Old fish, new fish

I tried two new recipes on Tuesday night courtesy of the Food Network; Broiled Salmon with Herb Mustard Glaze, paired with green beans provencal. While these two recipes both looked good in theory, I think I have to do some modifications to get them into the regular rotation.

I normally cook salmon with a simple dressing of adobo, paprika, lemon, and brown sugar (italian breadcrumbs optional). I like this recipe a lot, as does Natalia, and if I am ever in need of a quick "feel like I cooked something good tonight" meal I go to this one. But I was interested in branching out a bit and trying a new way to cook this fish as even the best recipes, if overused, start to feel bland.

The mustard sauce was good for the first few bites, but it got more overpowering the more I ate...it went from "wow--mustard!" to "ugh...mustard." I may have used too much of it--so in future iterations of this dish I think I will use it more sparingly, or possibly even use less of a mustard base. I haven't broiled fish in a while (I normally bake around 375-400) so that was a nice departure as well...it made me want to try my regular recipe again but use the broiling rack instead of just baking it. The downside of broiling was that a fair amount of the mustard sauce turned crispy; not sure that was intended.

I think I liked the idea of the green beans more than the beans themselves. At $5.99/pound I could not afford the haricots verts that the recipe called for, so I settled for regular green beans instead. I found that a lot of the tomato reduced to juice when cooked (should have anticipated that), giving the final dish more of a soupy feel than I would have liked. In the future, I'll probably cut down on the garlic (too overpowering in this recipe--and I like garlic!), and either cut down on tomatoes too or just remove the beans from the residual juice before serving.

In need of a good comeback meal for last night I dove into my Cooking Light Slow Cooker recipe book and went for an African sweet potato stew with red beans. I've made this a few times before, and it is a hit--the flavors mingle really well, and nothing is either overpowering or lost. It took about an hour to prep in the morning (which is why my entire house went to pot, as shown here) but the effort was well worth it when we sat down to eat that evening. The downside: I think my Rival Crock Pot is on its last legs, as it now resets randomly and, as of last night, blinks at me for no reason.