Book Eighty-Four: Everyday Italian

by Giada De Laurentiis


                             Salmon Baked in [Parchment]

Sorry hon to have such a beautiful, tasty dinner without you; though I'm sure you yourself will be having something delicious with the boys, or maybe not...

I rode today as is the norm on Saturdays and when the hubby is not home for dinner I will just grab myself some cereal or something just as quick since I am pooped after my rides.

This evening I was craving something a bit more substantial than cereal; so to the bookshelf I went. Giada came to the rescue with something tasty and easy. I came to know (not personally unfortunately) Giada through the Food Network on television. I used to watch this station religiously. Then the show had to go all weird on me. Instead of these wonderful cooks in their kitchens teaching us how to cook which I so enjoyed until they went all "reality-like" with shows such as Cupcake Wars, Chopped, Iron Chef America, etc., not to mention the traveling shows. Food Network, please go back to having the chefs in the kitchen, I so miss watching them actually cook.

I was lucky to have most of the ingredients on-hand for this dish other than the salmon itself and the shallots called for in the recipe. I had to substitute the shallots for garlic due to the fact that I did not put one item on my grocery list that I needed for dinner. I was too engrossed in another recipe that I came across; Coffee Ice Cream - a future post - stay tuned. I made sure to write down all that was needed for that recipe! I am so easily distracted with dessert recipes.

I had extra dough in the freezer from the oasis naan I posted about previously and gave it another try. It did in fact turn out a bit better this time around. Though it was still a tad tougher than I like my naan, it has potential. I truly think my problem was adding too much flour while kneading the dough and I did not give the dough time to rest.

Giada bakes her salmon in foil. I prefer the feel and look of parchment; especially if your are serving this to company. To see how to construct the parchment packet see my post on Cooking in Parchment.

The salmon packet baking away in the oven smelled amazing. I would recommend that you use a skinless fillet so that the fish will soak up all the delicious dressing that was poured over it. I really enjoyed this and it was healthy to boot! Healthy only until I ate almost the whole piece of naan that I baked and the White Russians I made from the bottle of Kahlúa I had to buy for the coffee ice cream I'm going to make next. I am feeling the pounds piling on - Lord help me!

Success meter (1-3): 3

amazon

"en papillote "

French for "in parchment"

Ohh.. I forgot the garnish!

TWD: Oasis Naan

Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid


                                                Oasis Naan


Why do I do this to myself? Thinking I can not only blog one, but two recipes (I decided to write up tonight's salad as well), and go to the grocery store after my bike ride (45 miles) which always leaves me done for. Because I can? Not efficiently.
            
My plan was to add some chopped garlic & cilantro to half of the dough before rising but I ran out of time. I made two of the naans as instructed with green onion and a dash of ground cumin (I did not have seeds) and two I topped with melted butter and chopped garlic - completely forgot about adding the cilantro that I chopped up while the dough was rising.

I really do enjoy making and baking bread. The scent of fresh baked bread filling the entire house is eternal bliss. And the naan is no exception, it smelled heavenly, browned up beautifully and had wonderful flavor; the garlic being our favorite. Unfortunately it was not as soft as I like my naan. As you can see in the picture one out of the four did not puff up; it was rock hard. The other three turned out like pita breads and like pita, dry.

I'm not sure if I added too much flour during the kneading process or if I kneaded it too long. I kneaded the dough for maybe 10-12 minutes. I only had two cups bread flour which I made up the difference with all-purpose flour. Maybe that had something to do with it? I just don't know. I still have four balls of dough in the freezer - not sure if I want to attempt making them again. We will see.

Success meter (1-3): 2

The instructions say to prick the dough with a dough stamp;

a tool with nail-like spikes in concentric circles. I think this

would have worked well if I had pricked the dough before

sprinkling with water. I ended up using a fork.

Baking away..

Butter & Garlic: Yummm!

Should you be so inclined to try this yourself visit our host's sites for the recipe:

Maggie of Always Add More Butter

Phyl of Of Cabbages & King Cakes

To see other variations (which there always are!) check out the other baker's sites from the

Tuesdays with Dorie baking group.

Join the fun! 

Go buy the book at your

 local independent bookseller

 or on-line!