Oven Roasted Salmon Fillets with French Green Lentil Ragout

We first learned and made this recipe with Aileen's sister Valerie a few years back.

Ingredients

• Salmon Fillet Portions - 4 to 6 oz per person

• 1/2 Pound French Green Lentils (lentilles du Puy)

• 2-3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (plus extra for the salmon)

• 1/2 Yellow Onion chopped

• 2 medium Carrots chopped

• 1 stalk of Celery chopped

• 1 medium Leek chopped (white and light green parts only)

• 1 Clove Garlic minced

• 2 Cups Chicken Stock (or you could use vegetable stock)

• 1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence

• 1 small pinch ground Cloves

• 1 Bay Leaf

• Kosher Salt

• Freshly ground Black Pepper

Instructions (Lentil Ragout)

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F (Yes, I know I said this is the Lentil Instructions, but if you are making the salmon with this dish, you need to preheat the oven now for the salmon).

2. Place the lentils in a fine mesh sieve and sort through to make sure there are no small stones leftover from the manufacturing process.

3. Rinse the lentils under cold water.

4. Place the lentils in a sauce pan and cover with fresh water and simmer on medium heat for 2 minutes. After the lentils have briefly simmered, remove from heat and rinse again in a sieve with cold water.

5. Rinse the inside of the sauce pan and place back on medium heat.

6. Add olive oil to the pan and place onions, carrots, leeks, celery, and garlic and briefly saute (3 minutes) stirring frequently - you want the vegetables nicely coate with the oil and starting to sweat to release their flavors.

7. Add the herbs de provence and cloves to help brighten the spices. Add a little salt and pepper (reminger - not too much as the stock will have salt in it) and give the vegetables and spices a thorough stir.

8. Add back the lentils and cover lentils and vegetables with the stock. You should add additional water to the pan so the lentils, etc. are covered with about 1/2" to 1" of liquid.

9. Reduce the temperature of the pan when the contents are simmering. Continue to simmer over a low flame for an additional 20 mins. Give the contents a stir every couple of minutes.

10. Remove about 2/3 of the lentil / vegetable mixture with a slotted spoon and put aside. Blend the remaining contents of the pot so the mixture is like a chunky pureed lentil soup (with either with stick blender, counter blender, or mini food processor). Return the remaining lentils you removed earlier and keep them VERY hot on a very light simmer. At this point in time you should adjust the level of salt and pepper of your ragout.

Instructions (Salmon)

1. Rub both sides of the salmon fillets with olive oil and place on a baking sheet that has been covered with oil and aluminum foil. Season the tops of the oiled fillets with salt and pepper. We have a wonderful spice blend that we picked up in Savannah ("All 'Round Good Grinder Blend") that we love to season our salmon with.

2. Place the baking sheet in the oven and roast for 12 minutes.

3. Remove from the oven.

Plating Instructions

1. Create a bed of the lentil ragout for each serving

2. Perch the salmon filet on top of the ragout

   
   

Best Regards and BonAppetIT!!!

TheITGourmet

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Tortilla Española - Eggs can be what's for dinner tonight!

Sometime, when Aileen and I are both done working at the end of the day, we are out of creative ideas for dinner. Many times we're just want to make something that can be made out of the ingredients in the fridge (and not too many). This recipe is versatile and you can add / subtract ingredients based upon what you have on hand or what you feel like having in the moment (e.g., often we like to add spinach and mushrooms too).

6 main ingredients: 

- Eggs 

- Potatoes 

- Onions 

- Red Peppers 

- Garlic 

- Manchego Cheese (we left off yesterday)

Ingredients

• 4 Small to Medium Yukon Gold Potatoes peeled, cut in quarters lengthwise and sliced in 1/8th slices

• 1/2 Medium Yellow Onion sliced thinly (if you only have a red onion - go for it!)

•  1 Clove Garlic - minced

•  1/2 Red Bell Pepper - sliced into thin strips

•  5 eggs - beaten

•  1 or 2 cups Manchego Cheese - shredded

•  1 - 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

•  Grape Seed Oil Cooking Spray

•  Salt and Pepper 

IMPORTANT NOTE: This dish turns out best using a well-seasoned cast iron skillet 

Instructions

1. Boil potatoes until just fork tender. I like to add a healthy pinch of salt to the water to help flavor the potatoes. When potatoes are cooked, drain in a colander and let them cool for a bit. 

