The Standards pt 1

There are a few things that I cook regularly.  And by regularly I mean constantly.  As they come up I'll alert you to their goodness and for the most part they are really easy.  For example, this salmon dish is one of my favorites to cook and eat.  In fact I've cooked this so often and for so many different people I believe it is starting to grow into an urban legend in Southern California.  The salmon that beats all other salmon.

Let me give you a little background, once upon a time I was introduced to a recipe for Beer Can Chicken by my eldest brother if I remember correctly.  Basically the recipe entails using an awesome cajun-style rub on a whole chicken, shoving a half full beer can up its butt and grilling it.  Yes its as good as it sounds.  I'll be sure to make the actual recipe and write about it sometime soon, it does require a grill and as I may have mentioned, I don't have one right now.  Anyway sometimes we don't always have the means or the need to cook a whole chicken, however I loved the spice rub so I started putting it on everything.  Literally I've used it on pork chops, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and my absolute favorite and the most delicious of all - salmon.

Beer Can Rub
- 3/4 cup Brown sugar
- 3/4 Paprika
- 3 Tbsp Salt
- 3 Tbsp Pepper
- 2 tsp celery seed
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne

Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl (it might be worth putting into a small tupperware container because if you are just making a few pieces of salmon there will be left over rub).  Mix everything together as best as you can, you want to have a nice even mixture.

Coat the salmon, and I mean really coat the thing, don't be shy.  It ends up working out almost like a blackened salmon this way, which is why I like it.

Fire up the grill, or in my case the grill pan, because....well you know by now.  Make sure your grill (or grill pan) are running over medium-high heat.  It's probably better to err on the side of too hot with salmon.  Fish does not take very long to cook through and you want to be sure to get a little of that blackened effect on the outside, which you will not get over medium heat.  It just won't happen

If you're on a grill, close the cover, if you're me put a piece of tinfoil over the pan to trap as much of the heat as you can.  Here's my general rule for salmon, and I've cooked a lot of salmon in my day so you can trust me, let the salmon cook for about 3-4 minutes per side, no more.  Fish dries out very quickly, it really only takes a moment for it to go from perfectly cooked to over cooked so be careful.

Remember that warning about the difference in heat between equipment, I totally failed on that again.  I can't stress enough how much I want my damn grill back.  I'm about to start painting the walls of my building to help them finish the job.  No big deal though, dropped the salmon back on there for an extra minute or two and all was right with the world.

Simple enough right? That might be them most boring thing I've told you about yet.  However it is also one of the best, seriously try it, if you can't cook let me know and I'll make it for you.  Everyone loves my salmon, like I said, legendary.

Since I can make the salmon in my sleep I decided to do something a little interesting with my veggies. I decided to make roasted cauliflower thats been coated in a sage butter.  This is a recipe from one of Sara Foster's cookbooks, which I highly recommend by the way.  However I don't have these cookbooks anymore, its a really long story that I'd really rather not go into.  But I loved this cauliflower recipe so I thought to myself, "Self, you could probably remember the recipe and just wing it"

Roasted Cauliflower with Sage-Butter


- Cauliflower (obviously)
- dried sage (you could probably make it with fresh sage, but I literally have four things of sage in my spice rack because I keep forgetting I have sage and I buy more.  So no way I'm buying fresh sage when I have such a surplus)
- butter
- salt and pepper

I'd give you precise measurements, but since I was making it up as I went its kind of hard to say exactly what was going on.




Break down the cauliflower into little chunks and spread out on a baking sheet.  Oh, and preheat your oven to 400.

In a small pan melt some butter.  I started with about 2 Tbsp, but added and additional Tbsp when it appeared that there wouldn't be enough of the sauce when I was done.  When the butter is melted, add approximately 2 Tbsp of sage.  You can add more or less depending on how much sage flavor you're looking for.  Then add salt and pepper to taste.  I'm kidding, what are you going to do take spoonfuls of butter to taste the salt and pepper levels.  Actually that sounds really good.  Probably about 1-2tsp of each will get the job done.

One quick note, I didn't do this, and the final dish lacked a little bit of the flavor I was used to.  So definitely throw some in there.

Once you cooked the concoction a little bit, spoon it over the cauliflower in the baking sheet, and stick it in the over for about 15-20 minutes, depending on whether or not you like a little crisp on your cauliflower, I do so I always cook it a minute or two extra.  Halfway through use a spatula to turn the cauliflower otherwise it will be REALLY crispy on one side.

Throw in a little salad and you have a lovely little weekday meal that really doesn't take a lot of effort.

Throw in a bottle of William Hill Chardonnay followed by a bottle of Sterling Chardonnay and you'll find yourself a little tipsy on a weekday, oops.  But let me just say, both fantastic wine.  The William Hill especially was very good, a citrus-y chardonnay which is not usually my preference, but I loved it.

Here are the Sara Foster Cookbooks I was referring to, if you're interested.