Friday Fish

Last week we hit a rough spot with my seven year old Henry and my mind (and life) was pre-occupied with him. I wasn't in the blogging mood. This week he had a good week, we spent a lot of time at the skate park after school and following up on ideas from friends to help Henry. Also trying to make healthy meals that Henry will eat.
Henry helped me shop for last nights dinner and picked out a lot of the menu. We settled on fresh wild Alaskan King Salmon and asparagus. Henry also picked out a lovely cheese from Bellwether farms, carmody, which was like a good cheddar, we munched on the cheese before dinner with some nuts and raisins. It's good to see Henry eating cheese and picking out interesting cheeses, he hasn't always been a big cheese eater and it's a good source of protein that masquerades as a snack.

We also were gifted some just picked beets from my friend Devon. Devon went on a field trip with her son Kai's class to an organic farm to glean a beet field for a food bank. If you don't know what gleaning is here is the definition; Glean: to collect the remaining grain, etc. from a reaped field. I only recently found this out through my children's 4H leader as they will be participating in gleaning a field for a food bank as well. Devon got to keep a paper bag full of beets and shared them with me.
I also discovered a delicious marinated Feta from Yarra Valley Farms. Both of these went into dinner as well.

Here's how I prepared everything quite simply:

I removed the feather bones from the salmon (using needle nose pliers) and placed the filet on a foil covered sheet pan. I seasoned it with sea salt and cracked pepper, and few knobs of butter and some fresh chopped dill (that I had bought earlier in the week for chicken noodle soup - I will share that recipe soon as I make Chicken noodle soup almost weekly in the winter).
I roast the salmon in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes checking after 10 minutes. I insert a knife in thickest part of the fillet. When done the fish should still be slightly translucent and still bright pink.

The asparagus I snapped off the bottoms, soaked briefly in cold water and placed in a shallow pan or on a sheet pan. Toss with s&p and olive oil to coat. Put in the oven at the same time as the fish. Roasting the asparagus this way really concentrates the flavor.

I cleaned the beets,rinsed and separated the tops. The beets I roasted in a small ceramic roasting pan salted and covered with foil and placed in the hot oven as well. The beets will cook for about an hour and I will use them in a salad another day.

Th beet tops were rinsed and roughly chopped. I added about a tablespoon olive oil to a pot with a sliced garlic clove and a big pinch of crushed red pepper. Place over medium heat and when the oil is starting to sizzle add the greens. stir about, lower the heat and cover till tender and bright about 5 minutes. The beet greens cook almost as fast as spinach. Sprinkle with the marinated Feta if you like.