Salmon with Lemon Dill Caper Sauce & Lemon Rice

Even if you're not a fish lover, you will love this sauce on any fish!  Especially over a wild caught piece of salmon or a beautiful white halibut.  My kids will eat any fish with this sauce on it and I hope yours will too.  Tell them the capers are little pickles (if they like pickles) and it goes over great :)  I just got done serving this at a yoga retreat this weekend and all the ladies loved it too!

This lemon rice recipe is one I got from my mother and it is so divine!  To make it a little healthier, I use a brown rice, but the flavor is still wonderful because of the pungent lemon juice!  I can't wait for you to try it.

To prepare, start with the rice first.  Brown rice takes a while to make, so get that started and then move on to make your fish.  Once the fish is in the oven, make your sauce, steam some broccoli, and you'll be ready for a delicious meal!  I take a good large piece of wild caught salmon and put it on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.  Rub the fish with a little olive oil, salt & pepper, and sprinkle with dill.  Then slice a lemon & put thin slices over the top of the fish.  Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes (or according to package directions if using a frozen fish) until the middle is flaky when touched with a fork.  Cut into pieces and serve with the lemon caper sauce.

Lemon Dill Caper Sauce
1/4 c. butter
1 T. olive oil
1 t. chopped garlic
1/4 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. whipping cream
1/4 c. capers, drained
1/8 t. pepper
1/4 t. dill
1 T. lemon juice, fresh

Sauce butter, olive oil, and garlic for a couple of minutes.  Then add the broth and cream and whisk until it starts to simmer.  Once it's simmering, turn down heat to maintain a small simmer & add the capers, pepper, dill, & fresh lemon juice.  Let simmer 5 minutes to reduce and thicken a little.  If your sauce seems too runny, sprinkle some Wondra (quick mixing flour found in the baking aisle in a container) or flour and whisk until the desired consistency.  I use about 1-2 T. of Wondra to thicken.  It just depends on how thick you want it.
Pour over any fish & enjoy!  The sauce will refrigerate for a week or two.

Lemon Rice
2 c. brown rice
4 c. water
1 T. olive oil
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 c. lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 t. salt
1 T. chicken bouillon or paste (Better than Bouillon)

Boil water, add rice & oil once it's boiling, then reduce heat, cover and cook for about 45 minutes or until rice is cooked and water is gone.
Meanwhile, chop onion and saute it in 1/2 c. butter & 1/4 c. olive oil.  Once the onion is soft, about 5 minutes, add the lemon juice, salt, and bouillon.  Whisk until it's all blended.  Keep on low heat until rice is ready to mix in.  Once rice is done, toss it with the sauce and it's ready to go!

   

Oat Cakes

This is a recipe that I absolutely love!  Thanks for finding it Malinda :) They are a mix between a scone and a muffin.  They have a heartier, heavier texture than a muffin, but not so hard like a brick scone!  They are very natural and good for you!  The first day you cook them they are divine, the days after that, they start to dry up, so crumble them up over some greek yogurt & honey or freeze them to use at a later date.

From "Super Natural Every Day: Well-Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen" by Heidi Swanson

OAT CAKES

3 cups rolled oats

2 cups spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

2 teaspoons fine-grain sea salt

1/4 cup flax seeds

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, lightly toasted (see page 219)

1/3 cup extra-virgin coconut oil

1/3 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup natural cane sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 325°F  with a rack in the top third of the oven. Butter two standard 12-cup muffin pans or line them with papers.

Combine the oats, flour, baking powder, salt, flax seeds, and walnuts in a large mixing bowl.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine the coconut oil, butter, maple syrup, and sugar and slowly melt together. Stir just until the butter melts and sugar has dissolved, but don’t let the mixture get too hot. You don’t want it to cook the eggs on contact in the next step.

Pour the coconut oil mixture over the oat mixture. Stir a bit with a fork, add the eggs, and stir again until everything comes together into a wet dough. Spoon the dough into the muffin cups, nearly filling them.

Bake for 15-20 minutes (regular size muffin pan) or 10-15 minutes (mini pans), until the edges of each oatcake are lightly golden. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for a couple minutes. Then, run a knife around the edges of the cakes and tip them out onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 18 oatcakes or 30-40 mini ones

*I prefer to make them in mini muffin tins because they are so dense I would rarely eat an entire muffin.  The mini muffins are perfect snack size.  You have to be very careful not to over bake these or they become very dry.