Jeff has taught me a lot about food shopping over the years. Buy organic, buy in season (if it’s cheap, it’s in season), and read labels (to avoid excess salt and sugar) are just a few adages he swears by. But his most sacrosanct rule is never buy fish on Sunday (it’s bound to be old since most grocery stores don’t get fresh fish on Sundays). Well, as they say, rules are made to be broken, and his rule of rules has been relaxed since we discovered a fish purveyor at our local farmers market who flies in line-caught fish from Alaska every Sunday. Spectacularly fresh fish.
Our favorite is salmon and even though it’s expensive it has become our defacto Sunday dinner when it’s in season. We often just grill or pan sauté salmon because it has so much flavor on its own, but sometimes I like to dress it up a bit. I got this recipe from an ad for McCormick Smoked Paprika I noticed in a magazine. I often try recipes from advertisements. I usually modify them to our tastes, but I’ve had surprisingly good luck. The orange marinade and the sweet and smoky rub appealed to my taste buds. Light and easy, this recipe is perfect for a summer evening.
Baked Salmon with Orange Spice Rub
Ingredients
Serves 2 (with leftovers)
Marinade
¼ cup orange juice
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 lb. fresh salmon fillet (skin removed)
Rub
2 tbls. brown sugar
1 tbls. smoked paprika
¼ tsp. cinnamon
1 tbls. orange zest
½ tsp. salt
Preparation
Mix orange juice, olive oil and thyme together in a glass dish. Add salmon and turn to coat. Marinate for half hour and turn salmon and marinate another half hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees 15 minutes before fish is done marinating.
Mix sugar, paprika, cinnamon, orange zest and salt. Remove salmon from marinade and discard marinade. Place fish on a foil-lined baking pan and rub top evenly with spice mixture. Roast salmon in oven for 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork.
Tips and Tidbits
Try to get a thick fillet of fish. If fillet is thin, marinade for 30 minutes total, turning at 15 minutes.
We served the salmon with leek risotto and zucchini. It would also go nicely with rice or couscous and sautéed spinach.
Maggie Canon is a nationally recognized magazine, website and book editor. She founded InfoWorld magazine and was the editor in chief of several other leading technology publications. She has since focused her career on consumer content including developing and launching the leading lifestyle website Glam.com and producing the best-selling book series America 24/7.
In addition, she was the co-host of HGTV’s 21st Century Home television series. She is an avid traveler, cook and entertainer.
