A Quick, Conscientious Meal with Help from The Hotel Kitchen

Last night I prepared an exquisite meal, if I don’t say so myself, amongst the screaming children, disorganization, and typical chaos of my endearingly colorful household.

The occasion was my fiance’s birthday – yet, don’t be deceived – this delicious dinner is not the only event to commemorate my beloved’s 26th year. He’s one of “those people” who enjoys multiple birthday celebrations. Alas, there wasn’t too much pressure on my meal.

Since I knew this meal would be prepared on a weeknight filled with its usual shenanigans, I was afraid making something truly crafted and special would be difficult – especially considering my recent pursuit to utilize mainly locally source ingredients.

Therefore I enlisted the help of the collection of gourmet dressings, salsas, and chutneys made by the hotel collection I work for called The Hotel Kitchen, along with the advice of one of our chefs, Joshua Gaanzevort.

The Menu:

Salmon marinated in Citrette Dressing, topped with Michigan Jalapeno Cherry Chutney

Roasted fingerling potatoes topped with goat cheese and Roasted Three Pepper Salsa

Steamed green beans with butter and Herbette Dressing

Chickpea salad with Herbette Dressing

Ambitious for a Thursday night following a full day of work, picking up Brady from daycare, and making a run to the grocery store.

Fortunately, I picked up a few items from the Fulton Street Farmer’s Market earlier in the week, like:

Cucumbers

 

Fresh Herbs

 

Tomatoes

Garlic, potatoes, and other stuff that grows in the ground

The Process

Out of the gate, I knew my two priorities were to:

1. Get the salmon marinating
2. Get the potatoes cooking

I had considered marinating the salmon the night before, but Chef Gaanzevort advised against this, since salmon can become mushy when marinated for more than an hour or two.

First things first, I preheat the oven for 400 degrees and seasoned the salmon with a little salt and pepper.

Salmon seasoned with salt and pepper

Then I dumped on the Citrette Dressing, and stuck it in the fridge. I noted how this saved significant time from my typical salmon prep, which includes mincing some garlic and herbs, squeezing lemons, etc.

Salmon with Citrette Dressing on top

Next, I cut the potatoes in half and threw some evoo, salt, and pepper on them before putting in the oven.

 

Potatoes destined for the oven

Next, I filled a pot with water and threw the beans in. Though Chef Gaanzevort recommended steaming the beans, I don’t have a steamer and didn’t want to set up a rig for steaming after I’d already gone through the dreaded process of snipping beans (my pet peeve). This ended up being too soon to get the beans started – I had to stop and restart cooking them later, which took away from the flavor and freshness.

 

My prematurely cooked green beans

Next, I needed to get the chickpea salad. I realized I hadn’t read Chef Ganzevoort’s recipe closely – the chickpeas were actually supposed to cook with the rosemary, garlic, mustard, and vinegar before being combined with the other salad ingredients.

I got the little beans going in a pan while I tore the rosemary from the fresh plant I’d bought at the market, along with some minced garlic and water.

Chickpeas marrying with some rosemary and garlic

Now the pressure was on. The green beans were boiling, I could hear the evoo surrounding the potatoes snapping in the oven, the chickpeas were heating up, and I hadn’t even begun the salmon or chopping of vegetables for the salad.

Fortunately, the salmon was looking great after just a few minutes marinating.

Marination creation

I got a pan screaming hot with olive oil and seared the salmon on both sides to lock the juices in. It was looking beautifully brown before heading into the oven.

Seared salmon

Now I had just enough time to season up the chickpeas and chop the rest of the salad ingredients. I added some salt, pepper, mustard, and red wine vinegar to the chickpeas and gave them a stir.

Chickpeas gettin’ steamy

‘Twas time to get a choppin’. I used my extremely layman chopping techniques to get the cucumbers and tomatoes cubed up.

Cutting Cucumbers

Woo-hoo! Home stretch. I went outside and gave Brady and his rambunctious friends (not to mention the birthday boy) a 10-minute warning.

I put some goat cheese on the potatoes and put them back in the oven so the cheese could melt and become awesome.

Mmmmmmmm….

I combined the salad ingredients, tossed with the Herbette Dressing, and topped with some parsley pulled from the farmers market plant. Lookin’ good!

 

Chickpea salad – done!

Once the table was set, it was time for the finishing touches. Honestly, being able to finish everything off with something unique and gourmet (not to mention locally sourced and packaged) without a ton of extra work was a Godsend.

I topped the salmon with the Michigan Jalapeno Cherry Chutney…

Bam!

Garnished the cheesy potatoes with Roasted Three Pepper Salsa…

Sha-zam!

And tossed the green beans in butter and Herbette Dressing…

Bringing sexy back

Aside from the fit thrown by my offspring about having to stop playing and come to the table, and the shipment of clutter that needed to be relocated from my dining room table to make room for the spread, this meal was a complete success!

Brady and I sang Happy Birthday to Mike, which caused him to smile awkwardly, which is always a joy.

Mike isn’t typically a salmon guy, but he LOVED this salmon. Along with 4-year-old Michael Scott, our neighbor boy, who actually put an entire filet in his mouth, later pulling the skin out.

Getting two humans under age five to eat salmon has to be among The Hotel Kitchen line’s greatest accomplishments.

Next up, I’ll be using these to tackle the appetizer party – the kind of spreads that are always pain-in-the-you-know-whats for those of us who like to be pretentious and have fancy organic stuff but have no time.

Now, to get home from work so I can dig into the chickpea salad leftovers…I have a feeling that bowl of vibrant goodness is going to be even better after chilling the the fridge for a day.