My Crowded Kitchen: 4/25/10

I can't believe that I haven't cooked creatively for a month!! I mean, I've cooked and some things have made mouths happy (though no skittles have been used in my gastronomic adventures), but nothing blog-worthy. There was a week on vacation in sunny Palm Springs, California where we had many wonderful meals and lots of drinking. Vineyards are fun and we drank a lot. I can recommend if anyone is planning a trip to Temecula. It wasn't Napa, but it was damn good. Plus I had a first in my life. I went to an olive oil tasting. It was like doing shots, but no booze. And none of that infused stuff, it was real cold pressed olive oil. Brought some home, can't wait to use it.
Ok, so back to our recent culinary exploit, I found a great cut of salmon and found a sauce recipe from Ellie Krieger on FoodNetwork that I appropriated and altered a bit due to a lack of ingredients in the house. I have always wanted to learn to make my own pasta sauce and I plan on doing it, hopefully sometime soon, but this recipe was a shortcut with a great result. It's got a nice kick for those who enjoy some heat.

Spicy Sauced Salmon
(borrowed from Ellie Krieger)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes, juice included

• 1 (12-ounce) can tomato sauce

• ½ tablespoon of red pepper paste

• 2 dried whole red chile peppers

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

• Salmon fillets

• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Rub olive oil into salmon fillet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes (This is the easy part)

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook until soft and golden, about 1 minute.

Add diced tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, red pepper paste, chili peppers, cumin, celery salt and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.