Cooking on the Coast
A few months ago my husband and I wandered into Café Mare in Santa Cruz. I had a meal that I thoroughly enjoyed. Once home, I got online and went to the restaurant’s web-site. After finding the correct name of the dish, Salmone Alli Agrumo (Salmon With Grapefruit) , and jotting down the description — fresh filet of salmon sautéed & baked in a shitake mushroom, grapefruit & white wine sauce — I went back online and searched for a comparable recipe.
The closest thing I found was Baked Fish With Mushroom Wine Sauce on cooks.com. Once I doctored it up a bit I had a successful version of the dish I had enjoyed in Santa Cruz. It’s easier than it sounds and, trust me, you and your dinner guests will love it. I served it to my husband’s former boss, who unlike me is a real and long-time cook, and I knocked her socks off. This cooking thing is so much fun!
Last Saturday afternoon I walked into one of my favorite places, the Half Moon Bay Fish Market at Hwy. 92 and Main Street. John, the owner, was busy with a customer but Philippe spotted me and sang out, “Hi there, how are you today?” How great it feels to shop locally and to know and be known by the merchants! Not only can I get melt-in-your-mouth, just-caught-this-morning salmon, but also I get to chat with John and Philippe. This is a gift of small town living and it reminds me of corner grocery stores in my intimate (crowded) neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
From Philippe I ordered my usual — one pound of salmon fillet “skin off” — and headed home to cook this now favorite healthy meal. I hope you enjoy it.
Salmon with Mushrooms & Grapefruit
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup (or more) of chopped shitake mushrooms
1 clove of garlic minced
Salt and pepper
1 lb. salmon fillet – cut into four pieces
1/4 cup scallions
1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine
Grapefruit sections
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Sauté mushrooms, garlic, lemon juice and seasonings in the butter and olive oil over high heat. Once the mushrooms are soft, add the wine and heat until most of the liquid is evaporated. Rinse and pat dry the fish pieces and place them in a one quart casserole dish or an 8 inch square non-stick baking pan. Top with the mushroom mixture and scallions. Bake until the fish is done – 12 to 15 minutes depending on the thickness of the pieces.
During the last 5 to 8 minutes top the dish with as many grapefruit slices as you want. Return the pan to the oven to finish baking. Serves 2.
Notes from the cook:
• I buy the 3.5 oz. container of shitake mushrooms at Safeway and use all of them.
• For those of us who don’t want to cook with alcohol there are non-alcoholic wines available. Cunhas’s carries Ariel brand white and red dealcoholized wine at $4.99 a bottle.
• I buy Del Monte’s one half cup “Fruit Naturals” Red Grapefruit – found in the fresh cut fruit section of the produce aisle at Safeway.
• There will be some juice from the cooking process. Brown rice or couscous is a great side dish to soak up the sauce.