salmon with mustard and ginger soy sauce [porter]

Alaskan sockeye salmon with soy-mustard-ginger sauce

I am on a major health kick this week.  Fiance and I took a Memorial day trip to New York City and dined our little hearts out on bagels, egg sandwiches, pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup, Patsy's pizza, Italian tasting menus, and exquisite Japanese food from Morimoto.  Now it's time to recover and put healthy food back in the system.  Having decided on fish as the main course for dinner last night, I could not pass up the wild caught Alaskan sockeye salmon that was being freshly laid out behind the seafood counter.  It was just so red.  I did what I typically do for weeknight meals: threw a bunch of stuff together that sounded good.  Here is the end result...it takes less than 20 min and it's not too shabby if I do say so my self.

Ingredients (serves 2):
12 oz salmon, with or without skin (wild caught Alaskan is best and here is why)
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp lemon pepper
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp grated or minced ginger
optional:
2 tsp ground flaxseed
1 lemon

The how to:
Place the top rack of your oven about 10 inches from the top.  Set the oven to broil and place pan on the top rack to preheat.  A cast iron pan or other oven safe pan is recommended, but I don't have these so I used my thickest baking sheet (foil lined for easy clean up) that would retain heat the best.  While the pan is heating, sprinkle the garlic salt and then the lemon pepper on the top of the salmon (the non-skin side if applicable).  These amounts should be to your taste, but I like an even thin layer of this 2:1 ratio.  Remove the pan from the oven (use a hot pad!) and place the salmon skin side down on the pan and replace on the top shelf of the oven.  Broil the salmon for 7 min.  The salmon will cook on both sides from the pan and the broiler so you do not need to turn.  I checked mine at 7 min, but the thickness of this filet took 1-3 min longer.  The fish should flake easily and still be pink (not red) in the middle when done.  While broiling, combine the remaining  ingredients (including flax seed if applicable) in a small bowl.  Remove the fish from the oven and top with a thin layer of this soy-mustard-ginger mixture.  Let rest for 5 min to let mixture sink in.  Serve with optional half lemon on each plate and see additional serving suggestions below.

Side notes:
I served this on a bed of mixed greens with very thinly sliced (more like shaved) white onion and green bell pepper.  I kept it pretty basic to feature the salmon instead of feeling like it was a salad with salmon on top.  I used the left over topping I had and mixed in ponzu, honey and a little splash of yellow mustard and used to lightly dress the greens.  I also served a small portion of roasted broccoli - it was hard to resist when I already had the oven on high heat and broccoli in my fridge.

Now that's all out of the way, I want to share why this dish is so healthy.  You can click on any of the links in the ingredient list to see more in depth information from World's Healthiest Foods (a non-profit organization dedicated to making the world a healthier place).  The salmon in this dish (6 oz per serving) provides roughly 75% of the daily recommended need of omega-3's while the flax seed and mustard help to supplement this dish to provide roughly 100% of this important requirement.  Eating a meal of this nature as little as once per week can have significant heart-health benefits.  Also, ginger, flaxseed, and mustard (and possibly soy sauce - more research needed) all offer anti-inflammatory benefits.  Lastly, lemon and ginger offer immune-system-boosting effects, which is excellent for Fiance who caught a cold near the end of our trip.

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