Baked Salmon with Lime, Cilantro, and Corn

Weird. I'm eating healthy. Who knew it could be this easy? Two weeks now sans butter or margarine at home. Dinner tonight? Salmon baked on a bed of fresh corn, red pepper, shallot, cilantro, and lime. Very, very good.

For anyone who's known me long at all, they know I don't do seafood. In bits and pieces over the last year I've occasionally expanded out. I've had some nice home-baked halibut and salmon, which I never thought I'd enjoy, but it turns out I'm learning to. It's all because of the staff party a couple years back at Rodney's Oyster House, when I vowed to my friend I'd try anything that came my way.

Because I can often cook circles around most people, I tend to have a "if the chef's an expert, I'm gonna try it" attitude about trusting professional kitchens, a la Rodney's. Who's gonna do oysters better than a 4-star house famous for it? No one. Right, so. I didn't mind anything I tried that night. It was all good.

The salmon I'm having tonight goes a little like this:

1 cup fresh corn off the cob
1/4 cup red pepper diced fine
1/2 shallet, diced fine
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Squeeze a half lime over that, mix it up. Put it all in the middle of a large sheet of aluminum foil. Put a 150-200 gram piece of wild salmon over it. A little salt and pepper, then put three lime slices over the salmon. Wrap the foil up and seal it tight, seam-side up. Bake in a preheated 450-degree oven for 15-20 minutes, and then open up and enjoy. Serves one. :)

Really, really good. I've made an extra bag of the corn, etc, which I'm freezing so I can come home, yank it out, saute it for a minute to get it thawed, throw a salmon on it and have a quickie, healthy meal sometime next week. Planning ahead. Tomorrow, though, my turkey stock gets strained, then it's time for a small batch of potato-leek soup and flax seed pita pockets with a peppers & chicken filling that'll be delish.

Gotta love hearty fall cooking. This healthy bent I'm on is strangely satisfying. Geez. Whodathunkit.