Grilled Salmon Tostada Salad

I love the Costco coho salmon, but you always need a plan B because you get so much. This is a nice light grilled salmon tostada salad with a little smashed avocado and sour cream.

Ingredients:

Trader Joe's Flour tortillas

1/2 head shredded ice burg lettuce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

6 diced green onions

1/2 bunch chopped cilantro

1 large or 2 medium avocado's 

Lite sour cream

Preparation:

First prepare the tostada bowls. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. I've used a lot of different tortilla brands and I highly recommend Trader Joe's. They're healthy, meaning no trans fat and taste great.

Place the tortilla's into the metal mold and bake at 400 degrees for 6 - 7 minutes. At this point, the tostada bowls are almost finished. Take the tostada bowls out of the oven and turn off the oven. Remove the tostada bowls from the metal mold and place them back into the oven directly on the wire rack and cook for another 10 minutes. At this point you will have a wonderful crispy crunchy tostada bowl.

Preheat a stove top grill pan to medium high. Brush some olive oil on each piece of salmon, season with salt and pepper and cook 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, rotate the salmon 90 degrees. This will give the salmon the nice cross hatched grill marks. Cook the salmon for another 4 minutes and turn the salmon pieces and repeat and you're done.

  

Shred the lettuce and place into the tostada bowl. Add some shredded cheese, green onions, cilantro and a few pieces of grilled salmon. Add some smashed avocado and sour cream and garnish with some chopped cilantro. 

Roasted Mahi-Mahi

Here's another quality product from Costco. Kirkland Signature frozen Mahi-Mahi filets. They are produced by Trident foods. Mahi-Mahi is from South Pacific waters and has less than 100 calories and 1 gram of fat per serving. The filets are center cut, boneless, skinless and individually vacuum packed. Here I simply roasted the filets with a little paprika and lime chive butter.

 

Ingredients:

Kirkland Signature Mahi-Mahi filets

4 tablespoons butter

Juice from 1 lime

1 teaspoon dries chives

1 cup rice

2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

 

Preparation:

Cook the rice according to instructions, which is 1 cup rice, 2 cups water and some salt.

 

Properly defrost the Mahi-Mahi by removing the filets from the packaging. Place a couple paper towels on a plate and then the filets and then another layer of paper towels. Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit on the kitchen counter until defrosted, about 5 hours. You can also do this a day in advance and let the filets defrost in the refrigerator overnight.  

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Use a small glass bowl or other microwave proof bowl and add the butter. Soften the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds and add the juice from the lime and chives. Reserve some of the lime chive butter for plating. 

 

Take a baking pan and line with foil. place the filets on the baking pan and sprinkle on a little paprika. Next, spread on some lime chive butter and place into the oven and bake for about 10 minutes.

 

To serve, place a portion of rice onto a serving plate. Add a Mahi-Mahi filet and top with some reserved lime chive butter. Garnish with a couple wedges of lime and chopped Italian parsley.

Wild Sockeye Salmon with Lemon Garlic Dijon Sauce

I love grilled salmon, but I'm not afraid to roast salmon in a 400 degree oven. Here I mixed up some olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, crushed garlic and parsley; basically a salad dressing and used as a cooking sauce and it turned out awesome.  

Ingredients:
Fresh wild sockeye salmon
1/8 cup avocado or olive oil
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 large garlic cloves, pressed or minced
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper

Preparation:

To make the lemon garlic Dijon sauce, add the oil, mustard, lemon juice, garlic and parsley to a medium bowl and mix until well combined.

 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rinse the salmon in cold water and let dry on some paper towels. Remove any pin bones if necessary. Place the salmon fillets on a broiler pan, add some salt and pepper and coat with the lemon garlic Dijon sauce. Cooking time can very depending on the thickness of the fillets, but 10 minutes is a good starting point. 

Grilled Salmon with Pesto Dill Butter, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli

Everyone needs a "go to" meal they can put together for guests or special occasions and mine is grilled salmon with pesto dill butter served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli. In this post I'm just going to give the ingredients and preparation for the grilled salmon, but at the bottom of the posting I'll give links to my roasted garlic mashed potatoes and restaurant style steamed broccoli and carrots. 

