Still on the Domestic Track

Guess who’s back on the domestic track? Okay, you guessed it. I made fish last night. I was going to attempt the Italian Fish recipe Janet posted in the comments but I was too intimidated, and wanted to try something a little easier for my first time cooking fish. So, I tried salmon with teriyaki sauce. I’m in love with salmon in teriyaki sauce, thanks to Vade who introduced it to me. Now, whenever it’s a special occasion (or not even), Vade makes my favorite meals, including salmon in teriyaki sauce. I know I will never make it as good as Vade, but I took a stab at it anyway and it went pretty well. Here’s how I did it:

1) First I preheated the over to 450 degrees. Sounds high, but that’s what Noah told me to do (he’s one of many cooking references, and thank goodness for the internet).

2) Second, I washed the fish cause it smelled, well, fishy. One thing I wasn’t happy about was that this salmon was farm raised, with color added, and it’s the only thing the grocery store had. I haven’t made it to buying fish at the seafood market or Whole Foods yet, so this is what I got. Oh, and let’s just hope that good fish fits into the frugal mind set. Cause y’all know I’m trying to be frugal, you know, with no job in C’ville and all. Okay, trying to stay on the topic at hand.

3) Once I washed the fish with water, I greased the bottom of the glass baking dish with olive oil. I then placed the salmon in the dish and poured the teriyaki sauce on the fish (no Soy Vay – grocery store was out of it). We have a lot of nifty cooking utensils because Dad was an awesome chef and I thought this paintbrush thingy could help spread the sauce all around the fish. Guess what? It worked.

4) Once the oven was preheated, I put the fish in the oven for 15 minutes, and sat on the couch waiting for the timer to go off while I read The Da Vinci Code (amazing book, couldn’t put it down, that’s a post for another time). Once the 15 minutes had passed, I went to check on the fish. I have a problem with undercooked food that was once alive. It may be due to my recent bout with the stomach flu and the following ER visit, but I am terrified that I am going to get sick from eating undercooked meat (or in this case, fish). I prodded around the fish with my fork, and it was still looking a tad bit red for my taste. Back in the oven it went for another 14 minutes (checking on it once in a while). Once I felt comfortable that the fish was cooked, I took it out, made this pretty plate (with my very crunchy green beans to compliment the meal), and went to town. It was pretty good.

So, what did I learn?

1) This meal is easy to make.

2) I will make this meal many times in my lifetime.

3) Invest in a good piece of fish. It’s worth it.

4) Cooking is not scary.

5) Planning is essential to cooking dinner every night. Though it was easy, I should try to plan my week of meals before I go to the grocery store so I don’t have to go shopping every night I want to make dinner.

6) I hate doing the dishes. As we speak, the glass pan is soaking in the sink.