I've always wanted to do a series of cooking posts where I followed the recipes given on the backs of cans or packages of food, but usually I buy things to be used in other recipes and never have a chance to do it. When we prepared for the root to stem challenge, however, we were looking through the fish section at Trader Joe's and realized that the recipe on the back of the silverbrite salmon package would be perfect for the meal. I was finally getting my wish.
This wasn't our first time buying salmon from Trader Joe's, but it was our first time buying salmon of this type. I'm not that knowledgeable about the different kinds of salmon and the differences in taste or nutritional value, so I don't really know where silverbrite stands among the others. I do know that it was a little bit cheaper, but the quality still seemed fine.
We followed the recipe pretty closely and other than the salmon, we already had all the ingredients at home which made it easy. The ingredients were:
- 2 tbsp olive oil ($0.40)
- 2 tbsp butter ($0.40)
- 2 tbsp whole grain dijon mustard ($0.60)
- black pepper ($0.05)
- 1 package (about 1 lb) silverbrite salmon ($6.55)
- 1 tbsp honey ($0.20)
- 1/4 cup water ($0)
The fish preparation cost about $8.20, but almost all of that cost is the fish itself. Not too bad.
The steps to make the salmon were:
1. Heat olive oil and butter in skillet until butter melts.
2. Add mustard, stir and cook for 1-2 minutes. (The mustard seeds popped quite a bit.)
3. Add fish, skin side down, to pan, and sprinkle with pepper on top.
4. Saute salmon until lightly browned. The recipe gave the measurements as 3 minutes per side when defrosted and 6 minutes per side when frozen. Our salmon wasn't completely frozen but also not completely defrosted, so we did about 5 minutes on one side and then 4 minutes on the other.
5. Flip the fish back over to skin side down, add the honey, and cover the skillet with a lid to finish cooking. (This was a little bit confusing in the original recipe, as it said to cook on both sides, and then said, "Turn fish," before adding honey. It wasn't clear if it meant turn the fish again (as we did it) or to add the honey on the first turn, but we think it turned out well the way we did it.) Cook until fish is opaque.
6. Remove fish when cooked. Add a little water to deglaze pan and heat over high heat to reduce sauce. Pour pan sauce over fish to serve.
We really liked the salmon and especially the honey mustard sauce, much more than we thought we would when we saw how blackened the sauce had become. We worried that it would taste somewhat burnt, but it actually was really good. It had a good amount of sweetness from the honey and also from the mustard since the second jar of mustard we opened (didn't have enough in the first) seemed a little sweeter than the first. This salmon and the honey mustard sauce were actually perfect as complements to the roasted fennel and carrots. We would definitely get this salmon again and follow the exact same recipe!
This wasn't our first time buying salmon from Trader Joe's, but it was our first time buying salmon of this type. I'm not that knowledgeable about the different kinds of salmon and the differences in taste or nutritional value, so I don't really know where silverbrite stands among the others. I do know that it was a little bit cheaper, but the quality still seemed fine.
We followed the recipe pretty closely and other than the salmon, we already had all the ingredients at home which made it easy. The ingredients were:
- 2 tbsp olive oil ($0.40)
- 2 tbsp butter ($0.40)
- 2 tbsp whole grain dijon mustard ($0.60)
- black pepper ($0.05)
- 1 package (about 1 lb) silverbrite salmon ($6.55)
- 1 tbsp honey ($0.20)
- 1/4 cup water ($0)
The fish preparation cost about $8.20, but almost all of that cost is the fish itself. Not too bad.
The steps to make the salmon were:
1. Heat olive oil and butter in skillet until butter melts.
2. Add mustard, stir and cook for 1-2 minutes. (The mustard seeds popped quite a bit.)
3. Add fish, skin side down, to pan, and sprinkle with pepper on top.
4. Saute salmon until lightly browned. The recipe gave the measurements as 3 minutes per side when defrosted and 6 minutes per side when frozen. Our salmon wasn't completely frozen but also not completely defrosted, so we did about 5 minutes on one side and then 4 minutes on the other.
5. Flip the fish back over to skin side down, add the honey, and cover the skillet with a lid to finish cooking. (This was a little bit confusing in the original recipe, as it said to cook on both sides, and then said, "Turn fish," before adding honey. It wasn't clear if it meant turn the fish again (as we did it) or to add the honey on the first turn, but we think it turned out well the way we did it.) Cook until fish is opaque.
6. Remove fish when cooked. Add a little water to deglaze pan and heat over high heat to reduce sauce. Pour pan sauce over fish to serve.
We really liked the salmon and especially the honey mustard sauce, much more than we thought we would when we saw how blackened the sauce had become. We worried that it would taste somewhat burnt, but it actually was really good. It had a good amount of sweetness from the honey and also from the mustard since the second jar of mustard we opened (didn't have enough in the first) seemed a little sweeter than the first. This salmon and the honey mustard sauce were actually perfect as complements to the roasted fennel and carrots. We would definitely get this salmon again and follow the exact same recipe!
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