 

Ingredients:

Salmon filets with skin on

Olive oil

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon pesto sauce. I used Classico brand Basil Pasto Sauce

Fresh dill

Salt and pepper

Chopped Italian parsley

 

  

Preparation:

To make the pesto dill butter, start by taking about 4 tablespoon of butter and place into a small microwave proof bowl. Add a teaspoon of pesto and  a dash chopped fresh dill. Heat in the microwave until the butter is soft, not melted. Stir the butter, pesto and dill and place into the freezer. After 5 or so minutes the pesto dill butter will harden up. Take a small spoon and shape the pesto butter into small pats and place on some wax paper and place into the refrigerator until you're ready to serve.

  

Preheat a stove top grill pan to medium high. I use the stove top grill pan from Scanpan. Brush some olive oil on each piece of salmon, season with salt and pepper and cook skin side up on the grill for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, rotate the salmon 90 degrees. This will give the salmon the nice cross hatched grill marks. Cook the salmon for another 4 minutes.

 

After a total of 8 minutes turn the salmon over so the skin side is down and finish cooking, about 8 minutes more. When cooking is complete, remove the salmon from the grill pan leaving the cooked skin behind.

 

To serve, place the salmon on a serving plate. Place a sprig of dill on the salmon and then your pesto dill butter. Add a scoop of roasted garlic mashed potatoes, some steamed broccoli and garnish with chopped Italian parsley. 

 

 

Here's the link to: Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Here's the link to: Restaurant Style Broccoli and Carrots

Roasted Cod with Tropical Salsa

It pretty darn hot out this week, which makes me feel like something light, but still super tasty of course. My wife picked up some fresh tropical salsa that's made by Mary's. You may not find Mary's salsa at your local store, but I'm sure they'll will have something similar. I think this would be great on chicken, but I chose cod and it turned out amazing. This dish is definitely making it into the summer dinner rotation every couple weeks, it's that good.

 

Ingredients:

Costco Wild Alaska Pacific Cod fillets

Paprika

Tropical or Mango salsa

Diced green onions

Chopped Italian parsley

 

I've got to give props to Costco because this is an excellent product. Each fillet is center cut, trimmed to perfection and individually vacuum wrapped.

 

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the top rack being about 6 inches from the top. While the oven is heating up, take a broiler pan and spray on some cooking oil. Place the cod fillets on the pan and sprinkle on a little paprika. The paprika gives the fillets a nice color when cooked. Place the pan into the oven, turn off the oven and turn on the broiler. Cook the fillets for 7 - 9 minutes depending on thickness.

 

To serve, place the cod on a serving plate and spoon on some tropical salsa. Garnish the dish with diced green onions and chopped Italian parsley.

Cedar Plank Salmon

This is a fun way to prepare salmon and so so good. I usually find that Costco will bring in these cedar planks for a short period of time in the spring and there not all that expensive. They come 4 planks per package and that's about all I need for a whole summer. 

Ingredients:

8oz salmon fillets

1 tablespoon butter

2 cloves garlic

Salt and pepper
1 cedar plank 

Preparation:

I like to cut the cedar planks into pieces and serve
the plank right on the plate, but you can also just put all the salmon pieces on the large plank as well. Soak the cedar plank(s) for a least one hour before cooking.

Take some wax or parchment paper and cut a piece that's the same size as the fish and put on the cedar plank. Place the fish on the wax or parchment paper on the plank(s).

Crush the garlic and add to butter and microwave for 30 – 40 seconds until bubbling. Brush the top of the salmon with the garlic butter.

Your going to want to cook the cedar plank salmon with direct and indirect heat. So what I do is turn the back to burners on medium high, and leave the front burner off.

Place the cedar plank salmon on the grill over the direct heat. You want the plank to char and throw off some smoke, but if the plank starts to burn then move the planks the front of the grill where there is no direct flame and finish the cooking process there. The total cooking time for 8oz fillets placed on individual planks is 10 - 11 minutes.

To serve, place the cedar plank salmon on a serving plate, add some garlic mashed potato's and kale coleslaw. Garnish with chopped Italian parsley.

Fish Tacos 2.0

Wow, this is an awesome fish taco! Better than Rubio's? Yes, I think so! The crunch of the fish and cabbage, the tasty white sauce, avocado, salsa and lime... yumm! The uncooked corn tortilla's from Tortilla Land really makes the difference.
 

