Steelhead Fish

A friend of mine from school, gave us a  huge steelhead fish  that her husband caught at Lake Eerie.  I am not  particular with the kind of fish around here  but was  grateful to be given such a blessing.  I have never cooked   this kind of fish before but I am willing to give it a try since I  love fish.  But before that, let me share this information I got from National Wildlife Federation.

According to nwf.prg, the scientific name of the steelhead fish or  rainbow trout is  Oncorhynchus mykiss and its previous names include Salmo gairdneriand and Salmo irideus. The rainbow trout and steelhead are ray-finned fishes in the salmon family, and they are one of the top sport fish in North America. Rainbow trout and steelhead are the same species, but they have different lifestyles. Steelhead are anadromous, meaning they spend part of their lives in the sea, while rainbow trout spend their lives mostly or entirely in freshwater. 

Because of their different lifestyles rainbow trout and steelhead are different in appearance, most noticeably in size and color. Rainbow trout derive their name from their beautiful, multi-hued coloration. Their bodies are blue, green or yellowish, shading to silvery white on the underside, with a horizontal pink-red stripe running from the gills to the tail and black spots along their backs. Steelhead are generally more streamlined in shape and silvery or brassy in color as adults, earning them the name steelhead.

 I asked my friend's husband how to cook it and he told me that he usually  broil  it and then deep fry it.  I was going to do that too but the  fish is too big and long and it wouldn't fit into my broiler so I decided to just put it in the new grill that my husband just put together the other day.  

The fish was frozen when it was given to me, I did not thaw it out and just went ahead and stuffed the belly with ginger and lemon grass. I seasoned it and added some onions and tomatoes on top before I wrapped it with foil.

 I steamed it for about an hour and smelled so good.  

 The meat wasn't flaky as  I have imagined it to be.  I don't know if it's because  I  put it in the grill when it wasn't thawed out or it is  just the normal consistency of the fish's meat.  Never the less, I  ate it with rice and it  hit the spot.  

I removed all the bones from  rest of the fish and made it into  fish patties  or fish cakes as my husband  called it, you can check the recipe here.  

Buffalo Style Crusted Fish Patties or Fish Cakes Recipe

Of the three pretzels that I received from Boulder Brand, the Glutino buffalo style is my favorite.  It has some kick to it and I love that it's not too spicy,  just the right amount of   spice in it.

I have left over  steel head fish in the refrigerator and wanted to make  fish patties out of it so here's what I came up with.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium carrots, grated
• 1 cup of frozen spinach
• 2 cups of cooked mung beans, served as a binder for the fish
• 1 teaspoon  dried oregano
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 pack of meatloaf mix, (YEP I added  that!)
• 1 1/2 cups crushed  buffalo style pretzels for crunchy factor

Procedure:

• Mix  all the ingredients in a bowl.
• Form a palm size patty and rolled it on the crushed  pretzel.

• Put some parchment paper in the  baking sheet and line up the patties.

• Drizzle  some olive oil on top of the patties and bake it  for 50 minutes or until the patties are brown.  The barbecue flavor in  the pretzel give the patties a really tasty twist.  You won't even  notice that you are eating a fish!

When it is done, you can put it in a bun and eat it like a hamburger or you can eat it  like I would, with rice and veggies!  I love having frozen veggies in my freezer because I can just steam  them and we have instant  variety of vegetable.  Boxes of Uncle Ben's  long grain with wild rice is also a staple at my kitchen.

I made  a lot of patties so I freeze some of them after we ate some.  Now, I can just pop it in the oven when I am craving for some fish and I am good to go.  My husband love the patties with ketchup but I love mine with  sriracha.  Bonappetit!

Baked Salmon Fillet with Herbs and Veggies

I had a pack of salmon fillet in the freezer so I cooked it yesterday for our dinner. Lemon zest, lemon juice, and tomatoes are my key ingredients so the fishy taste is not over powering.  My husband is not very fond of fish so I  have to do something to make it  desirable for his palate.

My herbs are doing great inside my kitchen so  I can use it fresh whenever I want to in  my cooking.  I added some basil, parsley, and rosemary to the salmon fillet.

Veggies are great addition as well when you are making  fish.  Don't forget to salt your fish before adding your ingredients.  Then sprinkle salt and pepper again on top of the veggies.

After adding everything you want on top of the fish, just seal the foil and bake it for 20  minutes.  I over cooked the veggies when I baked it a little longer (30) but it was still good.

Everything is fresh but the  salmon and the broccoli, they were frozen.  

Smoked Salmon with Salsa for Breakfast

Yesterday was another busy weekend at home, cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, and doing some repairs.  I bought a pack of smoked salmon  at Wholey's  a couple of weeks ago and  prepared it for breakfast yesterday.  I baked it for twenty minutes but it was still half frozen when I took it out so I  decided to pan fry it in big  chunks.

