Pan Fried Salmon with Gluten Free Breadcrumbs and Summer Tomatoes

I am always so dazzled by the cooking enterprises and straight talk of Jamie Oliver, who I know is an icon for many other gluten free chefs as well. Lately I’ve been enjoying his Cook With Jamie guide, and particularly interested in learning about where all the different cuts of meat that we eat come from on the body of each animal. Heck, if you’re going to cook and eat something, you might as well understand it!

I saw a recipe in his guide for pan fried red mullet and wondered if I could freeform off of it to create something delicious with the salmon we love. My main sticking point however was the breadcrumbs. I didn’t know if gluten free breadcrumbs even existed!

Happily, they do. After some searching I found a wonderful mix by Gillian's Foods. These Italian style breadcrumbs are not only wheat and gluten free, they are also dairy free. What they do contain is an incredible herb and spice mixture that makes them the most flavorful, truly tasty breadcrumbs I can ever remember using. I’m not just saying that because I eat gluten free – even my husband the wheat maniac really loved them.

My favorite part about this meal is that it is so fast and easy to prepare, yet looks so sophisticated on a plate. You could whip a batch of this up in 30 minutes or less for your friends or family and they will think you’ve been cooking all day!



Pan Fried Salmon with Gluten Free Breadcrumbs
and Summer Tomatoes


What You’ll Need:

For Summer Tomato Salad...

A few handfuls of fresh multicolored tomatoes
A large handful of fresh basil leaves
Nice sized splash of red wine vinegar
Bigger splash of extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

For Salmon...

2-3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp and 1 tsp Red Mill gluten free baking flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
12 oz Whole Catch frozen sockeye salmon, defrosted and skinned

For Breadcrumbs...
1/2 cup (plus a shake) of gluten free Italian bread crumbs
zest of 1 small lemon
handful of fresh basil leaves, finely minced


How It Works:


Take several handfuls of multicolored summer tomatoes, the freshest ones you can get. Chop them up into a variety of sizes, but all small enough to eat with ease. Give them a good splash of red wine vinegar and then an even larger splash of your extra virgin olive oil. Salt and pepper them to taste, and mix them together with your fresh basil leaves. Set the salad aside.



If you’re using Whole Catch frozen wild sockeye salmon fillets, defrost them in warm water or by using your microwave. Next, gently remove their skin so that they are ready to cook.

In shallow bowl or on a large plate, combine your Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour with the garlic powder and fresh ground black pepper. Blend it thoroughly with the tines of a fork. Next, gently coat each side of your fish fillets with the flour/garlic/pepper mix.

Heat 2 – 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan at medium temperature. When oil is hot but not smoking, place your battered fish in the pan. Sauté for somewhere between 3 and 4 minutes per side, depending on how thick your salmon fillet is. One of my fillets actually took 5 minutes on one of its sides to be fully cooked. You will know it is cooked when the salmon flesh turns to a light pink color and the fat begins to turn white. Remove fish from heat.

Use about 1/3 of your tomato salad as a bed for each piece of fried fish, spreading it on your serving plate before you place the fish fillet on top. Divide the last 1/3 of tomato salad into halves and sprinkle one half on top of each of the salmon fillets.

To prepare your breadcrumbs, grate the zest of one small lemon:


Returning your pan (with its juices and olive oil) to medium heat, add the gluten free breadcrumbs, lemon zest and minced fresh basil. Fry for a few minutes until crispy but not burned, stirring frequently.


Take a spoonful of the breadcrumbs and lightly dust them over the top of each of your fillets of fish. You may end up with extra breadcrumbs left over, this is fine. They are so tasty, your guests may wish to add more of them to their plates from a serving bowl on your dining table while eating. You can also save them in the refrigerator for future use inside of a gluten free macaroni casserole.

Enjoy!


Serves 2, ingredients may be doubled, etc. for more guests.

Flourless Chocolate Cake Celebration

This recipe is a celebration of many things for our family. First, my husband loves chocolate more than any food (or beverage) in the world – other than a chilled bottle of his favorite Sierra Nevada beer. And while he has been very patient with a wide variety of my gluten free brownie mixes, H never really loves any sweet dessert made without white flour – so it has been an important challenge to me to invent or adapt something chocolate-y and gluten free that would really knock his socks off.

The great news? The cake is moist, rich and ideal for dark chocolate lovers. Best of all, H loves it. A direct quote after he took his first bite... "Oh honey, you now truly hold all of the strings to my heart!"

Next, I have discovered that my body really can’t take processed sugar any more. I have all kinds of uncomfortable physical and mental reactions to it – ranging from racing pulse and sudden sweating to mild depression, anxiety and problems with yeast overgrowth. Sadly for me, many of my favorite gluten free chefs like to use white and brown sugar in their recipes, sometimes in large quantities. So sweet foods and baked goods have been tough to make from scratch.

I can do maple sugar or maple syrup in very small quantities, but no honey. H hates the taste of stevia, so that’s out… hence, my options have been limited. A few weeks ago my mother mentioned that she seems to do very well with blue agave nectar and I figured – "Hey, it’s all in the genes, right?" so when planning this flourless chocolate treat I decided to give agave a shot. The result? Victory! So far, I haven’t had any adverse reactions to it and I am very happy that the flavor (while very sweet) is also mild and subtle. It doesn’t drown out the chocolate or cocoa in this recipe at all!

Lastly, as you can see we are celebrating a new member of our family - the Nikon D40 camera that I will be using from now on to photograph the food you see on this blog. I’m going to take a class on how to use it… but already the image quality is so much better! I am thrilled that as I become a better photographer my readers will be able to experience the true beauty of these gluten free recipes… just the way they appear on our dining table!


Flourless Chocolate Cake Celebration!!!


What You’ll Need:

For Cake

6 oz semi-sweet Ghirardelli baking chocolate
2/3 cup butter
4 eggs
¾ cup and 1 tbsp organic blue agave nectar
1 cup unsweetened Ghirardelli cocoa powder

For Glaze

2 oz semi-sweet Ghirardelli baking chocolate
3 tbsp butter
¼ tsp gluten free vanilla
2/3 tablespoon organic blue agave nectar
1 tbsp milk


How It Works:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

With butter, grease a round 9 inch baking pan. Lay a circular piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan, and then (odd as it may sound) grease the top of the parchment as well. Set baking pan aside.

For cake, melt chocolate and butter at medium low temperature stirring constantly until they are thoroughly combined and smooth. Remove from heat and transfer with scraper into a fairly large bowl (or the bowl of your kitchen mixer).

Slowly pour in blue agave nectar, mixing well. Next, add eggs (one at a time) and use either a hand mixer or a whisk to make sure they are fully blended into the batter. Finally, spoon the cup of unsweetened cocoa in and again use hand mixer or whisk to blend. Make sure there are no larger chunks of cocoa powder clumping together. I used our Kitchen Aid mixer to ensure the absence of clumps.

Pour your gorgeous chocolate mixture into the greased cake pan. Bake in oven approximately 40 minutes (check between 30 and 35 minutes to make sure it is not burning if your oven tends to run hot). When perfectly baked the top will have a crust the consistency of chilled pudding and may fracture a bit. Don’t worry – the fissures will be unnoticeable when cooled and besides, you are actually looking at the cake’s bottom!

Remove cake from oven and allow to sit undisturbed for about 12 minutes. Place your lovely cake plate over the top of your pan and then invert the plate and cake so that you are now looking at the bottom of your cake pan resting on top of your cake plate. Gently remove pan from cake, and carefully peel away the top layer of parchment paper.


Glaze: Combine chocolate and butter in saucepan at medium low temperature, stirring constantly until fully blended. Add vanilla, milk and blue agave nectar and continue stirring. When all ingredients are perfectly integrated, set aside until you are ready to glaze your cooled cake.

Slowly pour or spoon glaze onto cooled cake, and use your soft scraper or a soft spatula to spread it evenly across the top of the cake. It will drip down the sides in an artistic way. Chill your cake in the refrigerator between 20 – 30 minutes before serving.


Strawberries make an excellent garnish, but really this rich chocolate treasure is a celebration in itself.

Serves 8.