Expletive Salmon

For this blog's inaugural dish, I adapted 'My Life as a Mrs.'s Sweet Potato Crusted Fish w/ Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette. (Her original post is here.) Our friend (and one of my main taste-testers), Seth, insisted that I name this dish 'Expletive Salmon', since the reaction he had to the finished product is not quite fit to print.

Expletive Salmon! (Adapted from Sweet Potato Crusted Fish with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette)



Yeah. It looks pretty nasty before you blend it.



Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette:
1 cup chopped cilantro

1 clove garlic
1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 cup grated lemongrass

1/4 cup light olive oil
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
pinch of sugar (1/2 tsp)

Either throw all the ingredients in a blender or a food processor until everything is well-mixed and there are no clumps left. Taste it! I had plenty left over, as well, so hello, salad dressing!



This picture really doesn't do it justice.



Fish:
1 pound salmon (I used a huge steak, but the original recipe calls for filets, so I doubt it matters)

2 large peeled and finely shredded sweet potato



1 egg plus 2 egg whites
1/2 cup flour - seasoned with a little salt & pepper
2 TBS canola oil
2 TBS butter

a splash of hot sauce



Add flour to a plate or bowl (the key is to use a dish large enough to fit a whole piece of your fish; I did not do this) and season with salt and pepper. In another one, whisk together 1 egg plus 2 egg whites and a splash of hot sauce (a trick I'm stealing from HerSouthernGreatness Paula Deen's fried chicken).

Preheat oven to 375°. Melt the butter with the oil in whatever dish you're planning to cook the fish in. I used my casserole dish (I have a thing with cooking meats in the same dishes that I use for desserts), but you could use pretty much any oven-safe pan or sheet with edges.

Arrange a fairly generous fish-shaped layer of shredded sweet potato in the pan.



Coat your fish thoroughly in the flour mixture, then dunk it in the egg mixture, then once more back into the flour. Place the fish over the sweet potato in the pan, and toss it in the oven for about 4 minutes.



Take the pan out of the oven, pick up the fish (and as much of the sweet potato as you can get) with a spatula, and lay down another layer of sweet potato in the pan. Gently flip the other (non-sweet-potato-d) side of the fish onto the new bed of shred (yay, rhyming!). Put the fish back in the oven and cook it for another 5-7 minutes (you want it to be opaque all the way through). I squeezed a bit of lime over everything about 3 minutes into the second round of cooking. I don't know that it made much of a difference in the taste, but it sure smelled amazing!

Once the fish is thoroughly cooked, drizzle (or douse) the vinaigrette over your fish, and enjoy! I served the meal with some rice noodles tossed with garlic and olive oil, but I'm sure it would be amazing with a salad or just plain, too!

Side note: I'm on the hunt for our camera charger so I can take more pictures of the process. Hubby says he knows where it is. We shall see.