Crispy Skin Salmon with Honey Mustard

As a fan of Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen, I have seen countless chefs screw up crispy skin salmon. I'd never had it but wanted to try making it... but I was a little nervous since I don't have too much experience with cooking fish.

Meet Adam. We look nothing alike.

Luckily, I'm friends with Adam, my fish monger. Adam and I spent an evening cooking various kinds of seafood, a lot of his tips made it into my mussels recipe, and one of the things I asked him to teach me was how to make crispy skin salmon.

Because this recipe is a bit trickier, and is something I don't think many people have tried, I'm including some more in-process shots for reference.

Ingredients:

2 salmon filets with skin on, about 3-4 oz each
Salt
Pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp dijon mustard

Directions:

Flip your salmon filets over so they are skin-side up and cut shallow lines, not much deeper than the skin, diagonally along the length, about 1.5 inches apart. Then liberally salt and pepper both sides.

My knives were a bit dull, so we ended up slicing deeper than intended.

Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle over medium heat and pour on the olive oil, making sure to evenly coat the pan. Fish sticks really easily so you want to make sure you have a good non-stick surface. While the skillet is getting to temp, in a small bowl, mix together the honey and dijon mustard until smooth.

Once the griddle is hot, place the fish, skin-side down, in the pan. Leave it there. 90% of the cooking is going to be done with the skin side down.

Herein lies the tricky bit. How done do you like your salmon? I'm a risky fellow and I like mine to be a little raw in the middle, so I want a hotter pan so the skin gets crispy with a shorter cooking time. My wife, on the other hand, wants hers a little more well done, so for her I need a cooler pan that won't burn the skin over the longer cooking time.

How do you know when to flip? Well you can actually just watch the side of your salmon. The flesh changes color as it cooks, so if you want your filet rare, once it gets about three quarters of the way up, flip it. If you want it well done, wait until the color reaches almost all the way to the top

Once you have flipped it, lightly brush the honey mustard onto the skin. Let the salmon cook skin-side up for about 30 seconds. Remove from the pan and flip, skin-side down, onto a plate before brushing the remaining honey mustard onto the top.

Let the fish rest for about 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy with a side salad for lunch or with a salad and some quinoa for a filling dinner.

Root Beer Pulled Pork

Now the last pulled pork I made, I made with Dr. Pepper, this one I made with root beer, and I decided, rather then just replace the Dr. Pepper with the root beer, I decided to make a whole new BBQ sauce that would be a little sweeter to play with the vanilla in the root beer.

When selecting a root beer for this recipe, I would suggest getting a good one. It is the foundational flavor of the sauce and so, just like with wine or beer, don't cook with what won't drink.

Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 7-8 hrs

Ingredients:

3-4 lb bone-in pork shoulder
20 oz root beer
1/2 t salt
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T honey

Directions:

Place your pork shoulder or butt in your slow cooker and pour on the root beer. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hrs.

When the pork is fork tender, remove from the liquid and place on a platter. Cover with foil or plastic wrap and let it rest while you build the sauce.

Strain the cooking liquid, you should have 3-4 cups, into a large measuring cup or bowl. Put the bowl in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes so that the fat on the top solidifies and can be easily removed, or you can use a gravy separator. Pour your reserved liquid a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the salt, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and the honey. Simmer, uncovered, until your sauce is reduced to about 1 cup.

Now it's time to pull the pork. If you would rather have chunks, you can always use a knife, but I prefer using a pair of forks to pull the pork into bite sized shreds. Once your pork is pulled to the right sized pieces, pour on the sauce and stir thoroughly, but gently, to combine.

Enjoy room temp or warm it up in your slow cooker for a nice hot lunch.

Spicy Asian Style BBQ Sauce

This is a sauce I have been making for a while, usually by just throwing some stuff together until it tasted right. This is actually one of the first things that convinced me to make this blog, because it was something pretty original that people really liked. And, now that I'm starting to put together some healthier recipes, I figured this would be as good a time as ever to showcase it.

Prep time: 5 min
Makes: 2 servings
Calories: 47 per serving

Ingredients:

1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp ketchup
2 tsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp low sodium soy sauce
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp Sriracha sauce

¼ tsp fish sauce

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake to combine thoroughly. I recommend pouring over two cooked chicken breasts cut into cubes, and then serve on a kaiser roll garnished with some spinach. Paired with a fruit and veggie smoothie, it makes a great healthy lunch.

Customize it:

You like honey bbq? Why not switch out the brown sugar for some honey. Need it mild? Leave out the Sriracha. While I recommend chicken for this sauce you could use it in pulled pork (though that wouldn't really be healthy living at that point), or maybe even marinate some tofu for a great noodle dish. Don't let my suggestions limit how you use this versatile sauce.

Curry Flavored Roasted Almonds

Almonds are a great source of fiber, protein, and vitamins. These are oil roasted almonds which makes them slightly less healthy than raw almonds, but this is my meal plan and I need some flavor. Whether eating raw or roasted almonds, serving size is key; only ¼ cup is about 170 calories, mostly from fat. If you're roasting your own almonds, the sky's the limit on flavors, so feel free use this recipe as a base or jumping off point to your own combinations.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sesame oil

1 lb raw almonds

½ tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp garlic powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350
In a non-stick skillet pour in the olive and sesame oil and heat until shimmering. Add the almonds and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes or until lightly toasted.

