Friday, September 2, 2011

Salmon With Lemon Shallot Butter


Steve and I have lived in Alaska for going on seven years, and we went fishing for the first time today.  This was a massive act of love on Steve's part because he doesn't even like fish.



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Last night a few of the teachers put a net in the water.  The net is attached to the white buoys you can see in the pictures above.



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We pulled the net to shore looking for fish.




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Okay, so the use of the word "we" was a little generous.  Steve was the only Alston that did any of the actual pulling of the net.




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The fish get tangled as they try to swim through the net.


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Steve was a pro at untangling the fish.



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The lineup.  Notice the sanitary conditions.  :)



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Me with the future fillet.






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Steve humored me and posed for a fish picture too.




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The beginning of the fillet.  A nice slice below the head.



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Hard at work in the filleting process.



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The other filleting stations.



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This is what was left after I was done filleting.  The leftovers were donated to one of the local dogsled teams.



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The fillets were reserved for human consumption.  I took a couple and cooked them in a bit of hot vegetable oil.  After a couple of minutes, I put them in the oven.

Note to readers: the pictured fillet was not filleted by me.  It was filleted by another teacher earlier in the day.



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While the fillet baked, I gathered some of this beautiful lemon zest.



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I added the zest to some butter, shallots, and lemon juice, inspired by this.



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The finished fillet with the sauce.  It was delicious.  Even Steve agreed.  Maybe there's something to this fishing thing after all...

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