Weeknight Cooking:
Salmon with dill carrots and cabbage

The salmon of the year award goes out to that one special salmon recipe that seemed to transcend all the rest of the many attempts throughout the year.  This year's has as much to do with the compliment sides as the salmon itself.  Either way, there is no better fish to cook – salmon is fairly easy to make  perfectly because of its tough strap of skin which tends to protect from any overheating of the meat itself. The inherent taste that salmon holds is as good as it gets.  This recipe calls for four 6 oz skin-on

salmon fillets – to be cooked either by pan method or, as I did this time, oven cook at 425 for somewhere around 20 minutes – but the side portion is what makes this meal.  I cut my salmon in
fairly thin fillets this time around and topped them with thinly cut portobella mushrooms because I had them on hand and wanted to see if seasoned mushrooms would compliment salmon or not. They did very nicely.  As the salmon is cooking, brew up a large pot of boiling water and add 4 sliced

carrots and 6 cups of thinly sliced cabbage. Cook until tender, drain, add butter, salt and some fresh chopped dill.  Meanwhile, for the dipping sauce, stir together 1/4 cup sour cream, 1 tbsp. of whole grain mustard and a pinch of red wine vinegar if desired.  The salmon, covered by light seasoning –

in this case diced mushrooms as well – dipped into the sour cream sauce then scooped along with cabbage salad is a near perfect compliment of textures and seasoning.