Salmon for Brunch

I intended to cook salmon for dinner last night.  I had a recipe picked out but somehow it just didn’t happen.  I decided to make brunch instead.  I used the same recipe, found on MomOnTimeOut.com, but planned to switch the roasted potatoes for hash and the green beans for avocado.

Baked Salmon with Honey Dijon Glaze

2-3 lbs salmon filet, pin bones removed

1/2 cup Dijon mustard (whole grain or country)

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon champagne vinegar (or white wine vinegar)

thyme

I preheated the oven to 450-degrees and lined a baking sheet with parchment paper.  I put the salmon, skin side down, on the lined baking sheet.  I should have salted the salmon at this point, but forgot to.  I whisked the mustard, honey and vinegar together in a small bowl.  I brushed the glaze over the top of the salmon.  I suddenly realized that I had not salted the fish, so took care of that.  Finally, I sprinkled fresh thyme over the salmon.

I put the fish aside to work on the eggs and hash.  I put a pan of water on for the eggs and started on the hash.

Sausage Potato Hash

2 potatoes, cubed into bite-size pieces

4 breakfast sausage patties

1/2 onion, halved and sliced

1 clove garlic

4 slices bacon, roughly chopped

Chris had cubed and frozen potatoes earlier this week, saving me some prep time.  I deep-fried the potato cubes with one minor mishap.  A few minutes after I dropped the potatoes the oil started bubbling over the top of the fryer.  When the frozen potatoes hit the oil, they released enough water to cause the overflow.  I will fry them in smaller batches the next time.  I salted and set the potatoes aside on a plate lined with a paper towel.

I cooked the onions in butter until they were soft and almost translucent in the cast iron pan.  I added the sausage, breaking it apart as it cooked. (Next time, I will cook the sausage first and then use the drippings to cook the onion.)  When the sausage was almost cooked I added a clove of minced garlic and the bacon.

I put the salmon in the oven for eight minutes, while I finished the hash.  The original recipe calls for a 20-26 minute cook time.  I was using two single portion-sized filets so adjusted the cooking time appropriately.

When the sausage was fully cooked, I added the potatoes and mixed it all together.

After eight minutes, I checked the salmon.  It was at 80-degrees, so I put it back in the oven for another two minutes and then again for another minute.  It was right at 110-degrees so I allowed residual heat to bring it up to 115.

While the fish rested, I poached three eggs in the pan of water I started earlier.  I used a thermometer to keep the water at about 190-degrees.  I cracked the eggs into separate custard cups.  Helpful hint:  I cracked the eggs into a strainer and then poured them carefully into the cups.  Straining off the really thin part of the egg makes a much prettier poached egg.

I added a tablespoon of vinegar to the water and then added the eggs.  I lowered the custard cups, one at a time, into the water until they touched bottom, and then gently poured the eggs in.  I set the timer for four minutes.  While the eggs cooked I put the hash and the salmon next to each other on a plate.  After four minutes, I used a slotted spoon to remove the eggs from the water and rested them on top of the hash.  I topped the egg with salt and pepper.

The hash was delicious.  I think I will brown the sausage a little more the next time to have some crispy bits but this was a great first attempt at making hash, especially since I wasn’t using a recipe.  My salmon was a little more done than I liked, but Chris’s piece was spot on.  His was a slightly larger filet, so I used it to check the temperature of the fish.  I should have checked both and taken the smaller piece out of the oven a few minutes earlier.

I did my first batch of poached eggs ahead of time intending to reheat them for a minute in the water just before serving them.  I neglected to put them in ice water to stop the cooking process.  The residual heat cooked them just past perfect so I did a second batch.  The second batch was perfect.

I was feeling very proud of having timed everything correctly (even making coffee in the midst of it all) until a few hours later when I realized that I had completely forgotten about the avocado.

Oh well.  Cooking for me is a process, usually with me taking two steps forward and one step back.  But even at that rate, I am still making forward progress and I am ok with that.