My father used to go salmon fishing every year when I was young. He’d come home with stories not so much about catching these giant fish, but more about snagging them. Apparently catching salmon doesn’t take a great deal of talent during the spawning season. I guess that would be when we started eating salmon. Not regularly, but when it was caught on one of his fishing adventures.
As I grew older and began making my own decisions in life, I didn’t really eat any fish or any meat for that matter. I was largely a live diet kind of gal in my traveling years and then when I did settle somewhere I gardened extensively and ate lots of soy bean, tofu and homemade seitan. Now I am settled in a new way and while we still garden and try our best to eat naturally, we do purchase fish from the local coop (since we do live in one of the last fisherman working waterfronts on the East coast) and occasionally at the larger store in town.
I don’t usually do the town shopping. It’s just not my thing, so it is up to my husband to make the buying decisions in the fish department and a couple of times last month he purchased wild caught salmon. We avoid farm raised fish for all the right reasons, like high fat content, poor omega-3 value, antibiotics and chemical weirdness used in farming conditions and, especially in the case of salmon, the studies that have revealed high levels of polybrominated diphenyl ether compounds (PBDE) or more commonly known as fire retardant (yikes!).
I have very few salmon recipes. We often enjoy it with butter and dill. Or our other favorite is ginger and teriyaki. Someone mentioned maple syrup recently and although strange I can see its appeal. I however was endeavoring for something mind-blowing in the salmon recipe department and happened upon a recipe for feta-crusted salmon that while my brain screamed no, there was a little piece of me that was thinking, yeah…baby…there’s the ticket. Needless to say, the little piece won and we tried the feta-crusted salmon.
It was outstanding. I was totally not sure. Even as I pulled it out of the oven, I was thinking, man, no one is going to eat this (often my cooking experiments don’t go as well as planned). But low and behold the fish was fabulous. Really how can you go wrong with Feta (as a stinky cheese fan I find it impossible)?
Without further ado, I share with you the recipe for feta-crusted salmon and I suggest that you use wild caught salmon for your recipe too and enjoy all the natural goodness of this delicious fish.
| Feta Crusted Wild Salmon |
- 2 pound wild salmon fillets (bones removed)
- 1/3 cup mayonaise or nayonaise
- 1 tbspn cream cheese
- 1 tbspn mustard (prepared)
- 1 tspn balsalmic vinegar (or red wine vinegar worked fine when I didn’t have the good stuff)
- 1/2 tspn paprika
- 1 tspn garlic
- 1 1/2 tspn onion powder
- salt
- pepper
- 1/3 cup Japanese Panko Flakes
- In a bowl mix the mayo, mustard, vinegar, paprika, garlic, and onion. Stir well
- Add the feta cheese and cream cheese. Continue mixing until mostly smooth (there will be some feta lumps)
- oil your baking sheet
- place Salmon skin side down on baking sheet
- salt and pepper the fish
- cover with feta mixture
- sprinkle panko flakes over feta mixture (cover well)
- Bake in preheated oven 400 degrees
