Quality Control

Loyal readers of Green and Lean will recall that I allowed a guest blogger to submit some recipes in March. Today I realized that to keep the quality of my blog at the highest possible level, I needed to do some quality control to ensure one of those recipes meets my very stringent standards. I'm very happy to report that Cass's mustard salmon and smashed peas easily meets my criteria for a green, lean, and delicious dinner!

Unfortch, I didn't make it to Whole Foods today, so I improvised on my salmon. First, I rode my bike to my local supermarket and picked up some fresh salmon. I sprinkled the salmon with salt and pepper and smoothed a layer of dijon mustard over it. For the breadcrumbs....although I do have panko breadcrumbs on hand, I had other ideas. Remember the egg, mushroom, and asparagus strata baked in a loaf of ciabatta bread I made for Easter brunch? Well, I had ground up all the "guts" of the ciabatta in my food processor and froze them for a purpose such as tonight. Obviously, I'm taking the "green" part of this blog seriously lately.

So, I used the ciabatta crumbs to coat the mustard slathered salmon, then a drizzle of olive oil and a trip to a hot skillet for frying. I followed Cass's instructions completely for the peas. Here's my picture of the dish, not quite as pretty as the original, but pretty nonetheless.

I think the "healthy" squirt of lemon is critical in these peas, giving it such a bright finish. A nearly perfect meal for a hot, sunny, Minneapolis Sunday night - to celebrate my first sunburn of 2009 (courtesy of the May Day Parade and Festival at Powderhorn Park).

I'm reprinting Cass's recipe here but you should really follow this link to see her post with her photos.

Mustard Salmon w/ Smashed Peas

In a large frying pan in a small amount of olive oil add one diced sweet yellow onion - saute a few minutes. add thawed peas (about 3/4 of the bag) and cook 2 minutes more. toss w/ lots of freshly chopped parsley and a healthy squeeze of lemon. add salt and pepper to taste now SMASH w/ a potato masher. put aside.
stop by your lovely whole foods and pick up 2 pieces of mustard panko covered salmon. pan fry. meanwhile dish the peas onto 2 plates and in pretty little green piles. top w/ your salmon. pour the remaining bottle of yummy bubbly prosecco you have been drinking into your glasses - pop another bottle for when you run out - add one cute blond guy, throw in some flowers and enjoy!

Note: I was unable to obtain the cute blonde guy ingredient at my local market. Oh well. He wouldn't have fit on my bike for the ride home anyways.