The Rest of the Story

After last week’s post, I feel obligated (and pleased) to report that last night I marinated my very own salmon. I probably shouldn’t make this a too-frequent habit because a pound of salmon is even more expensive than a pound of chicken. Besides, if I eat too much of it the novelty will wear off quickly and I might be obligated to try my hand at other, scarier kinds of fish. I’m not sure I’m ready for that just yet.

As per Ambrosia’s request, here’s the recipe I used:

Maple Glazed Salmon

1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 pound salmon

Mix syrup, soy sauce, garlic, garlic salt, and pepper together in a shallow baking dish. Place salmon in a baking dish, coating with marinade. Marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes, turning once. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake salmon for 20 minutes, or until it flakes with a fork.

The recipe was super easy. The only glitch in the whole process came when I lifted the first salmon filet from the plastic and discovered that the scales were still attached. I had not expected this since the pre-marinated filet I bought last week was completely cleaned of scales and, with my limited experience in the world of cooking seafood, I had no reason to expect otherwise. I stood and stared at the scales for a moment, and then attacked filets with a knife in an attempt to remove the unappetizing silver (in these days of artificial food enhancement almost any color can appear edible in the right form, but silver is just a little too metallic for my comfort). The process, however, seemed messier than it ought to have been, and I was removing more meat than fish scales.

Fortunately a ward member had just dropped by to copy a recording of a song we’re singing in ward choir from my BYU Singers CD onto his computer. Frustrated with my progress halfway through the first fish filet I stepped out of the kitchen and asked (without much hope) if, by any chance, he had ever cooked with fish.

“Are you kidding?” he replied. “I grew up fishing!” And he kindly stepped into the kitchen and educated me on the edibility and removability of fish scales as he took the knife and very efficiently peeled the scales away, launching into his theory of Why People Think They Don’t Like Fish. (Incidentally, this made me very grateful that I have given fish an honest try, for several years, so that when I say I don’t like most kinds of fish I am speaking from valid experience. Not that my own relationship to fish was necessarily in question, given the circumstances.)

I have asked young men in my various singles wards for help moving boxes, repairing window screens, changing a tire, and even taking out the trash (but only because they insisted on doing something before they left), but it never would have occurred to me to ask for culinary advice.

Anyway, the maple-glazed salmon was delicious – it went very well with the steamed green beans and rice that I made while it was baking in the oven. I highly recommend it.