Fish, Noodles, Salad

Menu: salmon with hoisin-chili sauce * soba noodles with mushrooms and spinach * cucumber salad

Last night, I was really looking forward to the leftover Accidentally Amazing Black Beans. This afternoon, swamped by work, I forgot about that, and compiled a grocery list. On the way home, I stopped at our new H-E-B and picked up two nice little salmon filets. I knew I had the rest of a large tub of fresh spinach leaves, and while I was wandering around H-E-B thinking about what to have with salmon and spinach, I came across an end-cap freezer display of Central Market “Exotic Mushrooms in Cream Sauce” and remembered that there was a packet of soba noodles in the pantry.

(Central Market is the Whole Foods concept of H-E-B, our terrific Texas grocery chain. Central Market has specialty and organic groceries, but you can also buy Splenda and Coke. Central Market just absolutely rocks, as does H-E-B, whose community involvement should serve as a role model for businesses everywhere. Meanwhile, H-E-B has started marketing Central Market-brand products in its regular stores. Perfect cycle.)

Hoisin Salmon
2 salmon filets * 2 T hoisin sauce * 1 tsp chili garlic sauce * 1 tsp soy sauce
Preheat oven to 450. Put filets in oven-safe pan, skin-side down. Mix remaining ingredients; spoon over, and spread across surface of fish. Bake 10 minutes per 1-inch-thickness of fish (tonight I did it for about 7 minutes).

Soba Noodles with Mushrooms and Spinach
Exotic Mushrooms in Cream Sauce mix (includes Nameko mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and oyster mushrooms; heavy cream, parsley, garlic, salt, pepper)
Fresh baby spinach leaves
1 bundle soba noodles

Cook mushrooms according to package. Boil noodles according to package directions. Drain noodles; add to mushrooms in large saute pan. Add spinach; cook and mix. Splash in a few shakes each of soy sauce and sesame oil, and a drib of juice from a jar of pickled ginger. Stir; let simmer or stay warm on low.

Cucumber salad
1 pickling cucumber, sliced thin * Drew’s Thai lime salad dressing

Cook’s sustenance
Vodka-tonic (really really must pick up that Plymouth)
wasabi rice crackers

Cook’s soundtrack
Coldplay, “Clocks”
Jack Constanzo, “I Love Paris”
Bill Lloyd, “All at Once You Unzipped”
Fountains of Wayne, “It Must Be Summer”
XTC, “Happy Families”
Shuggie Otis, “Island Letter”
Journey, “Separate Ways”
Patsy Cline & The Jordanaires, “Always”
Alejandro Escovedo, “Velvet Guitar”
Bananarama, “Robert DeNiro’s Waiting”
Coldplay, “Proof”
Caetano Veloso, “The Man I Love”
Derek & The Dominoes, “Bell Bottom Blues”
Zero 7, “Distractions”

How did it turn out?
Delish. The salmon done at the higher temperature was moist and tender (until now, I had been cooking it longer at a lower temp). The soba noodles were terrific, and I could imagine that they would also be good cold.

Would I make it again?
Yes. I make salmon frequently and will do it at the higher temperature for the shorter time from now on. And the soba noodles were tasty and should be good left over. I’ll be tussling with M to see who gets the last leftover Accidentally Amazing Black Beans and who gets the soba.