First and foremost… this isn’t pretty. Not in these pictures anyway. (It was in person, I swear! You’ll just have to trust me I suppose haha.) Sometimes the beauty of food transfers to the camera, sometimes it doesn’t. Yah… it didn’t this time, so you’re gonna have to use your imagination for this one- sorry! Or look at the original recipe- I stumbled upon this one from FiveStarFoodie and had to try. I really wanted to wrap salmon in collard greens (I have a ton of greens flooding my fridge right now), so took a gander around the net and saw this recipe- sounded super interesting! Helps that the picture is pretty on the blog too (they must not use an Iphone haha). It’s here if you wanna see. Pretty or not, this recipe is a creative and tasty little dish that uses some wonderful ingredients. Collard greens, shitake mushrooms, Vidalia (or sweet) onions, little fingerling potatoes, and fresh salmon. The OG recipe calls for wild salmon- either Sockeye or Coho, but being that I’m not a millionaire and those options were about 3 times the price of the Alaskan king salmon at Whole Foods, I wasn’t havin’ it. But I’m sure it’s delicious!!
I didn’t make many changes (which is super rare for me- I’m so bad at following recipes- I can’t help but elaborate and fiddle with everything!!). This time though, I pretty much followed along and stuck to the script. I used large red fingerings (which were actually beautifully pink) and didn’t use cream, but instead used half and half for the sauce (you could use milk for a more health conscious sauce of course). I needed more than the recipe called for, probably because my taters were a bit on the lerge side for fingerlings 🙂 So I had a little leftover sauce, but no biggie… it’s a potato-onion-cream sauce, so what’s bad about having some of that lying around?! I’m a fan of adjusting things as needed, so change whatever you want! But it’s pretty good just as written in my little opinion 🙂 And I’m not even a huge salmon lover (I know I know, lame!!)
You could certainly use other greens if you can’t get
your hands on collard greens- chard, kale- any tougher green leafed guy should work.
Collards are good though… and make for a very nice wrap.
They’re strong, tasty, and healthy!!
(Next up, since I have more to use, will be veggie & hummus wraps for lunch- can’t wait!!)
INGREDIENTS
4 fingerling potatoes, thinly sliced
3 tbsp Vidalia or sweet onion, chopped
1/4 cup half and half (will depend on your potato size)
1/2 cup shitake mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 large collard green leaves
2 salmon fillets (about 4-6 oz each)
Salt, pepper to taste
Vegetable oil
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and start a large pot of boiling water for greens
Thinly slice potatoes
(Aren’t these pretty!? Didn’t expect that inside!)
Finely chop up onion- you’ll need about 1 tbsp for the
potato sauce- the other 2 are for the mushrooms
Heat some oil in a pan over medium-high heat
Toss in potatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper
Stir in onions and let
Cook until all is lightly browned and cooked all the way through
The original recipe calls for an immersion blender- so wish I had one!
I don’t thought, so I used a food processor- use which
ever you have to get is smooth 🙂
Add half and half (or cream) and blend until sauce and smooth
Should be fairly liquidy, but the starches of potatoes will keep it somewhat thick- that’s fine
Check for seasonings and adjust as wanted
Pour into a small bowl and refrigerate until ready for use
Now using the same pan
(it’ll likely need a wee bit more oil added to it),
add remaining onion and sliced mushrooms
Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper
Cook for a few minutes, until lightly golden and fragrant
Remove from pan and set aside
Get 2 large collard greens that are about similar in size
Toss in large pot of boiling water for about a minute or two, until soft
Have a bowl of ice cold water nearby (to shock it- stops it from cooking and keeps it super green!)
Boil and transfer from hot pot to cold…
Be careful not to rip leaves in process 🙂
Now lay out one leaf
Large greens often have large ribs- which can be fibrous and tough to chew…
To remove, use a small knife and cut off the part that sticks up (it sticks up on one side of greens)
Holding leaf in place, just slide a knife along the rib- just cut off the part that sticks up
Then chop off the bottom part/stem
Now good to go…
If your salmon has skin, cut that off too (similar technique- slice a knife along seam)
Now generously salt both sides of the salmon fillets
Place in fry pan and heat just about a minute on each side, until exterior is cooked
Now time to wrap things up!
Get your greens…
Lay half of the mushroom mix in center of each
Top with salmon fillet
And then cover with potato sauce
Now wrap up like a little gift…
Fold over sides…
And then top and bottom
Place, seam side up, in a baking dish and bake for about 10 minutes
Remove from baking dish, turn over (so seam side down)
Cut in half and plate… enjoy!!
