FFwD: Salmon with Basil Tapenade

Salmon with Basil Tapenade

Anyone who knows me, and even any one who has read this blog knows that fish and I just don't get along.  I don't mean from a cooking standpoint, I mean I just can't seem to find fish that I like the taste of.  It always, or nearly always, tastes, well-fishy.  I don't know how else to describe it.  Over the years I have managed to find out that I like crab and lobster, but even shrimp are a no-go.  That one is primarily due to my 10th grade biology teacher who lovingly called them the "cockroaches of the sea".  Scarred for life, I tell you.   Perhaps it is also the fact that my father tortured me (Dad, I say this with love) with long days of fishing any chance he got in the summer, and some times even ice fishing on Lake St. Clair in winter.  I think it would have been fine if we had ever caught anything, but inevitably we would come home empty handed.  I think about friends of mine with children and their constantly shifting attention spans and wonder how I ever survived these episodes from my own childhood. 

 Anyway, my husband really likes salmon, so when a friend of ours was coming over for dinner the other night I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to serve something different from the usual chicken or beef or pasta entrees we usually serve.  Both of them loved this.  I have to say, cooking it was a breeze.  I did use a store-bought tapenade that had a healthy dose of garlic rather than making it myself.  I served the salmon on a bed of spinach and grape tomatoes sauteed with some olive oil, garlic and a pinch of crushed red pepper.  Stuffing the tapenade in to the fish was a bit of a challenge mainly because I had never done this before, and I am still not sure I followed the directions properly but it all seemed to go well, regardless.  

Our friend Nikki thought the flavors were unexpected, mainly because she thought the tapenade would be overly salty.  Not so, apparently, and she and Edmund both loved the sauce.  Edmund was particularly surprised by this because he is not a huge fan of olives.  I used a combination of fresh mint (growing in vast quantities in the flower bed on the side of our house) and fresh basil (growing in pots just outside the kitchen door), and both of my guinea pigs really enjoyed the blend of flavors.  The mint apparently cut the saltiness of the olives quite nicely, and overall the dish seemed well-seasoned.  I think this could become a "do something nice for the ball and chain" type of meal in the months to come. 

Hope you all have a great weekend.  See you next week.  Up next for French Fridays-lemon barley pilaf.