Healthy and easy dinner

So easy, even Jake can do it. In fact, Jake is writing this post. He made dinner tonight!!! He even paired it with an upcoming white wine club selection for Mood Wine: one of the best wines I HAVE EVER TASTED I AM NOT KIDDING WOW. It' so good, I'm switching to first person.

Hmmm... which wine will it be?

Anyway... omg you won't believe how easy this is on a busy weeknight--- and it's so healthy you'll lose weight, promise.

Ingredients:

• salmon filets (1 per person, preferably wild: Atlantic salmon / farmed salmon swim in cages choked by their own offal... ew.)
• olive oil - preferably something cold pressed, not infused - we use jalapeno or habanero cold pressed olive oil, meaning that the habanero peppers are pressed with the olives, not infused into the oil after it's already made
• dash cayenne
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 lemon, juiced, per salmon filet
• 6-8 asparagus stalks per filet
• aluminum foil (we'll use it, not eat it)

Start with foil and salmon filets.

Yummy and pink

Two salmon filets, yummy and pink

K, you have to fold up the foil a little because you're going to pour lemon juice and olive oil on it and you don't want that flowing onto the counter and then off the counter onto your panties. Trust me.

Also, if you put the pepper on it and then pour the oil and lemon juice, you'll wash the spices off the fish, which is a real BUMMER because you'll be left standing there thinking, "That was REALLY stupid."

So: lemon juice, then oil, THEN spices.

See the oil on the right, pooling off the salmon?

Mmmm

The big one is mine (of course). I'm just a hungry person by nature.

Here's a pretty picture of the lemon I used:

That lemon got squeezed on that salmon. See... no pepper on the fish yet. First lemon/oil, then salt/pepper. It's like first pants, then shoes.

I forgot to mention: I ground the salt and pepper the Patrick Way. Really, you don't have to do this. But there's something psychological about grinding your spices like a Pueblo woman. You'll think it tastes way better.

The grinding bowl

Like an Indian woman, I ground it all up (more men should do "women's work" in the Puritan sense... it'll make better men outta ya)

Next, put the asparagus up on it. (If you want to sound like a downtown rapper, just jam two prepositions together. "Get out off my grill" etc.)

Pretty asparagus

OK, you have to totally snap it. Not use a knife. I don't know why - ask Patrick!

Ready for wrappin' (omg a pun!)

Now, here's the wrapping strategy. You'll notice I placed the salmon skin-down on the foil. However, this is NOT the bottom of the foil packet. The salmon cooks faster than the asparagus. The reason the salmon is skin-down is because nobody eats that nasty skin. Hopefully it will stick to the foil.

All wrapped. Mostly.

So here's what you do. Wrap the salmon up. The fish is still down. Then wrap another square of aluminum over the top of the packet so you can grill it "upside down." It's important to grill the asparagus on the bottom, salmon on top. You don't want over-crunchy asparagus and over-done salmon.

Oh yeah baby. PERFECT

 OK, here's the only pain-in-the-ass part of this. How long to grill it. All I can tell you is that 15 minutes on 75% of the grill's power is probably a skotche too much.

It depends: if you want your salmon dry and flaky, then that's perfect. If you like it like Gollum (or Patrick), then keep it to 12-14 minutes. Keep in mind, too: the thickness of the salmon steak.

Guaranteed: 11 minutes is too soon, and 18 minutes is too long.

Ohhhh yummy

Closer

And now for the wine: Hart (Temecula) Sauvignon Blanc. First, the aroma makes love to your nose. Enjoy for as long as you like; it'll keep pleasing you.

Then, the palate explodes with citrus and tropical fruits. This is an extraordinary wine: I've never had another like it, and I'm THRILLED to include it in Mood Wine's first white wine club.

Honestly, no joke: this white wine makes me question my commitment to red wine. I needed a gigantic library cab to reorient myself this evening.

A sauvignon blanc for the AGES