Pan Seared Salmon, Roasted Sage-Butter Potatoes, and Honey-Roasted Carrots

That didn't take too long did it?
As promised I'm posting within days. I wanted to do it last night but I was too tired. The thing is I suffer form insomia so when I actually CAN sleep I fall asleep right away I can't waste time.
Anyway I bought some center cut salmon fillets about a week ago and kept putting off cooking them. Believe it or not I have NEVER prepared a salmon fillet before. I debated with myself on what to do with it. Every time I picked it up I immeddatly put it back down. I couldn't decide whether to bake it, fry it, grill it, poach it, the cooking methods were endless; as were my excuses for not cooking it. So finally on Thursday I realized that the sell by date was Friday so in an effort to use the freshest salmon possible I decided I HAD to cook it. I went the easy route and pan seared it.
As usual the side dishes were a snap to decide. It never really mattered what food "paired well" with the main. I'm single and cooking for only me so I just cook what I feel like eating. I knew I wanted potatoes and I had fresh sage so the roasted sage-butter potatoes were the obvious choice. I'd made those before but instead of butter I cooked them in pork fat (under a pork tenderloin). The carrots were just something I wanted to try. As a kid I absolutly loved carrots I ate them whenever possible. I'm acually surprized that I haven't turned orange yet! I wanted them to have sweet and savory aspects so honey, lemon, and cloves were my choices.
Now for the part you came for the recipes.  I didn't actually measure anything these are just aproximate.

Pan Seared Salmon, Roasted Sage-Butter Potatoes, and Honey-Roasted Carrots.

Pan seared Salmon.

 

1 1-lbs Salmon fillet (center cut, cut in half)
lemon-pepper
garlic salt
Paprika
cornstarch
half a lemon

 

Season salmon with lemon pepper, garlic salt, and paprika then sprinkle with cornstarch before pan searing in very hot, oiled pan over a med-hi.

Cook on each side until a meat termomiter inserted in the thickest part reads 145. Remove salmon from pan and pour juice from lemon into pan to deglaze. Serve pan juices over salmon.

Roasted Sage Butter Potatoes

about 1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes washed

1 tbsp Olive oil

2 tbsp melted Butter

1 tbsp Fresh Sage, Chopped

1 tbsp fresh Italian Parsley

2 cloves minced garlic

salt, pepper, and paprika, to taste

cold butter

 



Preheat oven to 350 and cut potatoes into small wedges. Add olive oil, melted butter, sage and parsley, paprika and minced garlic to a bowl. Whisk to combine. 

Add potatoes to butter mixture and toss until coated. Spread on a 7x11 pan and season with salt and pepper liberally. Dot with cold butter and roast in oven, stirring about half way through, until tender, about 40 minutes. heat under hot broiler for about 5 mins to brown and crisp.

Honey roasted Carrots

1 lbs carrots
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp Lemon juice (half a lemon)
cloves
paprika

Preheat oven to 350 and peel carrots.

Combine ¼ cup honey, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, cloves and paprika heat in pan until desired thickness is reached. Toss whole carrots in honey mixture and roast in oven until tender crisp about 40 minutes.

 

Here are a few pictures of the finished meal.



I used parsley as a garnish.

Later today I'll be posting last night's meal
                                                                   

Crispy Baked Chicken Breast, Margherita Fettuccini  Rigatoni, and Red Wine Spinach

DaSha

Miss Me?

I came to a slightly unsettling revelation. The fact is, brace yourself for this now, I haven't posted in quite a while. I know this is very shocking but don't lose your head. I plan to get right back on track in fact I plan to do better. No, I didn't make a New Years Resolution. I never keep those, plus they seem to add too much pressure to the situation.
I did however make a plan. I listed all of the meals I could think to make for myself and my friends. I organized them in themes and have begun to develop the recipes. I'm going to go through an intense process and take one for the team as I test these recipes. The most effective way would be to host a monthly dinner party! Weekly would be better but I'm not exactly known for my disposable income. Now here's the plan:
Week 1:

Pan Seared Salmon, Roasted Sage-Butter Potatoes, and Honey-Roasted Carrots.

Crispy Baked Chicken Breast, Margherita Fettuccine, and Red Wine Spinach

Shrimp Bisque with Crusty Bread

 

The weeks to follow will be themed using all of the lame food puns I could think of. They'll all be centered on an ingredient. Including such great themes as

Gnocchi? No problem!

All Woks of Life

Lettuce Turnip the Beet

Orzo it Seems

Getting Jalapeno Business

and many more. 

According to my calendar a week consists of seven days starting with Sunday. Because I am only one person I can't eat a meal made for four to eight in one day so I'll only cook six out of the seven days and save Saturday for leftovers. I'm not making any promises as to the day or time of the posts but I will definitely try to post on a weekly basis. I might do it everyday maybe once or twice a week. The only thing I can say is all of the recipes will be posted.

The first will be tonight I'm making Pan Seared Salmon, Roasted Sage-Butter Potatoes, and Honey-Roasted Carrots.

~DaSha

ps I'm trying to come up with a good sign off can you help?