Taste of Olney...
Danny prepared this delectable dish two different ways – healthy and sinfully buttery after encountering the combination of grilled salmon on a bed of jewel-hued vegetables at La Onda restaurant in Fort Worth on a chilly evening. La Onda recently made Bon Appetit magazine’s list of the 50 best new restaurants in America for its Latin-inspired seafood dishes and cocktails. Its specialties are dry-aged fish, fire-roasted beef and pork, caviar, and a ceviche of the week, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
That’s why Danny says it was startling to learn how the restaurant concocted a simple and rich flavor that held the veggies and salmon together. The dish arrived on a sienna-colored platter that set off the purple of the cabbage and greens and reds of the zucchini and red bell peppers. “It was cold that night, so it was perfect,” Danny said. “I just thought it was going to be salmon with sauteed vegetables. It was just a piece of salmon that they had dry-aged and had the skin on it. The skin was nice and crispy on a bed of these vegetables. It wasn’t a Thai or Chinese flavor.”
“It just tasted so good, and I asked the server, ‘what is this?’” he continued. “And she said it was butter. I said, ‘oh!’ because I don’t eat butter that often but I do love it.”
He prepared a healthier version with olive oil, dusting the sauteed vegetables with salt, pepper, and Spanish paprika, and we did a side-by-side taste test to see if any flavor was lost in the switch.
We agreed that the buttered veggies had a creamy taste and texture, almost like vegetable pasta. The butter toned down the sharp, bitter taste of the cabbage and complemented the flavor of the salmon, which he baked in the oven in one version and in an air fryer in the alternative version.
The veggies that he sauteed in olive oil had a brighter, crisper, and cleaner taste than their buttered counterparts. He prepared both salmon filets the same way: drizzled with olive oil and dusted with garlic salt, pepper, and herbes de Provence, before popping them in the oven until they were flaky through and through.
This is a satisfying and healthy meal, chock full of omega fatty acids in the salmon and multiple benefits from the cabbage, which can be challenging to prepare. “Cabbage is highly nutritious and rich in vitamin C, fiber, and vitamin K,” Healthline.com says. “What’s more, some research suggests that it may support digestion, improve heart health, and decrease inflammation.”
Preparation: Step 1: Drizzle salmon with olive oil, including the skin. Dust with garlic salt, pepper, and Spanish paprika to taste. Place salmon in air fryer, if using, and cook at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes. In conventional oven, bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until fish is flaky.
Step 2: While salmon is cooking, melt butter or heat olive oil in medium skillet. Sautee red onions and garlic until fragrant.
Step 3: Throw in cabbage, peppers, and zucchini and saute for about 5 minutes, or until veggies reach the texture you prefer.
Step 4: Remove veggies to plate. Serve salmon on veggies.
As always, all ingredients are available at Stewart’s Food Store. Bon Appetit says ‘bon appetit’!
Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter or olive oil, or mix the two plus more for drizzling over salmon filets 1 tsp finely chopped red onion 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 1 zucchini, chopped into cubes or triangles 1 red pepper, chopped into cubes or triangles ½ head of purple cab bage, finely shredded 1 filet of salmon per person Garlic salt to taste Black pepper to taste Spanish paprika to taste Herbes de Provence (optional)