Recipe: Pan-seared salmon with tomato and herb cream
Estimated Prep Time: 5 minutes
Estimated Cooking Time: 10-12 minutes
Yields 4 servings
Salmon Ingredients:
- 4 boneless skinless filets of Salmon, 5oz each
- 2 Tablespoons Olive oil
- Salt/Pepper to taste
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 Tablespoons shallots, finely diced
- ½ pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
- ½ cup dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc recommended)
- 2oz heavy cream (substitute: plain white yogurt)
- 1 Tablespoon fresh basil leaves, chopped
- Salt/Pepper to taste (as you prepare)
- Ovenproof skillet (medium)
- Saucepan (small)
- Chef or Santoku knife (your preference)
- Cutting board
- In a medium-sized skillet, over medium heat on stove, heat a thin layer of olive oil. Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Add salmon filets to the pan skinned side up. '
- Cook 5-6 minutes on each side, or until salmon are cooked to desired temperature. You should allow each side to caramelize, which creates a crisp crust.
- While salmon is cooking, in a small saucepan sweat shallots in the butter. Add tomatoes. Cook for two minutes then add wine. Simmer until liquid is almost fully reduced. Add cream. Reduce by half. Remove from heat. Add chopped basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Spoon warm sauce in the center of four plates. Remove salmon from oven. Place a salmon filet on each plate, skinned side down. Serve immediately.
- Salmon: Choose pieces that are equal in size/dimension. They will cook evenly.
- Give Sauce time to reduce!
- Choose wine you like. Sauvignon Blanc goes great with fish.
- For cream substitute, try PLAIN LOWFAT YOGURT (non-flavored)
- Add basil just before plating
Recipe: Chèvre-Stuffed Apricots Appetizer
Estimated Prep Time: 5 minutes
Estimated Cooking Time: None
Yields 6-8 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 ounces "chevre" style goat cheese
- 1 cup dried Turkish apricots, about 22 total
- ¼ cup roasted, unsalted almonds
- Cutting Board
- Chef or Santuko Knife
- Spoon
-
Cut/Chop each almond into 3 - 4 pieces. Scoop 1/2 teaspoon of goat cheese and form a small ball, pushing 3 or 4 almond pieces into it.
Open up the apricots, keeping them joined on one side and fill them with the cheese and nut ball. Press the apricot halves together to seal. Serve.
About Cooking for the Clueless:
This DVD gives self-proclaimed "clueless cooks" the courage and confidence to tackle home cooking. The 2-disc DVD set features Founder and "Clueless Cook" Zuzy Martin Lynch alongside popular chefs, asking all of the questions audiences really want to know. Many of today's cooking programs are aimed at those with existing cooking skills, teaching shortcuts to create family meals but leaving those with little or no cooking experience in the dark.
Cooking for the Clueless covers all the basic information the clueless cook needs to whip up healthy and delicious meals, including knife skills, timing, seasoning, plating and more. The DVD set includes everything from classic recipes (Spaghetti Al Pomodoro to restaurant quality dishes (Pan Seared Sea Scallops with Fennel, Orange and Watercress to simple, delicious desserts.
The program was developed by husband/wife team Rick and Zuzy Martin Lynch, who found themselves newly married in a household full of kitchen gadgets, appliances and registry "must-haves" they had no clue how to use. Immersed in a crowd of blenders, peelers, slicers and food processers, the couple left their kitchen tools to collect dust, used the oven for storage, and decided to eat every meal outside of their home.
Viewers can download the recipes from the website as well as gain access to expert tips to make your kitchen a little less lonely. www.cookingfortheclueless.com
The 2-disc DVD set is available for $24.95
About Zuzy Martin Lynch:
Zuzy became obsessed with good food and restaurants at an early age. She grew up eating grandma's home-cooked food while her single mom was out working all the time.
Trying to spoil her, grandma never let her in the kitchen. As for mom, cooking was something she just "didn't do." Couple that with living near NYC, it's no surprise that restaurants soon became an obsession.
Cooking, however, became more and more a distant concept - until she hit her thirties and eating out every night became a norm that lost its luster and felt too expensive a habit to keep. Today, she's on a mission to admit she was clueless, ask all the questions and start to slowly help her generation get cooking.
About Rick Lynch:
As a California-native, Rick had access to exotic foods at an early age. His mom, an accomplished ballerina, would frequently take her children "out" for dinner and whether it was Thai as a child or Italian when he later lived in Europe, his appetite developed for amazing food without the time to learn how to cook it.
As a bachelor with a busy career, his eating habits consisted of eating at restaurants or grabbing the best fish taco in town.Later, when he met Zuzy (and got married), things didn't change much. Watching cooking shows and talking food was not enough to get over the fact that neither of them could really cook.
Rick's background in television and production led him to observe a missing link in the food entertainment world. Although food shows were exciting, sexy, and fun to watch, most moved way to fast and skipped the very basics needed for people that never cook.