Pour your almonds into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle on the salt, curry powder, ginger, and garlic. Stir to thoroughly coat the almonds. Lay your almonds out on a baking sheet, making sure they are in a single layer.

Bake the almonds for 10 minutes, until toasted. Put the pan on a cooling rack and let them cool for 30 minutes before moving into air-tight containment. Enjoy my first Healthy Living recipe in moderation!

Weight Loss Goals

Hey everyone, I want to talk you all about something rather important today in the hopes that it will help keep me accountable to my goals.

I've always loved food, heck I wouldn't be doing this blog if I didn't. I'm a red meat kind of guy and I've never met a cream sauce I didn't like. All of this has caused me to struggle with my weight since high school. I've always carried my weight well so most people who see me don't think I'm quite as overweight as I am. Things really came to a head last year when I was participating in a couple of weddings and I was really alarmed at how large I have gotten. I've finally decided to try and do something about it.

I'm a big guy. I am under no allusions about my innate size. As envious as I am of my slighter friends, I know that is not in the cards for me.

I currently weight 280 lbs. My long term goal is 220 lbs. I would like to lose 30 lbs by the time grad school starts and 40 by my sister's wedding. I'm going to be doing this my way, which means good, nutritionally dense food, nothing diet, and plenty of exercise. In support of that, I'm going to be making a new tag for recipes on my blog called "Healthy Living." While not every new recipe will come with this tag, you will certainly see more healthy foods coming from my corner of the internet. I also hope to provide people with some accurate info on food and health that I can back up with reliable sources.

I've never wanted this blog to become a diary, and I certainly don't plan on starting now, but I will update sporadically.

So please, send me your good vibrations as I try to make radical changes in my life.

- The Viking Chef

Ground Beef with Taco Seasoning

Well, I wanted to make nachos again, and I decided to make a more Americanized version with ground beef, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to make my own taco seasoning. Dear lord, this stuff turned out great!

I'm going to write this recipe with parts, like a cocktail, so it is easy to scale and you can make as much or as little as you need. I made mine with teaspoons as the base, but you can use any measure of volume, as long as you keep the same ratios. I'm also providing directions on how to properly use this stuff with ground beef, but feel free to use what ever protein you would like!

Ingredients:

Taco Seasoning:

3 parts chili powder
3 parts ground cumin
2 parts salt
2 parts cornstarch
1 part garlic powder
1 part onion powder
1 part cayenne pepper
1 part smoked paprika
½ part ground black pepper

Ground Beef:

2 tbsp of olive oil
1 lb of ground beef
2 tbsp taco seasoning
½ cup of water

Directions:

For the taco seasoning, add all the ingredients to an airtight container and shake well to combine.

For the ground beef, pour the oil into a nonstick or cast iron skillet and bring to a shimmer over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook, stirring frequently, until thoroughly browned. Drain off the extra moisture and fat and return to medium heat. Add the taco seasoning and water, bring to a boil, and then simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with your favorite taco toppings, on nachos, or how ever you feel like. Enjoy!

Steamed Mussels in a Spicy Broth

Ok, straight talk, this is the actual meal I served on Valentine's Day. There is minimal prep, and very little cook time, but tons of flavor. Plus, since this is a meal you mostly eat with your hands, it stays very light-hearted and casual, which I think is the perfect tone for an intimate evening alone.

Warning: though I do add a bit of spice to many recipes, even I think this one is actually spicy. It tastes amazing, but if you don't like spicy food, don't make this.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Serves: 2-4

Ingredients:

3 cups of vegetable stock
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
¼ cup of white wine*
2 tbsp dried parsley
½ lb of andouille sausage cut into bite size pieces**
2 lbs of live mussels

Directions:

In a stock pot or dutch oven, pour in the stock and add the pepper, garlic, wine, parsley, and sausage. Cover and bring to a boil.

As you bring your broth to a boil, do a thorough inspection of your mussels. Assuming you kept your mussels in the fridge, when you take them out of the cold, they might start to open. This is perfectly fine, you should only worry about mussels that won't close back up. If you tap on an open one and it starts to close, it's good. Alternatively if you hold it closed and it doesn't open back up very much, you're good. If there are any that are cracked, or were open in the fridge, throw them away. Do not cook them.

Once your broth has reached a boil, add the mussels, return the broth to a simmer, and then re-cover. Cook the mussels for 4-5 minutes or until they are open. If there are any that didn't open, throw those away.

Serve your mussels in a bowl with a good helping of broth, a glass of the white wine you used in the broth, and some nice crusty bread to soak up all that deliciousness. I highly recommend serving the crusty bread with my roasted garlic and tomato spread since the tang of the sundried tomatoes goes great with the spicy broth.

*I would recommend a riesling for this recipe. If you want it spicy, use a dry or semi dry variety. Use a semi sweet or sweet riesling if you want it to be less spicy.
*If you want this to be less spicy, or want to make it pescaterian, leave out the sausage, it will still taste great.