It’s a seafood thing: oven roasted butter and lemon salmon with cauliflower rice

There is a wonderful restaurant right on the Caspian sea called Derya Fish House. It’s open air and the tables are right by the water, you get a feeling like you are sitting on a balcony with the Caspian right at your touch. Of course, they mainly serve fish and only the type that is local to the Caspian. For the life of me, I could not find it’s equivalent in the US, but let’s just say it’s trout like. This fish is mostly served on Novruz Bayrami, as levenghi, fish stuffed with nuts and sour plums (very tasty…but a whole different post).

So this restaurant…the fish is served two ways: one is butterflied and fried, and another grilled. Some of us tried it the butterflied way and some the other way. Both were very good, very fishy and time consuming to eat, mainly because the fish has a lot of little bones. You must use your hands to consume this wonderful meal. It’s part of the fun.

Tables at the restaurant, Caspian to the left.

Ever since going there, I have been dreaming and craving fresh seafood. Good seafood. Not sushi seafood but grilled, flavored, open-air type seafood. We do not eat nearly enough seafood at home, mainly because I hesitate to trust buying it at a local grocery store, and there are not that many fish markets in Connecticut. I would typically buy tilapia, safe choice for me and fry or roast it. I’ve also tried buying salmon steaks from a local Vietnamese store, and they taste just fine, but honestly I have no idea where the fish comes from, if it’s farm raised or wild caught, and after a few times, I got paranoid.

You can basically say, I gave up on cooking fish weekly, like I usually do chicken and beef. But from time to time, especially in this particular instance, when I am homesick, I decide to go for it. So off to the Whole Foods I went. I decided that no matter what, I will buy the salmon and cook it. Sure, it will be pricey, but totally worth it. And it was! I bought two pounds of salmon, and cooked up this delicious dinner. I served it with Cauliflower Rice, which is divine. I am not sure why I haven’t made it before. I’ve tried making mashed cauliflower before, and it was not that great. My husband in particular refused to eat it. But the rice turned out divine!

Butter and Lemon Roasted Salmon

Time: 45 minutes
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The Salmon:

2 lbs Salmon fillets (I recommend and urge you to buy WILD caught)

half a stick of butter

half a lemon, sliced

salt

pepper

garlic powder

cumin powder

olive oil

Preheat the oven to 365F. Clean, wash and prep the salmon fillets. Salt and pepper generously on both sides. Slice the lemon thinly. Place one or two (depending on the size of the fish and the thickness of your lemon) on a piece of foil. The foil needs to be big enough so you can wrap the salmon tightly in it. Place the prepped salmon fillet on top of the lemon slices skin side down. Sprinkle cumin powder all over. Drizzle olive oil on top of the fish. Cut up slices of butter (I suggest thin slices, because mine ended up being too buttery because I used generous amount; so you can opt to use olive oil only, if you want this to be healthier) and place them on top of the fish. Wrap up the salmon tightly, and place on a cookie sheet (or it can be any other oven pan) with the butter facing up (you should be able to feel the lemon through the foil as well as the butter. Clue: the round thing you will feel is the lemon :D). Place in the oven and roast for about 25-30 minutes (Our oven is electric, so I need less time, and need to lower the temp by at least 10 degrees vs what the recipe says). Remove from the oven, let it rest for a few minutes, open the foil and let the fish rest some more. NOTE: the skin of the fish may get stuck to the lemon and the lemon to the foil. That’s OK. The salmon will be falling apart anyways, but that just means it’s going to be moist and juicy.

Cauliflower rice:

1 head cauliflower

1 onion, chopped

2 eggs

salt

pepper

olive oil

Fill up a pan with water. Wash and separate the cauliflower flowers, remove all the junk, clean it etc. Place into the pan, and bring pan to boil. Boil for about 5 minutes, do not overdo it, otherwise it will be mushy. Drain the cauliflower, and put in a heat proof bowl. Take a fork and mash the cauliflower, but not too hard. You want them in chunks, not completely mashed like potatoes. You want to be able to feel its texture when you eat it. After you have sufficiently mashed the cauliflower, set it aside. Chop up on onion and fry it in olive oil. Once done, add the cauliflower and mix well. Let the two fry up a little longer, about 5-7 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl beat two eggs. Once you see that cauliflower has absorbed onion’s smell and has some color, add the eggs to the pan and mix. Treat it like you are making scrambled eggs, constantly mixing. Let it cook for a few more minutes, add salt and pepper to taste and you are done.

Note: you can add anything you’d like to this rice: chopped up tomatoes, green peppers, cheese, any other veggies you like. I really think that the onion is the best, because of it’s flavor. Next time I will also chop up some garlic. But overall, this was very yummy.