Recipe: Salmon with Caramelized Leeks

Mmm mmm mm!  This recipe was great!  Kevin made this Salmon with Caramelized Leeks recipe from allrecipes last night.  I had been looking for something to do with leeks.  We get them fairly regularly in our organic produce basket, yet I never know what to do with them.  This was really good.  Part of that might have to do with the fact that the original recipe serves 4 and he was only cooking enough for 2 servings, but he forgot to cut the amount of butter in half.  Oh, what a shame!

So here's how the recipe goes for 2 servings.

Ingredients

• 2 leeks (we only had 1 leek and that was fine)
• 1 T. butter
• 1/2 T. brown sugar
• 1 big or 2 small/medium carrots, julienned
• kosher salt and black pepper to tasteto taste
• 1 lb. salmon fillet (I don't know that we had a pound, but whatever our 2 pieces amounted to was fine.)
• 1 t. olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. Trim away the root end, tough outer leaves and dark green tops of the leeks.  Cut the leeks lengthwise into quarters, then crosswise into thirds.  Wash the leeks well to remove any grit and drain in a colander.  (Next time I might cut the leeks lengthwise in half, then cut the halves into half moon slices.  I like that shape in onions.)
3. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook and stir the leeks until they have started to soften, about 5 minutes.
4. Sprinkle the leeks with brown sugar and cook until they turn brown, 15-20 minutes.
5. Stir in the carrots, sprinkle with kosher salt and cook and stir until the carrots are tender, about 5 minutes.
6. Place the salmon on the prepared baking sheet, rub the fillets with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
7. Roast the salmon until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily, but isn't dry, about 10 minutes per 1" of thickness.  (Kevin thought our fish was undercooked with this timing so he cooked it a little longer. )
8. Remove the cooked fillets to plates and top each with 1/2 of the caramelized leeks and carrots.

The visual:

 
It was really good.  I mean, really, really good.  You can't go wrong with caramelizing anything and then to do it with brown shuga...well, that's just gilding the lily.

We had it with a side of one of those broccoli-cauliflower things (also from the organic basket) and some kind of packaged flavored rice (meh).  I don't think I'd had a brocciflower before.  It was okay.  It looked like a green cauliflower.  It has a mild flavor.  I find that broccoli all on its own has a strong flavor; I prefer broccoli buffered by other foods, like in a stir-fry.  So I liked that it was milder than broccoli.

Hope you enjoy this recipe, too.  This one's definitely going into the rotation.