December 4, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I don’t know why the salmon was particularly amazing yesterday. I didn’t intend to make something special. I pulled into our garage at 230pm. Yesterday was a half day of work and I actually left the office semi-on-time. I had talked to Mr. Plastic Picker earlier in the afternoon and told him to not order out. Since Fridays are usually busier days for us and take-out is a treat, I could figure out something for dinner on a Thursday. I pulled into the garage and plugged in my plug-in hybrid. We have an extra freezer and frigerator/freezer in the garage. There are a lot of people who live in my house, and it’s mostly my parents-in-law who store their bulk food there. I used to feel guilty about all the appliances but they are sunk cost, and they are powered by our solar panels anyway. There is not much of our food there, but sometimes I’ll store some frozen Costco bulk food. Thinking about dinner, I shopped in my own garage and found a packet of salmon fillets from Costco.

I’m curious at the cost. There is a website called costcocouple. com and they list reasonably accurate prices on costco items. Usually salmon is about $3.25 a fillet at Costco. Let me look up Tilapia the Kirkland brand farm raised one. It’s about $1.80 a fillet. That makes sense. Salmon is a more expensive fish. Interesting that the Highliner Tortilla Crusted Tilapia that I used to buy a lot before I learned how to cook is actually not that expensive. It’s about $1.62 a fillet.

Anyway, so the Salmon is a relatively expensive cut of fish. Our household is not too fancy so the fanciest place that we used to eat out was Outback Steak House (this was prior to becoming to trying more plant-based). I just looked up the Grilled Salmon dish at Outback, over $21 !!!! That is insane. I was shocked yesterday but for some reason the pan-seared salmon I did yesterday was one of the best salmons I’ve ever had. Both the children and Mr. Plastic Picker were generous with their praise. My daughter who is really a tween foodie was very effusive. I’m not sure why. I think I had thawed it out perfectly for 3 hours outside, and pan searing it must have kept it very moist. I also followed the instructions from AllRecipes.com to the letter. So here is the recipe with my modfications, which were few.

Pan Seared Salmon

Ingredients

• 4 (6 ounce) fillets salmon
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons capers (Replaced with thyme as I didn’t have capers)
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Instructions Checklist

• Step 1Preheat a large heavy skillet over medium heat for 3 minutes.
• Step 2Coat salmon with olive oil. Place in skillet, and increase heat to high. Cook for 3 minutes. Sprinkle with capers, and salt and pepper. Turn salmon over, and cook for 5 minutes, or until browned. Salmon is done when it flakes easily with a fork.

We paired it with a salad and bagged mashed potatoes. Everyone was very happy. We drank water.