Easter Salmon

Beloved,

    My Easter weekend was practically perfect in every way.  The food and worship on Sunday was amazing.  My niece, her husband and four little kids were with us and we had so much fun dyeing, hiding and hunting eggs.   Come Sunday night I was happy tired.   Come Monday, I was still too tired to make a menu and do big shopping so I just bought salmon with idea of grilling them.  Alas, no propane in the tank. so I had to broil them.  Using what I could find at home, here’s what I did and it was so good!  The same amount of rice/salsa will work for up to six steaks and would also be yummy with chicken - or all by itself.  

• 2 cups brown rice
  

• 4 salmon steaks
  

• one lemon
  
• salt & pepper to taste
  
• 2 Tbsps olive oil
  
• 1 onion, diced
  
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped fine
  
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes
  
• 1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into small cubes
  
  

Brown rice takes longer, about 40 minutes which is a good time to make salad and empty the dishwasher.  When it’s finished I add a bread heel to the pot to soak up the extra liquid.  If they followed the stay-out-of-the-kitchen-when-I’m-cooking rule, each dog gets half the bread slice.  As usual, they laid on the living room floor with front paws barely crossing onto kitchen floor. I let it slide this time and gave them the soppy bread.  

Preheat oven to about 450.  If you have a cat, put him outside or he will drive you insane trying to get to your fish!  After supper let him back in and reward him with a salmon sliver.

Prepare broiler pan and lay out salmon steaks.  Cut lemon in half.  Slice one half into 4 thin slices and save the other half.   Salt and pepper steaks to taste, top each one with lemon slice.  Set aside and allow to come to room temp.

      Heat oil in heavy skillet and saute onion and garlic.  When clear, add tomatoes and mango, heat through and turn off skillet. Cover to keep warm.

Set the table.  

Jeff Smith, the frugal gourmet, wrote that it’s unhealthy to eat alone too often.  So five minutes before the kid is due from practice, the spouse is due from work or the friend is due to share your supper - put steaks in oven and turn to broil.  Set timer for 4 minutes.  When it goes off, slide lemon peels off the steaks.  Reset timer for 3 minutes.  Please note - I’m not good at knowing how long things take to broil so I check and reset the timer often.  Mine cooked in about 7 minutes but looking this up is probably worth your time.  I fork one a little and consider them done when they are flaky inside and shiny outside.  

    A bed of rice, then salsa with fish on top and lemon slice casually laying on the edge was pretty enough to take a picture but kids were hungry, dogs were back in the kitchen and the cat was giving us the stink eye from the kitchen window ledge so I didn’t.  Instead we prayed and ate.  It was practically perfect in every way.   ~ peace and prayers, pastor annette