Day 204: Chili-rubbed Salmon with Fruit Salsa
It’s funny how throw-together dinners can end up sounding fancier than something you might have made an effort to plan. Tonight I had the dregs of the SoBo fruit salsa I made for CBC this morning, and a chunk of leftover salmon, and so looked up a quick chili rub, thinking that a) it was something I hadn’t done before, and b) it would give the cool, sweet fruit something to calm down. To be truthful I’m not really a fan of fruit salsa; I don’t know why, but it never really did it for me. But it went well with the salmon, and ended up getting right in there with the salad.
I sort of morphed a couple recipes I found and ended up with a paste made with 1 teaspoon each: canned chipotle chiles en adobo, chili powder, dried oregano, sugar, lime juice and olive or canola oil, a sprinkle of coarse salt and a crushed clove of garlic. (If you don’t like things spicy, leave out the chipotle or cut it back a bit – the smoky adobo sauce adds a great flavour, but I dig that most people don’t have canned chipotles on hand. I find that a can will last ages – I use a bit, then seal the rest in a ziplock baggie, freeze and chop off bits here and there when I need it.)
The paste was smeared on a salmon filet and roasted at 400F for 10 minutes – just enough time to toss a quick salad of boxed spring greens, tomato, ribbons of yellow carrot stripped off with a vegetable peeler and crumbled feta. (The what-I-had-in-the-fridge special.) There was leftover chili paste, so I froze it; I think next time I’ll smear it on a pork tenderloin.
July 22 2008 | seafood | 4 Comments »
