Moroccan Salmon and Yogurt Sauce with Garlic-Ginger Couscous

Ok, so if I saw this recipe title somewhere, I'd probably say "that sounds involved or complicated" but let me tell you: in my opinion this was SO GOOD and EASY.

Andrew and I decided to do date night in last night and use some salmon fillets that I got on sale. It was so tasty. You should give it a try.

The yogurt sauce is a marinade and an after sauce. You marinade the fish in part of it and then use the remaining half to eat with it. I was a little hesitant because it is cool and a little different, but by the end I was dipping my broccoli, mixing it with my couscous and eating it with my salmon. I think I liked the sauce a little more than Andrew, but he thought it was good too. Again, it says to grill it, but we just used a hot skillet and it worked great.

Note: the reviews of the recipe on the site said they needed more sauce. Andrew and I only used 2 fillets and so we had plenty of sauce. If you were making 4 fillets like the recipe said, I would double the sauce recipe.

SALMON RECIPE

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• Juice of 1 lemon, plus lemon wedges for garnish
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the grill
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 6-ounce skinless center-cut salmon fillets
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsley, for garnish

Directions

Stir together the yogurt, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, coriander, cumin, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Pour half of the sauce into a large resealable plastic bag; cover and refrigerate the remaining sauce. Add the salmon to the bag and turn to coat with the marinade. Refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes, turning the bag over once.

Preheat a grill to medium-high. Remove the salmon from the marinade and blot off excess yogurt with paper towels. Lightly oil the grill and add the salmon; cook, turning once, until browned on the outside and opaque in the center, 4 to 6 minutes per side, depending on the thickness. Serve with the reserved yogurt sauce and garnish with the herbs and lemon wedges.

Recipe from Food Network

COUSCOUS

We buy the container of plain couscous so that we can season it the way we want (and it's cheaper than the preseasoned boxes).

The container says 1 cup of water, 1 T butter and some salt- bring to a boil then stir in 1 cup of couscous, remove from heat and let sit 5 min. Fluff up with fork. So to make it a little more flavorful, I made added some grated fresh ginger and a clove of garlic. After fluffing up the rice, I stirred in some parsley. Yum!

parmesan crusted salmon with shrimp in a garlic cream sauce

I grabbed my camera after I had already begun eating and mixing things around my plate.

There are no measurements for this recipe. That's how it goes when Andrew cooks. I'm his sous chef. But basically, here is what happened:

1) In a saucepan, heat olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper, butter and lemon juice. Heat to "infuse the oil". Stir in the shrimp and let marinate until you're ready to get things going.

2) Cook pasta.

3) Make a cream sauce in a pan by mixing a little whipping cream, skim milk, butter, garlic, salt, pepper. Stir until thickened. We wanted it thin and so our sauce wasn't thickening- we didn't add enough cream. So, I made a quick thickener of water and flour and poured in just a little bit until it coated the back of a spoon.

3) Salt and pepper the salmon fillet. Press parmesan cheese and minced garlic onto one side of the salmon (you may want to add more spices here- ours needed more salt after). Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet until hot. Put cheese/garlic side down and cook for about 4 minutes. Put cheese on the side facing up. Flip and cook 4 more minutes.

4) While the salmon is cooking, heat the shrimp.

5) Mix pasta, sauce and shrimp together.

6) Place the pasta and shrimp on a plate with the salmon and enjoy! We added extra salt and parmesan because it needed it.