Citrus Zest Roast Salmon with Steamed Purple Sweet Potato and Green Beans

How to roast a piece of salmon and make a pot of quick, healthy mashed sweet potatoes, plus a cauliflower soup link

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How is it half way through October? I’ve yet to make pumpkin spice anything (spoiler alert: I probably won’t — although I see cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, etc. on the horizon, and will definitely be making these brown butter pumpkin muffins ASAP.) I did make another batch of low sugar high fiber, high protein granola which has pumpkin seeds in it. (Side note: that granola needs a sexier name. Or do we embrace the “mature” health factor nod? Granola for Those of a Certain Age? Granny Granola?)

Speaking of grannies…last week we celebrated two birthdays — my mom’s 70th and Wolfie’s 7th. The plan was for the 12 of us to eat out but guess who ended up cooking? Yours truly of course, with help from the gang. We turned on the music, made drinks, lit candles, chopped veggies, cooked a giant fillet of salmon, argued over who should make the salad dressing, let the kids stay up late, and used the good china. I was reminded that eating at home is almost always more enjoyable (and comfortable) than eating in a restaurant, as long as you know how to cook and there’s someone to share dish duty with. I can’t help with your dishes, but this newsletter should definitely help you become a better cook…

Making dinner for 12 for my mom’s 70’th birthday

At the risk of making myself sound obsolete, we didn’t use any recipes. That’s the thing about cooking that isn’t talked about enough. It’s not about recipes. Cooking is about learning technique, what flavors go together, and then practicing that to build confidence. I want these newsletters to give you that confidence - to cook without recipes and focus more on basic methods than measuring, special ingredients, or fancy tricks.

Back in LA I made some smaller scale dinners at home. A roasted piece of salmon that can feed one or a crowd - figure about 1/3 lb per person, healthy mashed sweet potatoes, and a velvety vegetable soup that I made out of cauliflower, but you can make with almost anything. Here’s how you do it…

Menu 1

Roast fillet of salmon with mashed, steamed purple sweet potato, and green beans

This looks so pretty and fancy but I promise you is SO SIMPLE and adheres to my ramblings above. You really don’t need a recipe for this. It’s cooking a piece of fish and some veggies very simply. There’s no measuring of anything. You can use salmon or another fish that bakes well: cod, halibut, snapper, or sea bass.

If I’m buying wild salmon my favorite is King/Chinook. I like that it’s buttery, moist and tender with big flakes of meat. If that’s not available and I want salmon, I will buy responsibly farmed Atlantic salmon - it’s close to King salmon in texture and taste. In general the differences are:

• King salmon - Richer and buttery with a soft and tender texture. Usually thicker fillets.

• Sockeye - firm, dense and meaty with a richer fish flavor. Typically wild-caught from Alaska, fresh or frozen.

• Coho/Silver - milder than Sockeye, with a subtler flavor.

• Atlantic salmon - typically farmed, mild, tender and moist. Usually bigger fillets than coho and sockeye.

I like to buy a big piece of fish (about 1/3 lb per person) rather than individual fillets. This way you only have to worry about cooking ONE piece of fish. Cooking it in the oven means there’s no need for flipping, and no grease splatter on your stove. Buying a bigger piece than you need is a great idea if you want leftovers. When it comes time to roast, you have options! You can cook the salmon on a sheet pan or a deeper baking dish (like a pyrex casserole dish.) It will cook faster on a sheet pan because more of the fish is exposed to hot air flow and the heat will be distributed more evenly.

For the sweet potato, I used a giant Stokes purple sweet potato I bought at Whole Foods. Regular orange or white sweet potatoes are also great. There are also Okinawan/Hawaiian purple sweet potatoes, Japanese Purple sweet potatoes, and Ube (technically a yam.) They’ll all work here although they have slightly different textures. These aren’t your heavy Thanksgiving mashed potatoes, they’re light and healthy mashed potatoes you could eat every day.