Ingredients:
Tortilla land uncooked flour tortilla's
Frozen battered fish fillets
Shredded Cabbage
Shredded Mexican blend cheese
Sliced avocado
Lime wedges

Salsa:
1 diced Roma tomato
2 tablespoons diced red onion
1 diced garlic clove
1 tablespoon rough chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon diced jalapeño pepper (optional)
Squeeze of lime

White Sauce:
1/4 cup light sour cream
1/4 cup plain non fat Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon Tapatio hot sauce

Preparation:
Heat the over to 450 degrees and place the frozen fish on a baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes turning once. While the fish is cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients. 

 

Prepare the salsa first because the longer it sits around the better it will taste. To make the fresh salsa, combine the tomato, onion, garlic and cilantro in a bowl and mix well. Add a squeeze of lime and a dash of salt. If you like some heat, add some jalapeño pepper to the salsa. Take a small jalapeno pepper and sliced in half, removed the seeds and rinsed in cold water to reduce some of the heat. Dice the jalapeño pepper and add 1 teaspoon to the salsa. 

 

To make the white sauce, combine the light sour cream, Greek yogurt and hot sauce. If you have a plastic squeeze bottle, put the white sauce in that because it will be easier to put on the taco.

 

To make your fish tacos, heat a 12" sauté pan or flat top griddle to medium high. Place 2 tortilla's on the heat for about 30 seconds per side. Place the tortilla's into a taco holder and add some shredded cabbage. Take one of the fish fillets and cut in half lengthwise and place on top of the cabbage in the taco. Sprinkle on some cheese and fresh salsa. Place an avocado slice on one side of the fish and squeeze some white sauce on the other side of the fish. Sprinkle on a little more cheese and a squeeze of lime. Repeat the process for the second taco and you're done.   

Fish Tacos

I love Rubio's fish tacos. We don't have Rubio's in the Northwest and I don't get to California that much anymore, so I'm on the quest to make the perfect copy cat Rubio's fish taco with black pepper beans. Stay tuned...

This recipe is a solid fish taco, but it's not Rubio's. The key to this taco being so good is the uncooked flour tortilla. When you cook the tortilla yourself it takes the taco to a whole other level. Second, you have to find the right battered frozen fish fillets. This time I use Haddock. It had the right batter, cooked up nice, but I didn't think the flavor was all that great. Next time I'll stick with battered cod.
 

Ingredients:
Tortilla land uncooked flour tortilla's
Frozen battered fish filets
Shredded lettuce
Shredded Monterey jack cheese
1/2 bunch chopped cilantro
1 large avocado
1/2 cup light sour cream

Preparation:
Heat the over to 450 degrees and place the frozen fish on a baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes turning once. While the fish is cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Take the avocado and combine with the light sour cream. You can completely mix in the avocado or leave slightly chunky depending how you like it. Shred 1/4 head iceberg lettuce and set a side. Chop the cilantro and set a side.

To make the fish taco's heat a 12" sauté pan to medium high. Toss on two 6" flour tortilla's and cook about 30 seconds per side. Please the tortilla's into a taco holder. Add some shredded lettuce and a crispy fish fillet. Top the taco with the avocado sour cream sauce, cilantro, jack cheese and a couple dashes of hot sauce.

Serve with black pepper beans:

Grilled Salmon served on Sesame Noodles

This is a killer dish that I would rank as very high on my list of awesome meals. First, I love these sesame noodles. I've made them a bunch of different ways, but below is the recipe I prefer most. Second, grilled salmon is the bomb, but when you top it off with a little sriracha sour cream and serve over sesame noodles....you've made something to be proud of....

Check out my sesame noodle recipe here:
Sesame Noodles

Grilled Salmon:
Ingredients:
2 8oz salmon filets
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon sriracha sauce
1/4 cup lite sour cream
1 tablespoon milk

Preparation: Salmon



Scanpan stove top grill

Preheat a stove top grill pan to medium high. I use the stove top grill pan from Scanpan. Brush a little olive oil on each piece of salmon and cook skin side up on the grill for 6 minutes.

 

While the salmon is cooking, prepare the sauce. mix 1/4 lite sour cream with 1 teaspoon sriracha and mix. Add a little bit of milk to thin the sauce out and your done.

 

After 6 minutes turn the salmon over so the skin side is down and finish cooking, about 6 minutes more. When cooking is complete, remove the salmon from the grill pan leaving the cooked skin behind. 

 

Plate the sesame noodles and top with a piece of grilled salmon. Garnish the dish with chopped cilantro.

Grilled Halibut with Cilantro Garlic Sauce

 

This perhaps the easiest piece of fish to cook. The flesh is firm and typically doesn't stick to the grill and is easy to identify when done cooking. I've cooked this several different ways my favorite is using a stove top grill and serving with a simple sauce of olive oil, sautéed garlic and cilantro. 

Ingredients:
Halibut filets
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 garlic cloves
1/2 bunch cilantro

Preparation:

Take your halibut filets and place them on a plate with paper towels on the bottom and top. The paper towels will soak up any moisture while the filets come to room temperature. Replace the paper towels if they become saturated.

Heat an 8" sauté pan to medium and add 1 tablespoon olive, 4 cloves rough chopped garlic and chopped cilantro. Let this sauté for just a couple of minutes until the garlic pieces are translucent. Turn off the heat and set a side until the fish is cooked.

Heat you stove top grill pan to medium high. Coat the halibut filets with olive oil and salt and pepper. I have a general cooking rule which is 2/2 flip 2/2 which I will explain.

Place the filets on the grill pan facing 45 degrees to the left side and cook for 2 minutes. Use your tongs and turn the filets 45 degrees to the right side and cook for 2 minutes. After a total of 4 minutes flip the filets and cook them the same, 2 minutes to the left side and then 2 minutes to the right side. At this point the filets should be done. You can check by cutting into the center of one filets and the flesh will be firm and white. If still slightly translucent, cook one more minute. Remove the filets to a serving plate and let rest 2 -3 minutes.

Warm your garlic cilantro sauce and top each filet with a generous portion and serve.

Grilled Salmon Taco Dinner

This is my idea of the perfect grilled salmon taco. Keep it simple with a little cole slaw, salmon, avocado and sour cream with a sprinkle of cheese. This is a great dinner when having guests over!

Ingredients:

Salmon filets

Green cabbage cole slaw

Avocado

Lite sour cream

shredded cheese

Tortillas

Black Beans

Mexican rice

Preparation:

First, make your cole slaw because the longer you let it sit around the better it will be. Here's my recipe:

Cole Slaw

Next make your Mexican rice. I've made this a few times, it's really awesome and so easy. I'll post the recipe to my blog one day soon. In the meantime, here's how you do it. Take your rice cooker and add 1 cup basmati rice and 1-3/4 cups water and one 7oz can of Embasa Salsa Mexicana. Let the rice cooker do it's job. When done fluff with a fork.

Next, make the black beans, Here's my recipe:
Black Beans

Next cook the salmon. Take your salmon filets and cut them into strips about 1" wide and grill on an indoor grill pan for 3-4 minutes a side.

Assemble your salmon taco by heating a 6" tortilla and putting the heated tortilla in a taco holder if you have one, if you don't have one go to amazon and get some, they're awesome. Add some cole slaw, salmon, avocado, sour cream and cheese and your ready to go.

Potato Crusted Cod

This is a an all time favorite for sure.  We buy this at Fred Meyer and ask for the largest pieces because it's so good. The fish is easy to prepare and it's never dry and goes well with rice. Sometimes you might find the fish individually packaged, but most of the time it's in the fresh meat and fish cases.

Ingredients:
4 potato crusted cod filets
Serve with Ken's signature rice. See link below.

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take some aluminum foil and cover a baking pan. Spray the baking sheet with a little spray canola and bake for 20 minutes, comes out perfect every time!

Ken's Signature Rice

Seared Scallops with Parmesan and Green Pea Risotto

This post closes out the first year on my blog, "what's cooking at the Bullmann's." I wanted to make something really special, but that doesn't necessarily mean really difficult. 

I chose to make Seared scallops with parmesan and green pea risotto. Scallops are so good when cooked properly, but if not they can be tough, chewy and a bad experience.

The key to a properly cooked scallop is to have your sauté pan at the correct temperature. If the heat is too high, they'll burn before they cook. If the heat is not high enough, they'll cook but won't have that beautiful golden brown color you want for the perfect presentation.

