Sesame Ginger Salmon

I really love salmon! Like, A LOT! But I am very picky about my salmon.  I try to stay away from the farm raised stuff, often labeled Atlantic Salmon. Farm raised salmon are often given antibiotics and artificial coloring, which are unwanted and unnecessary chemicals...in my humble opinion!  I have never had any trouble finding wild caught salmon in the frozen food section, and I am okay with frozen salmon :) 

I was cooking for two but you could double the recipe to make more.  

Here's what you need-

12-16 oz of salmon

1 tsp freshly grated ginger

2 cloves of garlic, minced or smashed

4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tbsp Sesame Oil

1 Tbsp Rice Vinegar

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp Brown Sugar

Large pinch of salt

A few dashes of pepper

Sesame Seeds 

Green Onions, thinly sliced

Let's talk about ginger while we are here!

Before I knew better, I always used ginger powder, which is great to have on hand, but no where near as tasty as ginger root.  I think I didn't keep fresh ginger on hand because I only use it occasionally and most of it went to waste.  Then one day I realized you could FREEZE ginger! It's really simple.  Just cut your ginger root into 1.5 inch sections and store it in a freezer bag or container.  When you need the ginger, pull it out of the freezer.  And it's actually easier to grate when it's frozen! Problem solved!

If there's a lot of liquid on my salmon I usually dab is dry with a paper towel.

Then throw all of your ingredients in a gallon size baggie or container and let it marinade.  I let mine sit for an hour in the refrigerator. 

I placed my fish on a cooling wrack on top of a foil lined cookie sheet. Then I put it in the oven and let it broil for about 10 minutes.  My salmon wasn't very thick.  If yours is thick you might want to add a few minutes, just keep an eye on it!  Then I topped it with my toasted sesame seeds and my green onions.  You can leave those off if you like, but I don't recommend it! 

 

This is one of my simple, go-to meals when I have nothing else planned.  I love throwing everything into one bag to marinade.  It's easier on me and makes for less clean up! Plus, it's DELICIOUS!  Enjoy!

Mayan Chocolate Truffles

I found this recipe on one of my favorite recipe sites - Tasty Kitchen! It is run by one of my favorite people - Ree Drummond! So you know it can't be bad! You can find the original recipe here!

Here's what you need-

8 oz dark chocolate

1/2 cp heavy cream

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp coffee liquor (or just coffee)

Optional Coatings:

Confectioner Sugar

Cocoa Powder

Sea Salt

Crushed Pistachios

(Crushed nuts of any kind)

Toasted Coconut

Almond or Chocolate Bark

Festive sugar

The chocolate needs to be chopped as fine as possible.  I just threw it in my mini Ninja!  While I was doing this, I had the cream heating on the stove.  Remove the cream from the stove just before it starts to boil. 

Pour the cream into the bowl of chopped chocolate and let it sit for a minute. 

 After sitting for a minute, stir it up until it's well incorporated and then add the vanilla, pepper, coffee and cinnamon and stir.

It should be nice and smooth like this! If it still has chunks, put it in the microwave and heat in 10 second increments.  Then allow the mixture to sit out for an hour.  I let mine sit out for a few hours while I went for a run! 

 Then it looked like this!

  I scooped it out and formed it, as best as I could, into small balls. Then I covered it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.

Once it was firm, I formed them into smooth balls with my fingertips.  Then you get to be creative with your coating! (If you decide to use a coating!)

Here's what I used....

 I sprinkled Sea Salt on some of them...

 Cocoa Powder

 Toasted Coconut

and crushed pistachios!

These were a hit with the fam! I am going to attempt to mail some to my lovely aunt and uncle in Knoxville for Easter!  I'll let you know how that goes!