We ate it with steamed rice, and cucumber, scallion, and  tomato salsa with soy sauce.  Hubby, the kids, and I  all loved it.  Of all the smoked fish that we had, the salmon is  by far our favorite.  It's a little pricey but it's worth every penny.  We plan to buy   some again when we go to strip District in Pittsburgh.

Salmon with Horseradish Sauce

With the success I had in  cooking  the salmon for our dinner a couple of days ago using my made-up recipe for baked salmon, I got  inspired to try another menu but this time, I followed the recipe  at the packaging of the salmon.  Here's the recipe:

Salmon with Horseradish Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup dry white wine (I used Kristian Regale blackk currant beverage juice)
• 2 tbsp chopped onion
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp peppercorn
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 salmon portions, about 10 oz. (I used 3)
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 2 tsp horseradish
• 1 tsp flour
• 1 tsp chopped fresh mint
• 1/8 tsp white pepper, I didn't have it so I didn't add any lol

Preparations

1. In a 10 inch non-stick skillet, combine white wine, water, onion, lemon juice, and peppercorn. Cover and cook over medium high heat until mixture comes to a boil.
2. REduce heat to medium low.  Add salmon, cover and simmer until salmon flakes easily when tested with a fork - 5-6 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon.
3. While Salmon cooks, prepare horseradish sauce.

In a small mixing bowl, combine sour cream, horseradish, flour, mint and white pepper.  Stir to combine and set aside.

Transfer salmon to serving platter.  Keep fish warm.

Pour cooking liquid through sieve into a bowl , discarding solids.

Return to skillet and cook over medium high heat until mixture comes to a boil.  Stir in horseradish sauce.

Reduce heat to low and cook stirring frequently, until mixture thickens, about 2-3 minutes.  Pour over salmon.

My husband likes  it but I thought it  was okay.  I am not fond of horseradish so maybe next time, I will tone down the amount of horseradish so it is not over powering.

Baked Salmon

Salmon is one of the most nutritious food there is. I love that it is  affordable too.  You can buy a pack of   salmon for under ten.  According to the article I read online, Salmon is packed with essential nutrients -- especially protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. 

It said that grilling salmon is one of the most heart-healthy ways to prepare it. However, pregnant and nursing women and young children should avoid consuming more than 12 ounces of grilled salmon weekly, due to potential contaminants present in salmon and other fish living in polluted waters. (livestrong.com)

I like salmon fried but I thought of my Dad as I was about to  cook  so I prepare this the way he would cook fish although we never baked as we did not have oven.  I made up ,this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 pack of salmon fillet

1 lime or lemon

3 small tomatoes (I used frozen tomatoes)

1 thai pepper

scallions sliced thinly

a branch of rosemary, chopped

t tbsp of olive oil

sat and pepper

Procedure:

1. Marinate the salmon fillets with the ingredients above for about 15 minutes.  While it's marinating, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Bake the marinated salmon for 20-30 minutes.  It smells so good when it's done, YUMMY too.

I steamed a bag of  frozen veggies and made some mac and cheese for the kids and hubby.  I ate mine with rice and the achara that I made using kohlrabi.

We finished our dinner with  very sweet  cantaloupe.

We had a very nice dinner that night so  two days after I baked this salmon, I made another salmon dish.  Post coming up  soon.

Milk Fish - P365 # 100

Whenever Lent rolls up, we try to observed fish Fridays.  My husband is not very fond of some fish that I eat but the kids like 'em especially Ms. Burrito.

Hubby always get fish sandwiches in LJS.

I fried this  bangus (that's how we call milkfish in the Philippines) last week.

We ate it with  tomato salsa with soy sauce.. Yummy!

April 10, 2011:

• Phew, I just finish  doing stuff so now I have to update this one before we leave for church.
• Hubby and the kids are all ready except me wahhh.
• We had  rice, bacon, and eggs for breakfast.
• Ms. Burrito cleaned up Wubzy's cage, thanks Anak.
• Me and the kids cut hubby's hair and hubby cut Mr. Burrito's hair.
• We are going to visit FIL after church.

Fried Bangus or Milk Fish

My husband is not very fond of eating fish but there are some that he can tolerate eating like the tinapa or smoke fish but it has to be the galunggong kind. He can also eat the boneless bangus or milkfish as long as it is fried.

So whenever we go to the Oriantal store, we always buy one when it is available.

You may ask why there are carrots slices there which doesn't fit for the menu. That is for EJ who doe not like tomatoes but he likes eating carrots so whatever works, I will serve lol..

always remember

a little bit of this

and a little dash of that

makes a sumptuous lif...

So always Spice up your Life!!