At the age of 10, my family visited the New Jersey shore for vacation. One night, we went to a seafood restaurant for dinner. I felt sick to my stomach the moment we entered the restaurant. I felt better the moment we left. All I remember was a sickening "fishy" smell. I refused to touch ANY kind of seafood from that moment on.
Fast forward to age 23. My cousin was getting married. On the hottest day of July. She chose a beautiful church simply because it was the only one that had air conditioning. That day, it broke. By the time we got to the reception, I was starving. The only hors d'oeuvres served was shrimp. I broke down and tried some. Hmm. Not bad.
Fast forward to Christmas. My mother had been serving surf 'n turf at Christmas for years, since she hates turkey. All those years, I would forgo my lobster tail and eat only the filet mignon, leaving my dad and my brother to split what would've been my tail. Much to their chagrin, that year, I decided to taste the lobster tail. Hmmm. REALLY good!
Since then, I've tasted a lot more seafood. Swordfish. Flounder. Halibut. Mahi mahi. The only thing I still don't like is scallops.
One thing I do like — a lot — is salmon. It was on sale at the supermarket last week, so I picked up a pound. And I looked up some salmon recipes. I chose this one from AllRecipes.com for its simplicity. I altered a bit. The original had WAY too much onion powder and dill for my taste (though feel free to add more if you like it), and the cooking instructions would've resulted in a piece of orangey-pink rubber.
Dilled Salmon
From AllRecipes.com
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 1 pound salmon fillet
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried dill
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil, and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the fish skin-side down on the baking sheet, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion powder and dill. Cut the butter into small squares, and space evenly over the fish.
- Bake 10 minutes. Check for doneness (fish should be flaky and opaque), and cook an additional minute or two, if necessary.
Suggested accompaniment: Mix together mayo, lemon juice and fresh or dried dill and spread over the cooked fish.
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