Sockeye on Pan-Crisped Potatoes & Green Beans

Welcome to my Colorado kitchen!

This series features me, Michelle — a writer and soccer mom from the Rocky Mountains — my husband and two kids, some beautiful Vital Choice seafood and lots of regular home cooking.

(Click here to learn more about me, below.)

I want to feature the products and preparations you’re curious about.

Have a suggestion? Question? Recipe you want me to test?

Email me and help to shape this series.

It’s a magical time of year now, when there’s still plenty of summer produce — and cool enough to coexist with kitchen heat!

For this recipe test, I slow-roasted Vital Choice Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon to moist and delicate perfection.

To create a tasty foundation for the salmon, I lightly steamed and then pan-crisped small new potatoes, green beans, and shallots.

Looking to infuse more flavors, I added a few briny Kalamata olives to the veggies and topped the salmon with an easy — entirely optional — lemon zest compound butter midway through the roasting.

The new potatoes and shallots invoke memories of breakfast potatoes and onions, so this dish would make a lovely, satisfying, colorful brunch.

A few notes for the cook
Despite its abundant fat, sockeye is prone to overcooking.

Pan- frying and grilling cook it very quickly and require checking the fish frequently.

Poaching is the safest, most forgiving method for sockeye salmon, but slow-roasting comes in a close second.

Slow roasting provides an effortless way to cook sockeye salmon through, while keeping it moist and tender.

By roasting sockeye at just 275ºF, you have a bit more wiggle room on cook time, and the lemony butter topping will slowly melt over the fish without burning.

By steaming the vegetables before you pan-crisp them in olive oil, you’ll release their bright colors (and certain nutrients) and preserve their texture while shortening their roasting time to match the salmon’s.

Feel free to tinker with the butter by adding complementary herbs or spices — flavors like parsley, thyme, sage, garlic, or (a touch of) oregano would fit this recipe well.

Just take a little softened butter, stir in your flavorings and refrigerate until the fish is halfway done.

Midway through the slow roasting, add a dab to each portion. It’s such a simple way to add a little last-minute flavor!

My rating: 4 out of 4 stars