Last Week's Dinners: Salmon vs. Crab

It was hot here last week. Can-barely-imagine-cooking hot. Don't-bother-drying-your-hair hot. Hope-you-enjoyed-spring-because-now-it's-summer hot.

All of which to me also mean: seafood hot.

I don't cook a ton of fish at home; seafood kind of makes me nervous because I'm always sure I'm about to overcook it (but I also really dislike undercooked fish). When I want something seafoody, I usually turn to shrimp because it's easy.

This past week, though, I exhausted my shrimp option early (on Tuesday) and I was left with a lot of meals to make, way too much heat in the kitchen, and a strong desire to eat fish. So I took some chances.

On Wednesday night, after my big trip to Whole Foods, we had Wild Alaskan sockeye salmon. I ccoked it on our grill pan inside (too hot for Cooper to cook on the grill, though we actually did eat outside, once the sun went down), made this lime butter sauce to go with it, and added a salad and some couscous with spinach and grape tomatoes on the side.

I overcooked the fish a tiny bit, and I actually don't love salmon anyway (I just wish I did). But it was a nice dinner overall and the lime butter sauce was great. Frothy and really balanced - the acidity of the lime is a great match for the richness of butter. It was super easy and would be nice on white fish or chicken, too.

Thursday was Woodberry Kitchen and we went to a cookout on Friday, but Saturday night we got back on the fish. That is, if crab cakes count as fish. I pretend they do, in spite of all the cholesterol.

Anyway. Saturday we spent the say swimming at my parents' beach, and wrapped up the night with a rainstorm and some crab. My crab cake recipe comes from the Annapolis Junior League cookbook and it is as easy as it is good (to clarify: they're really easy to make and they're awesome). I actually wrote about them a long time ago, back when I used to actually publish recipes here.

We had a salad with the crabs, too, along with sweet potato fries that were cooked in the oven. Really simple, not very colorful, but my favorite kind of summer dinner.

Woodberry Kitchen was obviously our favorite dinner of the week, but I think that Saturday comes in second (probably distant, but still). Wednesday's salmon was very good, but probably would've been better if I a) hadn't overcooked it and b) liked salmon as much as I like crab.

Overall, though, good week, especially for one that was so miserably hot.