Roasted Salmon and Roasted Garlic, Zucchini and Tomatoes

I was raised in Houston, Texas and spent each summer on the on or near the Gulf of Mexico either from my Aunt and Uncle's home in Corpus Christi or fishing with my dad.  I love salt water and living in South Texas near the Hill Country and it is beautiful but I feel rather land locked sometimes.  When everything is just out of sorts for me, I need my salt water fix.  It has never failed me.  It always works.  As a result, I love seafood!  Oysters, shrimp, crab and all kinds of fish...Grouper is probably my favorite(we refer to that as a "Top of the menu" fish).  Following grouper, it's snapper, red fish, speckled trout, flounder(not in that order) and the list goes on and on with the seemingly endless numbers of tasty fish the beautiful Gulf of Mexico provides.  I love it and it is not fishy.  And that, brings me to this.  I would like to take a moment to address something I hear all the time from people, that say they don't like fish, "it's fishy".  FRESH fish is NOT fishy.  If it is get rid of it!!  If you find yourself in a situation like I am now, having to buy it from a grocery store, then ask lots of questions.  Where did it come from, what is the texture like when it's cooks, and ask to smell it.  Don't be shy.  It's not cheap and it's worth it to get the freshest seafood you can.  I got lucky enough to find a business in San Antonio that supplies seafood to restaurants and they will sell it to the public.  Believe me, it's fresh and it's not fishy!

Having said all of that, I struggle with salmon.  It doesn't come from the Gulf of Mexico, so I have trouble with creating recipes for it.  I love it raw, as sushi and I love it smoke with all of the usual suspects, purple onion, capers, egg etc.  But cooking it, is a real challenge for me.  I have tried Asian methods, I have tried cream dill sauces,etc. nothing really taste right to me.  So I decided to go back to basics after I had salmon at a dear friend's house for her birthday, and I loved it!  I was given some fresh salmon that another friend caught in Alaska.  So here's the method I learned from the birthday girl and we had it for dinner tonight.  I sprayed a cooking sheet with my buddy Pamela.  Placed the steaks on the pan, sprinkled them with some flaked lemon salt I had and fresh ground pepper.  Tossed it the oven at 350 degrees.  After about 15 minutes, I turned off the oven, cracked the door and let it sit there while I finished preparing the rest of dinner.  After I pulled it out of the oven, I drizzled it with really good olive oil and transferred it to our plates.  Really yummy!  Maybe there is hope for me afterall.  I just got off the phone with another friend that suggested I take the leftover cooked salmon, shred it with forks, place a little of it on a small square of puff pastry.  Top it with a dab of cream cheese and capers.  Fold over the top with the pastry, brush it with egg whites and bake.  That may be our late night snack.

The zucchini was super simple!  I diced a couple of fresh zucchini, tossed in some cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced onion, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, fresh ground pepper and salt.  Poured about a 1/4 Cup olive oil and tossed it all together.  Baked, uncovered, at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes.  After removing it from the oven I sprinkled about 1/2 Cup freshly grated parmesan cheese and served.

Daddy, you asked me to let you know what I came up with for the salmon, here it is!