butter roasted salmon, seasoning salt, chive; potato; redbor

The Pacific Northwest (Alaska waters?) salmon at our local Whole Foods Market looked particularly good on that Monday, and the price was really good. Besides, earlier in the day I had learned from the GrowNY site that there would be no fish at the Union Square Greenmarket that day, all of which goes toward explaining how this meal came together as it did.

  • one gorgeous 17-ounce section from a fillet of wild caught Pacific sockeye salmon (previously frozen), from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, halved, placed unseasoned, skin sides up, inside a heavy medium size enameled cast iron pan in which a little more than 2 tablespoons of a rich local Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ had been allowed to melt over a low to medium flame until the foam had begun to recede, the pan placed inside a 425º oven until the salmon had barely cooked, meaning only about 8 minutes altogether (flipped over after 5), removed, arranged on the plates, seasoned, only now, with a finishing salt, the gift of a friend who had been given the recipe (the ingredients included sea salt, 5 different seasoning peppers, plus dehydrated vanilla, lemon and lime) by a chef in Baden-Baden, and some freshly-ground black pepper, scattered with scissored chives from Phillips Farms, allowed to rest for a couple minutes before serving, covered loosely with tin foil, arranged on the plates

  • nine small Masquerade potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, boiled unpeeled in generously-salted water until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried in the still-warm large vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed with a little olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and tossed with chopped thyme leaves from West Side Market (Uncle Vinny’s)