Steamed Salmon

Steamed salmon with peas was the traditional dinner for the 4th of July, and that's how I continue to have it most often, despite considering a grilled miso glazed salmon filet at Scollay Square the "best. salmon. ever." I suspect it became traditional hereabouts because both were seasonally available (with most vegetables ripening later in the summer).

It is frequently cooked with dill, and I do that, but, influenced by my method for white fish (such as haddock) I've taken to rubbing it with vinegar and sprinkling with Old Bay Seasoning in addition to the dill, and covering with bread crumbs to absorb juices that exude during coking.

Last Friday, I had some swiss chard, so I decided to have that instead of peas (very daring!) and decided to use tri-color rotini for the starch instead of rice. I then decided to use store-bought alfredo sauce on the pasta and use the swiss chard as a bed for it.

Swiss chard

I rinse it, cut out the central ribs, and divide the leaves into two sections.

Ingredients. Missing from picture: vinegar, bread crumbs, alfredo sauce

The olive oil is there because as it put the chard in the colander, I drizzle it lightly with the oil about halfway through and again at the end.

Salmon sprinkled with Old Bay and dill

You can see a bit of gray along one side of the salmon. That's the skin. Haddock, cod, and other white fish are sold as fillets with the skin already removed. Not so the salmon and several other varieties of fish. The market will skin it on request, but I prefer to have the skin left on because I don't want to lose any of the oil that is abundant in some of the flesh that is next to the skin. When I eat it, it separates easily, and I get all the healthful oil.

Salmon sprinkled with bread crumbs, in steamer

You cant see it in this picture, but this steamer insert has holes in the bottom to allow the steam to come through from the pot in which it sits.

I grease the steamer with Crisco so the skin won't stick to it after cooking.

Dinner

You can see a bit of the swiss chard peeking out from under the rotini and alfredo sauce. I always add a bit more dill at the end or a couple of minutes earlier

This was not a completely successful effort. For one thing, the salmon always leaves some liquid on the plate, and the rotini doesn't work as well as rice to pick it up. Worse still, the salmon was undercooked. It was a somewhat bigger piece than usual so it may have needed a couple of minutes more cooking, and perhaps I had allowed it to block the holes in the steamer. But properly cooked, I enjoy it.

Click pics to enlarge.