This Sunday, the BF made a request for a healthy dinner. He knows if he left it up to me, we’d be eating something fried in butter, drenched in cream, followed by a cheese course and a dessert course. I would also act like I forgot about the existence of vegetables. This is another recipe learned from my last class at Hipcooks…
In class we did it with oyster mushrooms that looked fresh. I had to make due with dried shitake mushrooms from Mitsuwa market down on Alameda in Little Toyko, soaked in hot water to bring them back to life. I sauteed them up with some olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and 3 cloves of chopped up garlic, added in a handful or 3 of roasted pine nuts (a Tony favorite), then indelicately shoved the messy mix into a big pocket cut into the salmon filets. You can’t see the stuffing here because I purposely hid it from you! Haw! Wrapped the puppy in rice paper and then sauteed it until the wrapper was crispy and brown. Guzzled it with this:
We had a slight misfire with the wine sitch for dinner. I had a bottle of Rose from 05 waiting in the fridge and it looks like it had gone bad – it was too dark for Rose, and kind of had a vinegar nose. So I tried my second best option, a bottle of Pinot I had hiding away in the cellar. At least now I have confirmation that I can start opening all the 2004 Santa Barbara pinots. After popping the cork, the smell of fresh, fruity BERRY notes flooded our noses – strawberries and cherries – smooth tannins – rich and elegant, not flabby and flat. Snooty wine jerks are always talking about pinot with salmon, and now I get it. Something about the oil in the fish and the bright lively fruit in the pinot just goes damn well together.
More about this bottle – Longoria Wines