Peppery Brown Sugar Salmon and Roasted Chickpeas with Garlic and Spinach

Well, this is pretty much one of the best meals I've made. I love it when brown sugar finds its way into the main course (my mom used to serve squash with brown sugar at Thanksgiving, and it's used as a base in her Fricassee Chicken), and I stumbled across this salmon recipe, derived from here, so I gave it a try.

I've heard arguments against and for farmed salmon, and the wild Sockeye salmon was more expensive and had bones; but the true test is in the taste, so I bought a fillet of each. The result: Wild Sockeye salmon is salmon. Atlantic farmed salmon is a white fish that looks salmonlike. It still tastes good, but true salmon it is not. In this case, more intense colour equals more intense flavour.

Peppery Brown Sugar Salmon

2 salmon fillets
1 Tbsp butter, melted
3 Tbsp brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Place salmon fillets on a foil-lined baking sheet and pat dry.
3. Brush fillets with melted butter.
4. Combine the sugar and seasonings in a bowl and mix.
5. Sprinkle seasonings over the salmon and press down gently.
6. Bake for 20 minutes.

This guy recommends broiling for a couple minutes at the end to caramelize the brown sugar, but I forgot.

I've wanted to try Julie's roasted chickpea recipe for a long time, and finally found myself with some leftover chickpeas and spinach (not chard -- but close enough). The original recipe is here. I roasted (almost) a can of chickpeas, a head of garlic (peeled and cloves halved), some chopped green onions and a few bay leaves in olive oil in a skillet for about 25 minutes in the oven at 425°F. I set them aside and used the skillet to cook the spinach on the stovetop in 1/2 cup chicken broth (not too much -- just for a couple minutes). The extra liquid was drained from the skillet and the chickpeas mixed in, salted and peppered. This recipe is amazing! I could eat the whole thing as a meal on its own. And probably will someday.