This month for Cookbook Countdown #13 I have chosen to use The New American Heart Association Cookbook (8th Edition). The recipes that I have made for this week are Ginger-Walnut Salmon and Asparagus (p. 159), Tangy Carrots (p. 438), and Mushrooms with White Wine and Shallots (p. 451). (Note: While this looks like a huge plate of food, it all actually is resting on a salad plate. The salmon is a 4 oz. portion size so you can kind of use that as a reference.)
Ingredient list: For the Salmon - salmon, asparagus, brown sugar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, cornstarch, gingerroot, walnuts, and crystallized ginger; For the Carrots - carrots, shallot, Dijon, lime juice, pepper, salt, and parsley; For the Mushrooms - mushrooms, shallots, white wine, parsley, and pepper.
Sticking with Salmon on Sundays, and wanting to try as many of the salmon recipes in this book as possible, I picked this one as it is cooked in foil/parchment with a little sauce. I love cooking fish in parchment and 90% of the time, that is how I make fish here. I don't do too many sauces, but I think this book likes to focus on giving flavor to food without added fat and salt, so this seems to be a great way to do that with this sauce. We did like the taste very much, although the next time I will make half the sauce stated as it was quite a bit more than we needed. The walnuts and crystallized ginger were really good, giving it a nice little texture and crunch. The instructions were to cook the asparagus in with the salmon (the salmon on top of the asparagus) but I don't like my vegetables touching my fish while they are cooking, so I just roasted the asparagus separately in the oven with the salmon packet. Definitely a repeat.
The sides were equally easy and pleasing. The carrots received their flavor from the mustard and lime juice, which really did taste nice together. The mushrooms were great with a shallot/wine sauce that reminded me of my old days cooking in Whisk Wednesdays with all the French combinations, minus the copious amounts of butter. All in all, these three recipes were delicious, easy, and definitely ones to be repeated, with this much flavor, we really didn't miss the salt and butter we normally would have used in these recipes.
To see what the others have cooked this month, click here. It is the policy on this blog not to publish recipes that are not mine, the people who publish recipes go to a lot of time, trouble, and expense to do so and I like to honor that by encouraging others to purchase the book or check it out from a lending library. Thank you for understanding. I do post the general ingredients for each recipe so perhaps you can have a go at it from that alone.
Sticking with Salmon on Sundays, and wanting to try as many of the salmon recipes in this book as possible, I picked this one as it is cooked in foil/parchment with a little sauce. I love cooking fish in parchment and 90% of the time, that is how I make fish here. I don't do too many sauces, but I think this book likes to focus on giving flavor to food without added fat and salt, so this seems to be a great way to do that with this sauce. We did like the taste very much, although the next time I will make half the sauce stated as it was quite a bit more than we needed. The walnuts and crystallized ginger were really good, giving it a nice little texture and crunch. The instructions were to cook the asparagus in with the salmon (the salmon on top of the asparagus) but I don't like my vegetables touching my fish while they are cooking, so I just roasted the asparagus separately in the oven with the salmon packet. Definitely a repeat.
The sides were equally easy and pleasing. The carrots received their flavor from the mustard and lime juice, which really did taste nice together. The mushrooms were great with a shallot/wine sauce that reminded me of my old days cooking in Whisk Wednesdays with all the French combinations, minus the copious amounts of butter. All in all, these three recipes were delicious, easy, and definitely ones to be repeated, with this much flavor, we really didn't miss the salt and butter we normally would have used in these recipes.
To see what the others have cooked this month, click here. It is the policy on this blog not to publish recipes that are not mine, the people who publish recipes go to a lot of time, trouble, and expense to do so and I like to honor that by encouraging others to purchase the book or check it out from a lending library. Thank you for understanding. I do post the general ingredients for each recipe so perhaps you can have a go at it from that alone.