Savoring Salmon: Package Deal

I have actively avoided purchasing any salmon this summer. I keep saying that I want to get some, and mentioning some vague recipe ideas that I had been wanting to try, but every time I have been faced with the actual bright pink package, I balk. First of all salmon is 'spensive. Which brings me to my second point, which is that I don't want to mess it up. I needed to have a concrete idea of what I was going to do with it before I got it in order to have the confidence to shell out for it. It doesn't help that I have been repeatedly confronted with the amazing-looking great-deal salmon that Costco sells in enormous packages, which is not particularly suited to a two-person, one-cat household.

Now that salmon season is almost over, as my mom impressed upon me, I had to bite the bullet or forever hold my peace. So I rolled up my sleeves, went through all of my recipe books to find the recipes that had been taunting me, found some wild salmon on sale and bought two sensible portions. We cooked them for dinner, wrapped in parchment paper packets, seasoned with a fragrant mix of fresh ginger, soy sauce, lemon juice, atop a nest of green beans and kept both moist and flavorful by the ingenious drizzle of sesame oil atop the fish. I've been dying to try the parchment paper packet trick ever since I saw it in a cookbook a couple of years ago, and I have to say that I was very pleased with how well it worked. The fish was well cooked, moist, and flavorful. Plus, I love that the sauce, veggies, and protein were all so easily cooked together. All I had to add was some brown rice to have the easiest, healthiest, most deliciously well balanced meal. The nutty toasted sesame seeds on top really sealed the deal for me though.

Well worth the wait. And the investment.

Salmon in Parchment Paper with Green Beans, Soy sauce, and Ginger

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

Serves 2

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 heaping Tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger

1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups green beans

2 boneless skinless salmon filets (5 ounces each)

coarse salt

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds (toasted)

Pre-heat the oven to 400

Cut two squares of parchment paper, large enough to generously hold the fish and veggies. Fold the squares in half, creasing the center, unfold and place on a baking sheet.

Mix together the soy sauce, lemon juice, and ginger. Split the green beans between the two pieces of parchment paper (unfolded). Spoon the sauce over the veggies (1/2 over each pile). Place a piece of salmon over each pile of green beans, then season each piece with a pinch of salt and drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil. Fold the parchment paper over the salmon, sealing the package with a series of overlapping pleats. It should look a little like a calzone.

Bake for 12 minutes (medium). You can put the sesame seeds in a small baking dish and toast them in the oven at this point, but be careful, the burn quickly. When the salmon is done, unwrap the packages, and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

Devour.