Salmon and Rice Dinner

We don’t have a dishwasher.  With as much as I cook, you can imagine that this is a mild inconvenience most nights.  Bets and I have a pretty solid routine for this and she’s awesome at helping with the dishes after I cook.  Actually, she just does most of them.  If she’s not there to help me though, I have really learned the benefits of a dinner that I can cook in one pot.

This one pot dinner also happens to be pretty quick to make.  The salmon and rice go great together and the only tricky part is making sure not to overcook anything.

This photo doesn’t really do this meal justice because of my haphazard plating, but it’s healthy, fast, and good eats.

Honey and Lime Glazed Salmon and Rice (From a Bon Appetit Oct. 2009 recipe)
Serves 4.

- 4 5-6 ounce salmon fillets
- 3/4 Cups shallots or onions, minced
- 1 1/2 Cups basmati rice
- 3 1/4 Cups low-salt chicken stock or water (may need to adjust this)
- 1 bunch broccoli, or 2 Cups broccoli florets
- 1-2 Tablespoons olive oil

Glaze:
- 1/4 Cup fresh lime juice (about 1.5 limes)
- 2 Tablespoons lime zest
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro
- 2 Tablespoons soy sauce (or to taste)

Helpful Equipment:
- Dutch Oven

Making the Glaze. There’s only a few things you need to actually prep for this dish, the sauce being the first thing I prepped.  You’ll need this stuff for the glaze.

Basically, just mince up your cilantro, zest and juice your lime, and then whisk everything together.  Taste this and adjust it to your tastes.  I actually added a bit more soy sauce than the original recipe.

Other Prep Business. Besides the sauce there are just a few things to address.  First, prep your broccolini.  If you haven’t used broccolini before, it’s great for this recipe because it cooks a bit faster than normal broccoli.  You can by all means use normal broccoli if you want though.  I would just make sure your florets are fairly small to make sure they cook evenly.

Also, chop up your onion or shallots for the rice.

Finally, let’s address the fish.  You can definitely buy salmon fillets already cut, but I got a larger piece and decided to cut it down myself.  The benefit of doing that is that you can cut the pieces to size.  So if Betsy wants a smaller piece I can cut a 5 ounce piece for her and a 7 ounce piece for me.  Also, I think the fish usually stays a little fresher if it’s in larger pieces.

If you do get a larger piece, you’ll have two things to address.  First, pin bones.  These guys are medium sized bones that run throughout the length of the fillet.  You can definitely leave them in if you’re in a rush, but it’ll make for a better dining experience if you remove them before cooking.  This is actually kind of hard to do if you don’t have the right tools.  Here’s a good tutorial on how to do it.  If you have a nice butcher they might do it for you also!

Your cut will most likely come with skin on.  Take a sharp knife and just run it along the back of the fillet to separate the skin from the meat.

I don’t really have good tools for removing the pin bones and forgot to ask the butcher to do it for me, so my pieces ended up a bit mushed.  That’s okay though.  They’ll still cook up nicely for this dish.

Cooking the dish. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Then heat up your oil in your dutch oven (it’s important that your dish can go from stove top to oven).  Once your oil is hot, add your shallots or onions and sauté them until they are soft.  Then add your rice and stir it into your onions for a few seconds until it’s hot.

Next add your stock and then bring the mixture to a simmer on the stove top.  Once it’s simmering, add the lid and stick the pot in your very hot oven for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, pull the pot out.  The rice should be mostly cooked.  If it’s dry, add another 1/4 Cup of stock or water to the dish.  Then, season all your salmon fillets with some salt and pepper and then wedge them down into the rice.

Finally, add your broccolini, to the pot and then drizzle about 1 Tablespoon of your sauce over each fillet.

Cover this guy and return it back to the oven for about 8 minutes.  It cooks really quickly so keep an eye on it.  When I made it I cooked it for about 10 minutes and my salmon was just a bit overcooked in my opinion.

Once the salmon is cooked, drizzle the rest of the sauce over the dish and serve it up!  I’m sure there’s a better way to plate this dish so it’s really pretty, but I was starving so I just kind of tossed it all on a plate!

The dinner was great.  The salmon was good, the broccolini was cooked but still had a bit of a bite to it that I like.  The rice was very flavorful and it may have been my second favorite part of the dish.

My absolute favorite part of this dish though?  One pot.  Easy clean up!