Lime- and Honey-Glazed Salmon with Basmati and Broccolini

When I started this blog, I aspired to write about my attempts at cooking and trying new recipes. But along the way, I ended up posting more about all the things I've been eating rather than what I was cooking, so in the new year, I'm hoping to try more recipes, whether they turn out well or really bad. I also have this bad habit of flagging pages and pages of recipes I want to try in food magazines, only to have them sit there on my desk collecting dust rather than getting splattered on by hot grease or smeared by savory sauces. My stack of magazines are starting to look like a sterile display of rainbow colored tabs. We can't let that happen, can we?

So in the new year (minus the weeks I am in Korea and Vietnam), I am going to attempt to make a new dish at least once a week. I saw a fairly easy recipe in Bon Appetit for a salmon dish with rice and veggies that you can cook in one pot. Sounds innocuous enough, right? It was really simple to make and it even got the seal of approval from Papa Choi, so I wanted to share this quick and easy recipe with you.

Lime- and Honey-Glazed Salmon with Basmati and Broccolini

adapted from Bon Appetit

3/4 cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons finely grated lime peel

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro plus additional for sprinkling

4 teaspoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

3/4 cup sliced shallots (about 3 large)

1 1/2 cups basmati rice

3 1/4 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth

4 salmon fillets (about 5- to 6-ounces each)

1 bunch broccolini, bottom inch trimmed

Preheat oven to 450 F. Whisk lime juice, lime peel, honey, 2 tablespoons of cilantro and soy sauce in a small bowl. I couldn't find my Microplane Grater, so I used a vegetable peeler and peeled the skin of the lime and finely chopped it with my knife. Set the sauce aside.

Heat oil in large deep ovenproof skillet or casserole (with lid) over medium-high heat. Add shallots and saute until they soften and brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in rice, then 3 1/4 cups broth; bring to boil. Here's the chicken broth, rice and sauteed shallots being cooked together.

Cover skillet tightly with lid; place in oven and bake 10 minutes (rice will be almost cooked through and most of the broth will be absorbed; mix in more broth if dry).

Remove skillet from oven. Sprinkle rice lightly with salt and taste. Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper and arrange on rice, pressing in lightly. Tuck broccolini in around fish. Spoon 1 tablespoon lime mixture over each salmon fillet. Cover skillet tightly and return to oven; bake until salmon is just opaque in center and broccolini is crisp-tender, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Drizzle remaining lime mixture over fish and rice; sprinkle with additional chopped cilantro and serve.

I think the recipe called for skinless salmon fillets, but I just left the skin on, because that's the best part! But since I cooked it in a casserole, the skin didn't get brown and crispy. Next time, I'd probably sear the salmon skin side down real fast in a fry pan and then nestle it in the rice to cook in the oven. Then you'd get perfectly cooked salmon with a delicious crispy skin to boot. Overall, super easy, super fast and super yummy. Apparently it's pretty healthy too. Bon Appetit provided the following nutritional content.

Calories: 473

Fat: 14 g

Fiber: 5 g