Baked Salmon

Did you have a favorite dish growing up? Did you ask for this meal anytime it was your birthday? I did. When I was growing up, every year, I wanted my mom’s special lasagna and a homemade chocolate cake. For many years, it never changed. Her lasagna contains about five different cheeses. I have always been a huge fan of cheese. My favorite was the ricotta which she would just clump all over the top of the lasagna and when it heated up, there would be a little crust on the outside edge. I would bite into a big ball of ricotta, break through the crust, and sink into the creamy deliciousness inside. It was so perfect. For at least five years, on my birthday, we went to the roller rink. I’d invite about ten friends. We’d boogey on skates to Devo’s “whip it.” We wore the four wheeled skates (not inline) and mine had a pink toe guard and pink pom poms. I wore pony tails in my hair and had a favorite rainbow sweater where the rainbow ran from one sleeve through the middle and onto the other sleeve. Then, we’d head back to my house to eat lasagna and chocolate cake. It was perfect.
Then, about the time I was in college, my tastes changed. I had a horrible perm in my hair and wore shorts under shorts and little boot shoes. They were not boots but they weren’t shoes either. I seemed to have a lot of polka dotted clothes. Life wasn’t just about cheese and pasta or chocolate for that matter. I learned about other delicious meals that were healthier. I started choosing these meals not just for their health benefits, but because they were so tasty. In my twenties, my mom still asked me what I wanted for my special birthday meal. Suddenly, it became her salmon cooked in foil. This was also about the time I fell in love with red wine.
Salmon in foil has been my consistent choice for a special meal ever since. I won’t talk about my fashion sense now. It always seems normal at the time. The first day I brought Claud over to my parent’s house for dinner, I asked my mom to make salmon in foil for him. I had to impress Claud and show him that I knew about food too. He was a chef and I was intimidated. It worked: he loved it. The smell of the ginger and cilantro penetrate your senses as soon as you open the foil. The combination of the soy sauce with the garlic, herbs and lemon make the sauce so delicious; you have to sop up every last drop of it. Then, you are sad when it is finished.
Now, that I don’t rely as much on my mom’s cooking, I make this meal for my family. The best part of all of this is that this dish is so simple to make and takes about 30 minutes. Daphne has chosen this meal as her special birthday meal. She doesn’t have that cheese loving gene I have. This will help her in her thirties when extra weight doesn’t come off as easily as it used to. If you go to my blog at www.yovia.com/blogs/simplyfood, you can see a video where Daphne and I make this salmon dish together.
I ought to mention how helpful salmon is to your health. I’d hate for you to think you should make this just because it is beneficial to your health and not for the love of it; though, the health benefits are a huge bonus. This meal could stand on taste alone. However, it should be mentioned that salmon is an excellent source of Omega3 fatty acids. It is a great source of lean protein. Eating salmon is a perfect way to adhere to a Mediterranean diet.
The Mediterranean diet has been studied extensively and has been proven to promote longevity. This can be seen in the lifespan of those who live in Sardinia. There are more people living over the age of 100 years in Sardinia than almost anywhere else in the world. For more information about this, please read The Blue Zone by Dan Buettner. This is an excellent book which reveals different cultures and lifestyles. In it, Buettner promotes good food, family and friends, and the importance of humor and laughter.
You will love this recipe for the simple reason that it is beyond delicious. I thought it really should have a better name than salmon in foil; but this is what we have always called it in my family. Besides, there is something to be said about the simplicity of the name and how it correlates with the unfussiness of this dish. So, I think we’ll keep it that way.