I hate fish.
Nice confessional there, isn't it?
No, really. My body rejects the idea that the things with the fins are things I should digest. Whenever attempted, fish at its mildest leaves me with a metallic after-taste. At its worst, violent evacuation is all I'm going to say. I will say that I can enjoy (enjoy!) tuna salad. I'm picky about it, and specific about it, but my persnickity tuna salad is what works with my body.
So what could I possibly have to say about fish?
I married a man who adores finned protein. My husband loves fish. Passionately. So tonight for dinner, I made salmon and rice au gratin, with steamed snow peas on the side. I'm having macaroni and cheese. I could demand a pat on the back for preparing a meal I wanted to banish for all eternity, but I'd rather mention something important.
SALMON BONES: Salmon, especially when you purchase canned salmon as the recipe below suggests, occasionally is packaged with skin and bones intact. For those of us who are unfamiliar, bones and skin are edible on the salmon. Had I known this prior to deboning the monsterous little fillets I purchased, life would have been easier. Please, I beg you: learn from my mistakes. Also,
Salmon and Rice Au Gratin
1 lbs canned Salmon (usually more than 1 can)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 cups cooked rice (leftover rice is fine, see step 2 note)
Topping
1 generous handful of oyster crackers
2 tablespoons butter
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix soup, milk, worcestershire sauce, liquid from 1 can of salmon and pepper together. Whisking works well to smooth out the sauce, though the same results are achievable with a spoon.
NOTE: If you find, as I did, that a pound of salmon is not an amount readily available in a can, there is a solution. Should you find yourself with extra salmon fluid from an unanticipated 2nd can of salmon, may I suggest using just a splash more liquid in the "sauce" mixture. It can sit while you make fresh rice for the dish. Use the remaining liquid from the can to boil the rice. You'll have to add water, but you should get at least half a cup of liquid out of your second can. This will infuse the rice with that salmon flavor, which adds depth to the final dish.
3. Flake salmon. To flake the fish, I used 2 forks and a paper plate. Put the forks back to backand draw away from each other. You'll see the salmon quickly break down into morsels, or flakes. The salmon will look a lot like tuna at this point.
4. Mix rice (it's okay if it's still warm, just make sure all the liquid has been absorbed) and salmon into saucy mixture.
5. Grease 2 quart casserole dish. Cooking sprays are okay, just be wary of using flavored ones likes garlic (bad bad bad things happen: trust the voice of experience). The "greasing" helps you clean up later: no residual salmon clinging to innocent cookware, making it murder to clean. Even the machine has issues when it comes to baked on salmon.
6. Pour mixture into casserole, topping with crushed oyster crackers and butter. I want to mention that I used oyster crackers because I wasn't satisfied with "unsalted crackers" here. The original recipe I saw called for 1 tblspn of butter.... wasn't enough. I ended up with an uneven butter/browning effect that was annoying. Take your 2 tablespoons of butter, chunk it up, drop the chunks evenly across your plain of crushed crackers.
7. Insert casserole into preheated oven for 20 minutes. Let cool 3-5 minutes before serving.
