Well, this is about as anti-climactic as news gets, but that $50 Craigslist freezer does, indeed, work — and beautifully at that. Sixteen half gallons of raw goats’ milk from Miabella Farm line the top shelf, cooked quinoa in hubby-sized portions waves from the door, and I’m chewing my lower lip over the exact composition of the fifty pound grass-fed beef and lamb order I’m about to place with Paidom Meats to fill up the bottom of the freezer. What next? I must say, life with a deep freeze suits me just fine.
On another note entirely, here’s a quick and easy recipe that I’m totally digging right now. I love the lemony zing, and basil always seems just right in the summer. It’s also a great way to use up the summer squash spilling over the farmers’ market stands — an annual dilemma for me (I wrote a whole post on the subject here). Costco’s frozen wild-caught salmon filets keep the dish reasonably priced. I eat it alone or with hemp seeds because my body still doesn’t love grains, but J enjoys it over quinoa or brown rice. If you keep individual-size portions of cooked quinoa or rice in the freezer, this dish becomes a one pot meal. Nice!
Baked Lemon-Basil-Garlic Salmon and Vegetables
4 pieces of salmon filet (4 to 6 oz each)
2 large zucchini, shredded (yellow summer squash would work too)
4 medium-large carrots, shredded
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (if your lemons have a dull flavor, you’ll need more juice)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine (e.g., chardonnay or sauvignon blanc, not riesling or zinfandel)
10 medium cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon dried basil or 3 tablespoons fresh basil
sea salt
freshly-ground black pepper (I like to pepper pretty generously)
Preheat oven to 450.
Spray a 9×13 glass baking dish with olive oil and strew shredded zucchini and carrots in it. In a measuring glass, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, wine, basil, salt, and pepper. Pour half the mixture over the vegetables and stir to combine. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 12 minutes.
Remove the foil and lay the salmon filets on top of the vegetables. Pour the rest of the lemon juice mixture over the fish and veggies. Recover and bake for 10 to 15 more minutes, depending on how done you like your salmon. Serve with hemp seeds, rice, quinoa, potatoes, or all by its sweet self.
Serves 4 to 6, depending on size of salmon filets and appetites.
*Note: If you don’t want to deal with adding the salmon later, you can put everything in the dish at the beginning and cook for 25 minutes. The downside is that you’ll get overcooked fish.
