Glazed Salmon with Couscous

Salmon has made it on the blog! After swearing that I didn’t like the oddly pink fish, I’ve finally come around to really enjoying it. I’ve got my coworker Ryan to thank for that. He almost always orders it when we go out for lunch and slowly it started to look really good. He’d let me taste it and you know, it wasn’t bad! It’s mild, like I like my fish, and what sold me are all the yummy glazes and toppings you can add. For my first time making it at home, I chose this Glazed Salmon with Couscous. I knew I couldn’t go wrong with a brown sugar, mustard glaze.

So, how’s it taste?

It was really freakin’ delicious! I could not believe I was eating salmon for dinner. Pink fish is still weird to me, but smother it in a tangy, sweet glaze and I don’t seem to mind much. The glaze is brown sugar, shallots, whole-grain mustard (I used an awesome version with garlic from Private Selection), and white wine. I didn’t have any white wine and didn’t want to buy a bottle for a 1/4 cup, so I improvised with hard apple cider. It worked! I loved this glaze so much, I wanted to hover over the stove and sop it up with a big piece of bread. It’s tangy, sweet, and has a nice texture from the shallots and whole-grain mustard. The couscous was equally amazing. I am obsessed with fresh dill and usually add a bit more than a recipe suggests. That’s what I did here and it was fabulous. I used a pine nut couscous, so mine really had a ton of flavor, plus the dill and lemon. I think dill and lemon are classic flavorings with salmon, too. The glazed salmon and couscous together were just phenomenal. I’m so proud of myself!

Here’s a question for you salmon-eaters. How much do you pay attention to wild versus farmed? I made the mistake of reading some articles against farmed and how the salmon is fed food that dyes the fish pink like wild. It kind of grosses me out, but that’s what I bought for this recipe and it seemed ok. I searched on Whole Foods and was surprised to find a blog post mentioning farmed salmon and nothing about the dye. I’m curious what you think about wild versus farmed.

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Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 25 min

Glazed Salmon with Couscous

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups water
3/8 tsp. kosher salt, divided
3/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 cup uncooked couscous
2 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
1/4 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. butter
3 tbsp. chopped shallots
1/4 cup dry white wine (I used hard cider)
2 tbsp. whole-grain mustard
1 tbsp. brown sugar
4 (6 oz.) salmon fillets (about 1 inch thick)
Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler.

2. Bring 1 1/4 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and couscous; cover. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in dill, peel, and juice.

3. Heat a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and butter; swirl until butter melts. Add shallots; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add wine to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes; stir in mustard and brown sugar. Remove pan from heat.

4. Arrange fillets, skin sides down, on a jelly-roll pan lined with foil coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle fillets with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Spread half of mustard mixture evenly over fillets. Broil 6 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Spread remaining half of mustard mixture over fillets. Serve fish with couscous.

per serving (1 fillet, about 1/2 cup couscous): 467 calories, 13.2g fat, 42g protein, 40g carbs, 2g fiber

Source: Cooking Light, May 2014