2. While potatoes are cooking, heat a 10-12” cast iron skill over medium heat sauté onions, garlic, red peppers in a light amount of olive oil (1 - 2 tablespoons). I like to sauté the onions first until transparent and soft, and then add the garlic and red bell pepper. Continue to cook until pepper is softened. 

3. Beat Eggs in a large glass bowl. Add some more salt and pepper to the beaten eggs and beat a little more. 

4. Add cooked onions, garlic, peppers and cooked potatoes to beaten eggs and incorporate together. 

5. Add potatoes to egg / veggie mixture and incorporate together. 

6. Add shredded cheese to mixture and incorporate together. 

7. Lower the flame on your cast iron skillet to low simmer and spray grape seed oil to coat the pan (the Grape Seed Oil doesn’t impart as much deep flavor and tends to provide a lighter color on cooked food). 

8. Return mixture to skillet and cook over a low simmer until you can see most of the egg mixture to firm up (the top will will still be runny). 

9. Heat your oven to the lowest broiler setting (We have a Wolf range and use Br1 setting). 

10. Place skillet in oven and cook until the whole tortilla has firmed up and the top is lightly browned.

Best Regards and BonAppetIT!!!

TheITGourmet

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Beans, beans, the musical fruit...

Shhhhhhhh.....This is my top secret recipe so please be careful with whom you share it with.

In my family, there seems to be a baked bean recipe competition between my older brother and I. Mine tend to be a little sweeter. In my opinion, he produces a quality product from his recipe, but I do prefer mine. Also, in my opinion, some of the keys to this recipe is cooking the beans low and slow in the crockpot for 4 - 5 hours and also sautéing and slightly caramelizing the onions prior to combining them with the other ingredients. This recipe can certainly be made ahead of time. In fact, I've been told by MrsITGourmet they are better warmed up. They can also be served cold if you'd prefer - I've been known to snitch spoonfuls from the leftovers in the fridge so I can attest to that.

Ingredients

• 2 Large Cans (28oz) of Vegetartian Baked Beans (I prefer Bush's - No, I don't get anything for product promotion)

• 1 Medium Yellow Onion finely diced

• 1 Tablespoon Canola Oil

• 4 Beef Hot Dogs - quartered lengthwise and diced into small pieces (I prefer either Hebrew National or A&H Kosher hot dogs)

• 1/2 Cup Ketchup

• 1 Tablespoon Dry Mustard (I prefer Coleman's Dry Mustard)

• 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar (Light or Dark)

• 1/3 Cup Black Strap Molasses

• 1/4 Cup Maple Syrup (optional)

• 1/4 Cup Water

Instructions

1. Over medium heat, add canola oil into a medium sized skilled

2. Add diced onions and saute. Continue to cook onions over medium heat (to low-medium) until translucent and soft. I like to continually add small amounts of water to the pan while the onions are cooking. Eventually, you want the onions to become soft and lightly golden brown in color (lightly caramelized).

3. When onions are cooked - remove from heat.

4. Combine all ingredients together into a countertop slow cooker. NOTE: I like to use the 1/4 Cup of Water to clean out the remaining liquid from the cans of Baked Beans.

5. It's at this point in time that you should start to taste the combined ingredients and adjust as necessary. NOTE: I will admit - it is at this point I start adjusting things carefully until I get things to the taste level that I prefer (which is a little sweet). BUT - be careful with the ingredients like molasses and mustard, because a little goes a long way and too much of one of those can make a big difference that from which it can be difficult to compensate.

6. Place your slow cooker on low and cook the beans mixture for at least 4 hours - I generally like to let it go 5 hours. Make sure you are checking on the beans every so often to make sure as they cook, they are not sticking to the bottom of the slow cooker. If need be, add a little water (perhaps 1/3 Cup) to the beans while they cook. Ideally, though, the beans should be starting to thicken toward the end of the cooking time.

As Always,

Best Regards and BonAppetIT!!!

TheITGourmet

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