quick salmon for two

Last night I stopped at the grocery store - exhausted after getting out of work late. It was much too cold to venture out to a restaurant so I had to choose something simple yet tasty. I already had a great beet soup ready to go in the fridge (care of my mother) so I decided to go with salmon - quick, easy, and delicious.

(I picked a fillet that came in just under a pound - to share with my boyfriend.)  

I had read in Food and Wine magazine this month about a great Salmon dry rub but I was in too much of a hurry to look up the recipe (usually not wise) so I tried recreating it from memory. 

First I set the rice to steam, as that takes about half an hour, and I turned my oven on to 350 degrees F. 

I toasted some spices, about a tablespoon of each:

Fennel seeds

Whole Black Pepper 

Red Pepper flakes

When they were golden and fragrant I moved them to my mortar + pestle and ground them to a coarse powder along with a teaspoon of each of the following:

kosher salt

garlic powder

ground cumin

I then rubbed the spice mix into the salmon - both sides - wrapped it in plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge for 10 minutes. 

When the rice was almost finished I put the soup on the stove to heat up. After unwrapping the salmon I rubbed it with about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and pan fried each side to make a nice crispy crust. Next I transferred it to a rimmed baking sheet and into the oven it went for 7 or 8 minutes - until just flaking. 

(use a rack towards the upper third of the oven) 

Everything should finish at about the same time - making this a perfect dinner when you're in a hurry - or just don't feel like slaving in the kitchen for hours :-)

All in all it was a great dinner! I still had enough energy afterwards to mix us up some cocktails and boyfriend  loved it which is always a score in  my book!!