Sesame Orange Salmon

If you’re curious to try the recipe for the dish I paired with carricante here it is!

INGREDIENTS

• Oranges (2)
• 6 ounce Salmon filets (2)
• Fennel Bulb (1)
• Olive Oil (2 Tsp)
• Baby Spinach (3 cups)
• Green Onions (3)
• Fresh Ginger (1 Tsp)
• Rice Vinegar (6 Tsp)
• Sesame Oil (3Tsp)
• Sea Salt and Pepper (as desired)
• Quinoa, Cooked (10 ounces)
• White Beans, Cooked (1 cup)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Use a sharp knife to cut off the top and bottom of the orange, then carefully slice away the rest of the peel and discard. Working over a bowl to capture any juices, run the knife blade along the inside of each membrane to cut out each segment. (This is how you supreme an orange… a fancy culinary term I just learned!)
3. Coat a small baking dish with cooking oil spray: sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper and place in dish, drizzle with reserved orange juice (I squeeze the discarded pieces to get more), and bake 15 to 18 minutes. Set aside.
4. Meanwhile, thinly slice fennel bulb and saute in a large sauce pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper til it starts to brown, around 5 minutes.
5. Add quinoa and white beans to fennel. I use a bag of frozen quinoa that I can throw in the microwave to save time as well as a can of great northern white beans, drained. Feel free to make both fresh if you want to! Heat the mixture for about 3 minutes.
6. Add spinach to mixture and sautee it all for about 2 minutes until the spinach just begins to wilt. Remove from heat.
7. Finely chop green onions. Place half in a small bowl and keep the rest to the side.
8. Finely chop ginger and add to the bowl. Add rice vinegar and sesame oil and whisk to combine. Drizzle over the fennel mixture and toss to combine. I keep a tiny bit behind to drizzle over the salmon along with extra ginger and sesame seeds if desired.
9. Top quinoa mixture with salmon and the remaining green onion; season to taste with sea salt. Arrange the orange segments around the dish.

I truly love this dish paired with carricante, like the Pietradolce Archineri I wrote about in my carricante post, but you could also pair this dish with a chardonnay or viognier. ENJOY!