Ingredients: Scallops
4 scallops per person, size U10, 10 per pound
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Ingredients: Risotto for 2 servings
1 cup Arborio rice
4 cups vegetable stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 yellow onion
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup green peas

Preparation: Risotto

Take a 3 quart sauce pan, heat to medium and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Dice the onion to no larger than 1/8 x 1/8 pieces. Crush the garlic and add the onion and garlic to the sauce pan. Cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.

 

Add the Arborio rice to the sauce pan and let the rice soak up some of the onion and garlic flavor. Don't do this too long or you may burn the rice, onion or garlic then you've got a burnt flavor you won't be able to get rid of.

 

Add one cup of stock at a time until the rice stop absorbing the liquid. You may need to add more or less than 4 cups of stock so adjust as necessary. The risotto should be done after about 15 minutes. Add the green peas and parmesan cheese and taste to see if you need salt and pepper.

 

Preparation: Scallops

Take a 10" sauté pan and heat to medium high. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Salt and pepper the scallops and add to the pan. After one minute check to see what's going on with the scallops. You want them to sautéing to a golden yellowish brown. If the heat is too high, they may start to burn, turn the heat down a little. If there is no color to the scallop then turn the heat up a little. You want to cook about 3 minutes per side for a perfectly seared scallop.

 

To serve, place some risotto on a plate and top with some grated parmesan cheese and chopped Italian parsley. Place 4 scallops on top of the risotto and sprinkle a little chives on the scallops and then drizzle with a little olive oil. Bon apatite.

Grilled Salmon Served on Mashed Potatoes with Cilantro Oil

What I like about this dish is that the flavors all work so well together. Grilling salmon has always been my favorite way to cook salmon. The addition of the cilantro oil takes the dish to the next level and I would highly recommend making this dish for your next dinner party.



Ingredients:
2 8oz salmon filets
2 large russet potato's
1/2 cup 1% milk
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper
1 cup canola oil
1 cup packed cilantro
1/2 romaine lettuce leaf

Preparation: Cilantro Oil

Add the canola oil, cilantro and romaine lettuce to a small blender and blend for 5 minutes. Take the mixture and pour into and small fine mesh strainer. Let the mixture drain into a small bowl while you prepare the rest of the dish. You should end up with a couple of tablespoons of clear green cilantro infused oil.

Preparation: Potato

Peel the russet potatoes, cut into pieces and boil for 15 to 20 minutes until completely cooked, no lumps. Remove the water and use a potato masher and mix until creamy smooth. Stir the milk, butter, salt and pepper to the potatoes. Cover the potatoes and set a side while  you cook the salmon.

Preparation: Salmon

Preheat a stove top grill pan to medium high. I use the stove top grill pan from Scanpan, see image. Brush a little olive oil on each piece of salmon and cook skin side up on the grill for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes turn the salmon 45 degrees and cook another 3 minutes. After the second 3 minutes of cooking, turn the fish over so the skin side is down and finish cooking, about 6 minutes. When cooking is complete, remove the salmon from the grill pan leaving the cooked skin behind. 




Scanpan Stove Top Grill

To plate, place a helping of the mashed potato's on a plate. Top the potato's with the salmon and drizzle a teaspoon of the cilantro oil over the salmon and on the plate. Serve the dish with your choice of vegetable.

Side Dish Suggestion:
Sautéed Asparagus

Marinated Soy Ginger Cod Fillets

This is a wonderful frozen product from Trader Joe's. The key to any frozen fish product is to let it thaw out slowly on paper towels either on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator. The fish should be completely thawed out and at room temp when you cooking the fish.

Ingredients:

1 package soy ginger marinated cod
1 cup basmati rice
2 green onions diced
2 tablespoon rough chopped Italian parsley
2 teaspoon chives
1 garlic clove minced
1 avocado
1 tomato
1/4 yellow onion

Preparation:

Place fish on aluminum foil covered baking pan and bake in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. Finish under the broiler for a couple of minutes to add some color to the surface of the fish.

Make the basmati rice according to directions, usually 1 cup rice and 2 cups water and some salt. When the rice is cooked, remove and add to a 12" sauté pan. Add the green onion, chopped parsley, chives and minced garlic clove. Add 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, mix and cook on medium high for 5 minutes and you're done..

To plate, start by placing some avocado slices on the plate and topping with simple salsa of tomato, onion, salt and pepper. Place a serving of rice on the plate and top with the soy ginger cod fillet.

Salad Suggestion:
Sweet Kale Salad