pecan gave it a beautiful mahogany color, a heavenly scent and fantastic flavor.

When The Geek smokes the entrée, I make the fixin's. Due to time constraints, it is usually a simple chopped vegetable salad with a loaf of bread from the bakery but on the weekends, I like to try more elaborate dishes. Today I chose one of my favorites, Alton Brown's Roasted Edamame Salad. I also had a butternut squash that needed to be eaten up so I decided to try Ina Garten's Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette.

I'll start with the Roasted Butternut Squash Salad. Peeling and cutting up the squash was a huge effort. Roasting it took a lot longer than the 20 minutes listed in the recipe and the resulting texture was not suited for a salad, in my opinion. The vinaigrette took closer to 20 minutes (more than twice the time listed) to reduce. And unfortunately I did not have many of the key ingredients called for in the recipe. I replaced the arugula with leaf lettuce, pear cider (the carbonated kind) for the apple juice, and left out the cranberries and walnuts since I did not have comparable replacements. Perhaps this is why the salad turned out to be such a bland mess? Even if it had turned out as delicious as the reviewers on the website had raved, I'm not sure I would make this again - it was just way too much effort.

Alton, or 'AB' as we his devotees call him, never lets me down. I follow his Roasted Edamame recipe to the letter, with two exceptions. First I use frozen corn that has been thawed. And second, I like to roast the soybeans and corn until they are shriveled down to wrinkled, brown shadows of their fomer selves. I realize this does not sound at all appetizing but the beans and corn take on a chewy texture and the flavor really concentrates down. The catch is that it takes almost an hour of roasting time at 450F to achieve this effect but it is well worth it.

Busy Mom Modifications

• The substitutions in the Squash salad were probably to the salad's detriment. If I make this again (which is not likely), I will invest in the recommended ingredients.
• I'm not sure why The Barefoot Contessa has you peel and cut up the squash before roasting. I suspect the idea is that you can coat the pieces of squash before roasting and that somehow improves the flavor. In the past when I have roasted squash, I quarter it, scoop out the seeds and fiber, and slather the exposed surfaces with the maple syrup/butter/brown sugar/whatever and it has always been delicious. And you have the bonus of being able to easily scoop the flesh out of the skin. If you're going to try this recipe, you may want to quarter instead of chopping up/peeling the raw squash.
• AB has you cutting the corn fresh off the cob. I use frozen corn that has been thawed.
• The Edamame salad is quick and easy, and if you roast for the recommended 10 minutes, this is very do-able for a weeknight dinner.
• Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil before putting in the beans and corn. This will make it easier to transfer to the serving bowl (lift off the foil and pour into the bowl) and simplifies clean-up.  

The Results

• Of course the roast was the star of the meal. If you don't have a friend with mad smoking skills, then you should go out and find one.
• I've said enough about the squash salad.
• The edamame salad is always a hit.

Ratings for the Edamame Salad

• From The Geek: "Wow! This salad has a lot more flavor than you would think it would have from looking at it. It is really good." 
• Difficulty: Easy.
• Time to prepare:  20 minutes up to 1 hr 10 minutes, depending on how long you roast the soybeans and corn and assuming you use frozen corn
• Prognosis:  A favorite that I love to serve to guests

My Shopping List

Nothing - I made do with what I had on hand.

The Tally

The day's tally: $0
Total this week so far: $7.77