Broiled salmon with roasted potatoes and Hollandaise

My Hollandaise sauce gets better each time. I like this guy's technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m3ulPfoiIU

White asparagus, salmon, sausage, and foil-wrapped potato all grilled together

I cooked tonight's meal completely on the grill. The potatoes were started first at 6:00pm.
I followed this recipe pretty closely with the addition of garlic powder:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Foil-Bbq-Potatoes-94219

At 6:40, I added the salmon (pre-marinated from Safeway) and a N.Y. brand Italian sausage.
at 6:45, I added some white asparagus, which I drizzled with olive oil and salt.
I turned the asparagus, fish and sausage after a couple minutes, and let it continue cooking.
At about 6:55 everything was done, and ready to serve.

This was the first time that I tried white asparagus, and I quickly decided that I like the conventional green asparagus much better. The white has a strange bitter taste to it, and none of the sweetness of the green.

The best part of the potato was the roasted skin that was closest to the fire. In the future, I will turn the potato every so often to expose more of its surface to the fire.

Grilled asparagus with a turkey burger

I bought a big bag of fresh asparagus from Costco, so I have been finding different ways to cook it (in addition to the standard practice of steaming it). Grilling the asparagus turned out amazingly well! I drizzled some olive oil over the raw asparagus stalks after cutting off the woody bottoms. I then sprinkled some salt on the oiled stalks and put them on the charcoal grill for a couple minutes per side. Wonderful!

The burger is a Costco frozen turkey burger. I like beef, but I also eat turkey burgers mainly for variety and partially for the lower amount of saturated fat. I added some cheese to make up for the reduced amount of saturated fat.

Seared ahi with quinoa and asparagus

I finally remembered to buy quinoa when I saw it at Trader Joe's the other day. It's good. I boiled it as directed on the package, then sauteed some onions and bell peppers with garlic and then added the cooked quinoa. It's starchy like rice, but it has a lot more fiber, and functions almost like a vegetable in terms of the balance of the meal. It's similar to wild rice in consistency.

Cheese ravioli with asparagus and hollandaise

This was my second attempt at making hollandaise sauce, and it was a great improvement over my first attempt. I was scared of scrambling or overcooking the egg yolks, but it seems this might be less of a concern as I originally thought. The yolks must be pretty stiff for this sauce to work. Also, add the butter very slowly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m3ulPfoiIU

I used two egg yolks and about 1/4 or 1/3 cup butter. This makes enough sauce for one large serving, and I can't imagine using the full 1 1/2 cups of butter as is specified in the video. I also skipped the cayenne, and added paprika on top as a garnish. In retrospect, the sauce could use a dash of cayenne, and I'd still keep the paprika garnish.

The ravioli was Trader Joe's 4-cheese variety.

Grilled salmon with asparagus, mashed potatoes and Hollandaise

The combination of salmon, potatoes and asparagus is really great. This is one of my favorites.

Marinate a salmon stake or fillet in:

1 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 minced garlic clove
juice of half a lemon
splash of soy sauce
black pepper


Peel potatoes (one per person), then cut into 1" cubes. Place the cubes into a pot of salted water, and bring to a boil.

Once the potatoes start boiling, begin grilling the fish (about 5-8 minutes per side).

While the fish is grilling, cook asparagus in salted boiling water (4-6 minutes)

Start the Hollandaise sauce by very slowly cooking an egg yolk in a stainless bowl with a splash of lemon juice. Hold the bowl a few inches away from the stove burner to achieve very gentle heating. The egg yolk is cooked when it has thickened enough to form "pale ribbons" on the surface (around 8 minutes). Once cooked, add a few tbsps melted butter (some people insist on using clarified butter) very slowly to the egg. The ratio of egg:butter varies a lot among recipes. Whisk constantly. The sauce should thicken, and is ready to serve immediately. Salt and pepper or cayenne can be added.

Mash the potatoes. I prefer to only add a small amount of milk and garlic powder, since this will be served with the rich Hollandaise sauce.

Assemble everything on a plate and enjoy!