Salmon with Spinach Sauce and Toasted Walnuts

A simple twist on our favorite salmon.  Top with pureed spinach and toasted nuts.

I am quite enamored with Placer County and their produce.  Two wonderful cookbooks have been published by Joanne Neft and Laura Kenney to demonstrate how to use produce in season.  The Art of Real Food has brought eating within the season to another level.  The cookbooks published by these thoughtful women are worth adding to your cookbook collection.

Cooking like this doesn't happen over night.  As we adjust to local produce available, we need to make plans for future meals with freezing, canning, pickling, and dehydrating.

The most vivid recollection I have of eating in the season comes from my neighbors in Moraga, the Tysons, who baked everything from scratch.  They canned and pickled, and did everything they could to preserve what was fresh and local.  I have a memory of driving to a farm in Lafayette to pick plums at sundown so Eleanor could make jam.  Those were sweet times.  We climbed through those trees, ate plums until we almost exploded, and brought back baskets-full of fruit to the cook. 

This recipe comes from the same experience.  We picked spinach from the garden, used local walnuts instead of the pine nuts originally asked for, and otherwise adapted the recipe to our Bay Area climate.

Serves:   4
Prep and cook time:  30 minutes

3 C.  spinach leaves, blanched
1/4 C. Parmesan cheese, fnely grated
1/4 C. sour cream or Greek yogurt (a little more tang if you use the yogurt)
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tblsp. butter and 1 Tblsp. oil
4 fillets salmon, cut into equal-size pieces
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted  (or pine nuts as the original recipe suggests)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Blend the spinach, Parmesan, and sour cream or yogurt in a food processor or blender.  This is spread on the salmon just prior to baking.

Wring out excess water from the blanched spinach and puree with cheese
and yogurt or sour cream until smooth.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Mix butter and oil in a skillet and sear the salmon.

Season salmon with salt and pepper and cook in butter and oil
until just cooked on the edges.

Spray a foil-lined pan with Pam.  Place salmon pieces, skin-side down, on the foil.

Parchment paper also works well.

Top salmon with spinach mixture.  Bake until salmon is just cooked through, at most a few minutes.

Sprinkle toasted walnuts over cooked salmon with spinach and serve with
 brown rice and salad.

My audience was surprised at how good this tasted. Simple food.

Each serving of 4 oz. salmon and 3 tablespoons spinach sauce provides approximately 290 calories, 3 g fiber, and a full compliment of vitamin B 12.  Over two-thirds of your daily requirement of protein, vitamin A, vitamin b-6, manganese, phosphorous, selenium, and niacin are included in this healthful recipe. 

- Kim Fielding