Slammin' your Salmon

I think that's a euphemism for taggin' your mom. If it's not, it will be after today. Once it's on the interewebs it's true!!!!

I know I've been a bad panda or some shizz with my writing. I'm going to make it up to you, I swear! You there, in the short skirt with the wedges. Yeah you know who I'm talking to.

Ahem..

Salmon with Garlic Parmesan Noodles. 

What we need:

• Salmon (I had just over a pound)
• 1 Tbsp. Cayenne 
• 1 Tbsp. Paprika - For this I like smoked. But, really, your call yo.
• 1 Tbsp. Garlic - Just over, just under. This is "How garlicy you wants it"
• 3 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp. Flour (not pictured because I'm lame)
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Cup Chicken Broth
• 1 1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese all shredded like
• Pasta for all involved
• I sliced up some scallions for on top.
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 1 Tsp. Pepper
• A squizzert of lemon juice

Let's Cook

The Salmon is easy:
Squirt some Lemon Juice on your fishy bits.
1/2 the cayenne, the paprika, 1/2 the salt , 1/2 the pepper. These get sprinkled all over the fishy fish.
Throw it in the oven at  about 350 this takes like, 20 minutes. I cook it until I nudge it with a fork and it flakes, and is a opaque.

Of course I'm going to assume you know how to boil noodles. They are easy - Follow the box directions. It involved something like, boil water, cook noodles.

Throw in your butter, oil, and garlic. As the butter melts you're going to brown your garlic, break open some flavor. I threw in the rest of my cayenne at this point. After everything is a bit cooked, stir in your flour. You want this all stirred in, it'll thicken a bit.

Add your milk and broth.
Bring this to a boil  while stirring and then reduce heat.
Stirring occasionally, you want this to thicken. It takes a bit, and if it doesn't seem to be thickening, sprinkle in just a little more flour.
Once thickened , I went about as thick as a real heavy cream, stir in your cheese and let it melt and get gooey and yummy.

From there? Plate it all up and eat. Toss your shallots over the top of the pasta with sauce. It's not that hard of a meal. It's a bit rich, but with just a tad bit of bite. You can add in some garlic bread if you want, a small salad, what ever makes you happy. If I didn't have to feed Miss Rabbit I'd probably add in a small salad with some light sesame vinaigrette. 

Scallops are not Shellfish

I know the title sounds complicated, doesn't it? But really, it's a good thing to remember, because things like crab, shrimp, crayfish, etc. will kill me. That's not how I want to go out! If I go out choking and not breathing well there better be some illicit activities involved! Simple as that, yo.

Mollusks? Generally seem safe. So, when me and Miss Rabbit went protein searching at our local Sprouts (I hate hippies but hey a sale is a sale!), this is what dropped her My Little Pony Headed jaw.

The hard part? She doesn't like most veggies! But that's ok, the few she does, I can cook well. This leads us to:

Scallops, Zucchini, and Pasta

I love headers..

So first things first. Ingredients. Well, maybe after shopping so is it second things second? F it, first. 

• Scallops (I do about a pound)
• Pasta (I like angel hair a lot)
• 4 tbsp. butter 
• Herbs to taste: in my case 1 tbsp. Parsley and 2 tbsp. "Italian Seasoning" 
• 1 Zucchini: I did have a normal green zucchini and 1 yellow Mexican squash thingy.. Yellow Zucchini!
• Garlic. Many. Seriously I'm sure this is 1/2 the reason I'm single. I did 5 big cloves in all this. 
• Bread - Tonight was a yummy olive bread.

I used probably too many dishes making this, but, I'm still getting used to pictures..

There's a hard part to scallops. They often come frozen, especially if you live in a desert, like me. So what do you do? Thaw them. Now you can't just let them sit out all day. They get funkay. So what's an industrious young 1D3 (nerd joke) creature like myself going to do?
How water bath

Seriously, let them soak in hot water. Change it a few times until thaw.

And now, to cook it!

Noodles

1. Cook noodles according to directions on package. Seriously. Follow those directions.
2. Make sure you're following directions

The Sauce 

1. Take about 1/2 your butter and dice it.
2. Mix in your herbs.
3. Toss in a little of your garlic
4. Add it to a pot.
1. Secret ingredient for happiness: While your scallops cook down, pour some of your water/butter from there into this. Don't tell anyone. It's just between me and you. 
5. Slowly heat this until everything is melted. 
6. Keep cooking until it smells awesome. 
7. Add your noodles.

Zucchini

1. Slice your zucchini as close to evenly as possible. I'm no pro, I don't expect you to be. If you are and you're reading my blog? Comment, I automatically love you. 
2. Add About 1tbsp. of the butter to a pan and let it melt 
3. Throw in about a third of your garlic and let it brown in the butter
4. After the garlic is browned a bit, toss in the slices of squashes (try to keep one flat layer as best you can).
5. It's time to flip them when they start getting translucent. I flip them really a total of three times. 

The Scallops, or "The Magic."

1. Throw in what's left of your butter.
2. Toss in what's left of your garlic when the butter is melted.
3. Again, brown that garlic! 
4. When the garlic is brown, the butter is sizzling, turn down the heat just a bit and lay out your scallops. Again, try not to stack. Spread them just a bit.
   
   This is apparently where people think it's confusing. When do you flip/turn them? I leave them until the edges start to turn color. See, scallops have that layer of kind of see through area. When the sides start to take on a more, flesh\white tone, I flip them. Simple as that. 
5. After your first flip, you might notice a lot of fluid/butter in the pan. Drain some off.
1. This is where that secret I told you about earlier (wink wink) comes in.
6. After they look all around fleshy/white, they should be done. 
1. Another secret? This is the point I drain off all the fluid and let them sit in the pan for a bit. Flipping them around every minute or so. This gets some browning and texture besides "scallop," all around. 

Slice your bread, add it all together. You can keep salt and pepper handy, but honestly I didn't need any between my herbal choices, the garlic, the little bit of.."fishiness," that scallops have, and the olive/salty in the bread choice.