CHEAP...? DINNER...? FOR TWO...??? Sounds like music to your ears right?
If you are a salmon lover like me, you want to eat it numerous times per week from your favorite seafood or dine-in restaurant. But your budget just won't allow for you to eat dine-in or take-out but maybe only once every two weeks. So instead of choosing a semi-healthy option on those days where you don't feel like cooking you decide to go for a cheap fast food meal. Then you begin to feel guilty for eating those high-carbs, high-saturated fat foods. I know because I'm guilty of this.
Being that I consider myself pretty fab in the kitchen, I said, I know I can make my salmon taste like the restaurants, if not better. So, I've attempted to make mimic the salmon that my favorite restaurants make, the Wild Caught Atlantic Salmon blackened, my fav. But little did I know that it is hard to find wild caught salmon, many stores have Atlantic Salmon but farmed raised. And I'm sure you know the story on farm raised fish. So after searching and searching for the fresh wild caught salmon and having little to no luck with it I bought the frozen version, but I didn't like that as much. So I looked for another salmon and found the wild caught (frozen) Sockeye Salmon at Aldi for only about $11.
My first attempt with this salmon was only okay because the Sockeye Salmon is a tougher, steak like salmon, wheres as the Atlantic Salmon has a much softer texture. After my first attempt, I tried another time and had the same outcome. So I was thinking man, maybe its just the salmon, maybe it just too tough a fish, and I didn't like that. It was then I realized that maybe with the Sockeye Salmon you have to be careful not to over cook it or it gets really tough. So instead of trying to figure out how to perfect the Sockeye Salmon to my satisfaction, I would just swing by the restaurant here and there to get my salmon on. But when you have to buy for a family the bill can begin to rise fairly quickly.
One day was working late and I was out of fuel. So I had my daughter I call my husband to bring me food. During their call there must had been some miscommunication because I wanted to have him bring me food to work (assuming it would be fast food), but after a while I didn't see him so I was wondering where he was. So I had her call back but he said he was home. Ugh, I thought why you home when I need food? My husband didn't know he was bringing me food to work he thought he was just grabbing some things for dinner so he stopped by the store (Aldi) grabbed some items to throw dinner together. He thought I would be home soon but I had about another hour and a half left work and I just didn't think I could make it any longer without food. So he was gracious enough to swing by with food, little did I know that it was a home cooked meal with the wild caught Sockeye Salmon. He had it plated on top of a bed of rice with a side of broccoli. It was so good and the salmon was moist and delicious. (SN: See I forgot my husband can cook some fish since he all vegetarian and all because he normally leaves the meat cooking to me). I was like, why couldn't I get the salmon to do that? So I asked him for the secret sauce to making this type of salmon to remain moist and juicy.
I got it now, so here's my Sockeye Salmon dinner for two all for around $15.
Sockeye Salmon plated on a bed of cauliflower rice and broccoli.
Cooking Instructions:
Coat the skillet or pan with oil of choice add in garlic, onions, and honey.
Turn the heat on high.
Add in the Sockeye Salmon skin-side down.
Allow to cook for about 2-3 minutes on that side.
While cooking add seasoning of choice to the top of the salmon.
Flip salmon and allow to cook about 2-3 minutes on that side.
Flip salmon back to the skin side turn off the pan and allow to stand in pan another few minutes. (til cooked to your desire)
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