testing

A return to cooking (and posting) how exciting! Today we went out and got some groceries in the morning so I was able to plan a meal. We decided to have salmon and risotto, so I got all the necessary ingredients. When the time came I looked up the recipe for salmon with lemon-caper sauce and roasted asparagus that I made a while back and documented on the site. I didn't have all the ingredients to make that, but I improvised with what I did have and ended up with lemon sauce and roasted green beans. I also used herbs de provence for the first time, and that was a perfect combination for what I was doing. The most exciting part of making the salmon was skinning the fish. The salmon pieces we got still had skins on the bottom, and if we'd asked, I imagine the people at Greenlife would have removed the skins for us, but instead I got to kick myself later. I could have cooked it skin on, and I've certainly done that before, but the recipe I was doing does better skinned. So, I've never skinned fish before and we certainly did not have an appropriate knife to do it, but after much hard work and craziness on my part I did manage to get the skins off with the fish intact and almost none wasted. I kept going through lists of people in my head who could probably skin the fish much easier or at least show me how to do it, but as it was I got it done myself. Meanwhile, I started making the risotto. I more or less followed the recipe on the back of the abborio rice box. It sounded similar to the recipe Max and I used, and I changed it accordingly anyway to do what I remembered and thought would taste good. In the end I thought it was great. It was the first time I've ever made risotto on my own, because the only other two times I've made it were with Max. I have to say that I think this batch was one he would have been proud of. I even stirred it devotedly, and was even happy for the change of pace that came with the monotonous stirring motion. Emily seemed appalled by the idea that one should stir so much, but I found it to be relaxing. Also Max insisted that the key to good risotto was frequent stirring, and since I haven't had bad risotto from him yet, I think I'll take his word for it. Overall I enjoyed the meal, it was a good change of pace although most of the food I haven't been documenting lately has been good as well. I've also become fond of Food Network and shows such as Emeril Live and Iron Chef. Who knew they could be so entertaining?
Here's dinner: