Baked Salmon on Wild Rice and Asparagus with Raspberry-Honey Sauce

I spied this recipe in a Cooking Club magazine years ago and looked at it regularly, wistfully. Putting it off because of expense, I looked it up when Yonetta suggested I do fish. Normally I provide a link directly to the on-line source but it looks like it's broken. Just know that I followed the recipe in the magazine almost to a T, only moving a couple of steps in the sequence to limit the number of dishes I'd have to wash and save energy.

Baked Salmon on Wild Rice and Asparagus with Raspberry-Honey Sauce
Cooking Club of America, April/May 2008 issue
click to print

1 1/2 c wild rice
3 c chicken stock
4 (6-oz.) salmon fillets, skin removed
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
3 c sliced asparagus (1 1/2 inches)
1 1/2 c fresh or thawed frozen raspberries
1 1/2 tbsp honey

Cook rice according to package directions, substituting 3 cups chicken broth for water.

Rice and stock brought to a boil and then stirred once.


Rice covered with a tight-fitting lid and simmered over low heat 50 minutes; allowed to stand 10 minutes and fluffed with fork. Add butter and salt to taste.

Heat oven to 475°F about 20 minutes before rice is ready.

Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper.


Heat large skillet over medium heat until hot. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the oil; heat until hot.


Cook salmon top-side down 2 to 3 minutes or until light brown (do not turn). Meanwhile spread rice in 13x9-inch baking pan.


Arrange salmon over rice.


Cook asparagus in the same skillet 2 minutes or until bright green.


Arrange asparagus over rice. Bake 7 to 10 minutes or until salmon just begins to flake.


Heat broiler. Broil 1 minute or until salmon is golden brown.


Meanwhile, cook raspberries, honey and 2 tablespoons water in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until of sauce consistency.


Drizzle over salmon; pass remaining sauce.


I hate to say it, but I liked the idea of this much more than I enjoyed the final outcome. There were a couple of things that were questionable to me but I went ahead and followed the recipe anyway:

1. The only thing that gets seasoned is the salmon; and that salt and pepper was so sparse it wasn't enough to enhance the dish.
2. The salmon is supposed to be placed in the skillet (top-side down) 2-3 minutes. I guessed "top" meant "skin" and put the skin-side down but the fish was stuck to the oiled skillet until 4 minutes.
3. Baking the dish 7-10 minutes or "until salmon just begins to flake" means it's going to be overcooked considering residual, or carry-over, heat and that there is a subsequent broiling step.
4. How near the flame should the dish have been in the broiler in order for the fish to brown in one minute? Exceptionally close, it seems. I was afraid to broil it any longer since I knew the fish already was going to be dry.

Yeah, so the jist of it is that the salmon was overcooked and everything was bland. I could handle that, but most bothersome was the point of baking everything together - what exactly was the point? It would've been just as easy to prepare the rice while broiling the asparagus and frying the fish to completion, all separately, and simply considering it done. Baking the assembled rice, asparagus and fish didn't do anything to tie any of the flavors together. The raspberry sauce, while tasty with just the faintest hint of sweetness, didn't result in any flavor matrimony either. Major bummer.

The things that could've contributed to the dryness of the fish and were faulty on part is that my fillets were 1 oz smaller than what were called for and had skin on them. Would one more ounce on each and elimination of all skin make that much of a difference? I'm not too confident about that. Feel free to smack me on the side of my head and point out what I did wrong. I'd like to know.

Cost:

• wild rice: $2.40
• chicken stock: $0.48
• salmon fillets: $13.31
• olive oil: $0.12
• asparagus: $3.88
• raspberries: $1.33

Total: $21.52 or $5.38 for each of four servings.

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