Mother's Day Dinner Continued... 

Barbecued Salmon, Wild Rice, Spinach Salad with Candied Almonds

So we didn't only eat Red Velvet Cheesecake on Mother's Day. I know, crazy right? My dad and I came up with a lovely meal of barbecued salmon, rice, and salad. If there's one thing that you should know about me it's that I RARELY make food out of a package box. There are very few exceptions and one of them is Uncle Ben's wild rice. Oh my word is that stuff good. Anyway, here's some pictures of the rest of our Mother's day meal....

The mid-afternoon drink. Gin and tonic. My mom cut slices of lemons and limes and then cut those into wedges and chucked them in the cup. My favorite.

Candied almonds I made for the salad. It was so easy even my dad was surprised. He kept saying, "really? that's it?" So here's my recipe: Sugar and nuts (whatever kind you want, I've done this with pecans and walnuts as well). That's it. I put the nuts in a small frying pan and pour the sugar over top. For about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of nuts I would use about 4 tablespoons of sugar. You're going to heat it up so that the sugar melts so try to envision how much you want the nuts to be coated when it's all done. Start heating up the nuts and sugar and stir it constantly. You really want to watch it as once the sugar starts melting it really gets going and there is a fine line between a nice caramel and burnt sugar. Once the sugar is all melted and the nuts are coated take it off heat immediately and put onto a plate/cookie sheet in as thin a layer as possible and let the nuts cool off completely. They may be stuck together in big clumps but once they're cooled you'll be able to separate them easily.

For the salmon marinade I used my mom's recipe and I'll try to remember the ingredients and amounts. My mom and I have similar cooking methods in that we just kind of throw stuff together. It may not be exactly the same each time but that's okay.
Salmon marinade:
      1/2 cup brown sugar
      4 tablespoons lemon juice
      8 tablespoons soy sauce
      4 green onions, chopped
      little bit of salt and pepper, to taste

I did learn quite a bit about cooking from my mom but I have also learned a lot from my dad and this past weekend he taught me how to properly barbecue salmon. I've always been afraid of that as fish falls apart so easy but the trick is to use a lot of sugar in the marinade so that it gets a nice crust on the barbecue. Huh. Who woulda thunk it was that easy?

In progress. Dad also slightly angled the salmon after cooking it for a few minutes so it would get a nice criss cross grill mark. Salmon is also something you don't want to leave alone, especially on a bbq as it doesn't take long to cook! Maybe 6-7 minutes per side, if that. Once the fish starts to flake easily, you know it's done.

Spinach and strawberry salad with feta cheese and candied almonds.

Finished meal. Barbecued salmon, Uncle Ben's wild rice, Spinach Salad and a cucumber dill sauce for the salmon. Also, I love white dishes.

Next time on Food Talk at Five, cooking dinner with my cousin Jon!

- A