Caribbean Coconut Crusted Salmon

These pictures don't do this meal any justice...and starting this weekend, my husband and I have decided to start a "let's get a good camera" fund!!! I can't deal with my crappy camera anymore!

This dinner was so yummy!!! I saw this on Dragon's Kitchen, which I love by the way, and couldn't wait to make it for dinner! My hubbie and I love salmon. We actually love almost all types of seafood! Come to think of it the coconut crust on this dish would be good on a lot of other cuts of fish! The coconut added a great crunch and the hint of sweetness from the pineapple brought all the flavors together quite well. I highly recommend this dish. It was so easy to make and very satisfying! You could also half this recipe for just two people, but we wanted leftovers!!! We used our leftovers on a salad and made a caribbean type salad! It was just as yummy!

Caribbean Coconut Crusted Salmon with Caribbean Salsa

(recipe from Dragon's Kitchen)

1 1/4 cups of shredded, unsweetened coconut

4 6 oz salmon filet's, skin removed

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put coconut into a freezer bag. Drop in the salmon filet's one at a time and toss to coat. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes.

For the Caribbean Salsa:

2 cups of fresh pineapple, cut into small chunks

1 small red onion, diced

1 cup of fresh cilantro, minced

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Zest and juice of 1 lime (I actually used lemon because that is what I had on hand)

Several dashes of your favourite hot sauce

Put pineapple, red onion and cilantro into a medium-sized bowl. Add lime zest and juice, oil and hot sauce. Toss well and let flavors mingle for at least one half hour before serving.

**You will probably end up with a lot of leftover salsa. It tasted great on chicken! We marinated chicken in some of the salsa and then grilled it! So if you have leftover salsa give that a try!**

Balsamic Glazed Seared Salmon with Lemon Broccoli

My husband and I LOVE salmon! We eat it sometimes twice a week! It is so good for you and can be prepared so many ways! I came across this recipe, on Brooklyn Farmhouse, looking for new ways to make salmon. It sounded so good and I couldn't wait to try it. The original recipe actually prepared it with watercress, but I had fresh Broccoli at home that I wanted to use up. This Salmon had such great flavor! It was so moist and the Balsamic glaze added just the right amount of sweetness and zing with every bite! I love the fact that it was seared too, the outside of it had a great crunch to it! And as a bonus, the Salmon came right off the skin!! I always hate that eating a piece of stubborn Salmon that won't pull off it's skin after it is cooked. I think having it seared helped that.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did, we even had leftover glaze so I saved it in a container for the next nights dinner! I actually did similar steps in preparing a marinade for chicken. I just added balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, brown sugar, and lots of seasoning (garlic, salt, pepper) to a zip lock baggie with my chicken in it. I let it marinade over night and grilled it the next night for dinner. It was so good!! We drizzled it with the leftover glaze from the the Salmon recipe!! Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!

Balsamic Glazed Seared Salmon

(per Brooklyn Farmhouse)

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 4-ounce wild Alaskan salmon fillets with skin

Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a small bowl, mix the vinegar, water, brown sugar, and lemon or lime juice. Dry the salmon very, very well with paper towels. Salt and pepper the flesh side of the fillets. Don’t be afraid to season the fish well. In a large non-stick pan, heat the olive oil over high heat until it is very hot (but not smoking). Add the salmon fillets skin side up and sear about 5 minutes for medium. Gently flip the fillets and sear on the skin-side for another 5 minutes for medium. Remove the salmon fillets to a plate. Very carefully add the vinegar mixture to the pan - it will sputter and splatter, so be careful! Boil over high heat until the sauce has reduced to a medium-thick glaze (reduce by about 1/3).

We served our salmon with Broccoli. I actually used one of those Zip Lock Steam bags...I put the broccoli in and added some lemon zest, salt and pepper. When the Broccoli was done I drizzled it with some lemon juice! It paired so nicely with the Salmon!!