Thursday, July 9, 2009

Sockeye salmon with sweet corn relish

This one's a quickie, because I'm supposed to be working from home right now, and I actually have a fair amount to get done. But writing grant proposals is not as interesting as writing about the awesome wild sockeye salmon I had last night.

Now, anything that has "sockeye" as part of its name is a winner in my book. But what made this dinner truly delicious was the sweet corn relish with purple basil, and for that I need to give a long-deserved shout out to my CSA, Farm Fresh To You.

We've been getting a produce box from FFTY for nearly two and a half years now. We started off getting a box every other week, but about 6 months ago we switched to every week in an effort to eat less meat and more vegetables. The funny thing is, we get a regular-sized box. I think households of two usually get a small box, but clearly we are not a typical set of two.

Every week I take it as a personal challenge to use all of the produce. This has led to many good and a few dubious dishes. I find winter produce tougher to be creative with; for months we were getting loads of cabbage and kale, and after awhile all I could manage was sauteing it dully in olive oil and garlic, or throwing it into yet another soup. But in the summer, all the produce feels like a treat, and all of it seems to go together effortlessly. Last night's warm corn relish consisted of sweet white corn, red onion, orange lipstick peppers (really!), and purple basil cooked in butter. It took about 10 minutes and made a sunny little bed for the sockeye salmon, which is a stunning shade somewhere between watermelon and cantaloupe. Summer on a plate!

Eating less meat will continue to be a struggle for me; I can't quite reconcile my omnivorous self with my soft-hearted, animal-loving self, but having beautiful, seasonal produce delivered to my door is a step in the right direction.

8 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous combination of colours! It's winter where I am, but just looking at this warms me up :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The salmon looks moist and flavorful. Love the combination of corn relish with the sockeye, I think that makes good eating.
    Check out "Farmer John'Cookbook" great recipes to use up your CSA box. You can find it on amazon.
    You have a terrific blog. I'm glad to have found it. Lucky you to live in SFO.
    The Gypsy Chef

    ReplyDelete
  3. I got corn and basil in my box, too, and a corn relish seems like a winner! I'll have mine with a basa fillet.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Don't eat fish, but going to harvest some of our shi shi basil for some corn copote ~ thanks for the inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  5. shaz: That's the thing about summer produce--it looks beautiful with no effort at all!

    Pam: Thanks for the tip--I will check out the cookbook. And thank you for visiting! Hope you come back.

    Cee: I forget, you don't like salmon? Seriously? I do love basa though.

    Alis: the little corn relish would be good sans fish, as a warm salad with a little vinaigrette or just as a side dish. Let me know how yours turns out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm glad you dished out some of your time to write this, because oh my god...I am totally drooling! Totally craving salmon right now! The corn relish is genius!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This looks awesome, off to the market for some salmon...

    ReplyDelete
  8. burpandslurp: you should try it! and thanks for stopping by.

    egg to the apples: let me know how it turns out.

    ReplyDelete