Salmon All Day Long! Part III (the final installment) - Balsamic Glazed Salmon Fillets and Pan Roasted Veggies

As any good cook knows, you need to have a side dish with any entree, or two in this case. Our choice this time around were Pan Roasted Veggies.

This is a simple dish to make. We took: asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes, and sliced them up. Feel free to use whatever veggies make you happy if you try this one. With the exception of the tomatoes, which I quartered, I cut everything on the bias. Which is a fancy way of saying I cut the veggies diagonally instead of straight. When you have to cut food anyway why not make it look nice?

Find a large or mid-sized pan and pour in just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of it, then turn up the heat to medium. I cooked the asparagus first because they need to be stirred or rolled around. Then I cooked the rest because they all needed to be flipped or turned. The only seasoning we use is kosher salt, fresh ground pepper. I placed them in a pan in the oven to keep warm until they were all done cooking. When it finally made it to the table, what we ended up with was a dish that was delicious and had a vibrant mix of colors! Remember you eat with your eyes before you eat with your mouth.

The second half of our dinner entrees were Balsamic Glazed Salmon Fillets. My wife found this recipe at allrecipes.com. The one thing I REALLY liked about this website was that it had a recipe calculator! I had two portions ready, so I reset the recipe for two servings.

Ingredients:
2 - (5 ounce) salmon fillets,
1-1/3 - cloves of garlic, minced,
1 teaspoon - white wine, we used white grape juice instead,
1 teaspoon - honey,
1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons - balsamic vinegar (Use a good one!),
1-1/4 teaspoons - Dijon mustard,
salt and pepper to taste,
1 teaspoon - chopped fresh oregano.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (this move comes in handy when it's cleaning time), and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Coat a small saucepan with non-stick cooking spray. Over medium heat, cook and stir garlic until soft, about 3 minutes. This is where all the prep work that I did before came into play. Mix in white grape juice (or white wine), honey, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, for about 3 minutes, or until slightly thickened. When done split the glaze into two separate bowls with about half in each. You will need to brush the salmon in both the raw and cooked states. You don't want to reuse anything that was used on the raw fish once it's cooked.

Arrange the salmon fillets on the foil-lined baking sheet. Brush the fillets with the balsamic glaze, and sprinkle with oregano.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 14 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Brush fillets with remaining glaze, and season with salt and pepper. Use a spatula to transfer fillets to serving platter, leaving the skin behind on the foil.

This recipe turned out great, although I did throw myself a few curve balls along the way. I forgot to cook the glaze at first, so when the salmon was brushed before it was placed in the oven it only had a light coating. On top of that I decided, at the last minute, to double the amount of salmon being cooked. Due to this move I didn't have enough glaze to coat the entire meat after it was done cooking. I also forgot to remove the skin from the salmon after it was cooked.

Luckily, none of these faux pas mattered. The salmon turned out great! You could really taste the glaze due to the rich flavors and the quality balsamic vinegar that was used.

It was now after 10pm. Our bellies were full from the large dinner. The food had been put away. The last task of the night still awaited me... the dishes. After the massive amount cooking that was done throughout the day, I decide this would be a chore best saved for the morning. I know it's bad of me, but I didn't want to interrupt the happy food coma that I was in.