Hello Dearest Readers,

Welcome back to my little cooking corner. Today, I’d like you to join me for a healthy recipe I found in Cook’s Illustrated, Sep & Oct 2022: Salmon Fillets with Ginger & Cider Glaze.

While salmon isn’t the first thing that comes to mind for the Fall, it’s such a great way to enrich our diets and provide us with Omega 3 fatty acids. These help with heart and artery health, and lower inflammation in the body, keeping us happy and healthy during the colder seasons (Cleveland Clinic).

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with salmon if I’m being honest. The biggest problem for me was I could never find a way to make salmon appetizing- I would make it for health reasons, but I never could quite make it as yummy as mom would!

*Shout out to my mom, Rita, who is incredible*

So I’m thrilled to say this recipe really changed the game for me. I learned a lot, too. If you’ve found yourself in a similar predicament, this can help.

To start with, here are the ingredients some of which are collected in an iron skillet.

For best results, choose a middle cut that you can divide into 2 or 3 pieces. Once you cut the salmon in appropriate portions, you will proceed to place those pieces in a brine. This is the first thing I learned, and I’m excited to share it! First of all, what does a brine consist of? In our case, it’s some table salt and sugar dissolved in water. The salmon is then placed in the brine for 15 minutes. This makes such a difference in tenderness.

While the salmon sits in the brine, you can move on to making the glaze. Oh! And don’t forget to turn on your oven at 300 degrees.

For the glaze, I used apple cider, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce and ginger as my flavors and added cornstarch for thickness. If you have all the ingredients available on your counter space, this takes about 5 minutes including cooking time.

Please, please, please pat your salmon dry after removing from brine. You want to avoid moisture when you place those fillets on a heated and greased cast iron skillet (or any oven safe pan). Let your fillets brown on both sides and brush with some glaze.

Once that’s done, go ahead and take the skillet and move it to the oven and let bake for 10-15 minutes or until internal temperature is 125+ degrees.

Just look at ’em- those delicious little fillets.

When the fillets are done, go ahead and brush the remaining glaze on top. Plate with whatever side you prefer- me, I like rice and any kind of greens (and maybe kimchi).

Well friends, it was lovely to see you and glad you stopped by. I hope this experience could shed some light on preparing salmon in a delicious and easy way.

Have a lovely week ahead with delicious meals and with many happy moments. Till next time!

Evy