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.
It all looks delicious!