Ever since I’ve finished reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food [I'll talk more about the book later, it's a real gem.], I can’t help but think of ways to eat organic and local. I’ve been doing my best to eat organic food for years now, but didn’t pay much attention to where they came from. By eating locally farmed food, not only do we get really fresh food, but it traveled less so the nutrients are more intact compared to (fresh food) that braved thousands of miles to get to our grocery stores. That’s one of the things I remember reading.

I actually picked up Pollan’s book when I got here in Vancouver. Was it such a coincidence that my frequent weekly stops — my friend’s spa and my chiropractor — are within the same vicinity as the Granville Island public market? It’s meant. :-) Last week, after having a facial that made my skin very happy and getting one of my last few therapies for my back, I headed down to the public market to shop for dinner. I picked some beautiful fresh sea scallops, fresh spinach linguine, rye sourdough bread [not in photos], pancetta [what a deal for $2.29 for 100 grams!], and rosemary.

And voila, dinner:

The scallops were to die for. They were so unbelievably fresh, sweet, and did I mention they were huge? I seared them on the same pan and oil where the pancetta was fried. I cooked the ‘sauce’ on that pan as well, so it had all the nice flavors to go with the tomatoes, onions, and garlic. The scallops cooked darker than usual because of the whole wheat flour it was rolled in, but you can use white flour if you prefer. I placed the crispy pancetta one on top of another, then a little stem of rosemary (you’ll be using just one rosemary sprig divided into three for this recipe), and the hot scallop going on top. The heat brought out the nice aroma of the rosemary.

I’m still trying to learn to sear scallops. It looked so easy during our cooking class but alas, I couldn’t replicate them. Ugh. Here I go again, being the perfectionist. I hope it’s not going to be an obsession like those Cinnamon Rolls.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe [and almost step-by-step photos]:

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One of the many things I love about Vancouver is the fresh seafood — especially salmon. Salmmmmmon. Give it to me raw, fried, baked, seared, rolled in sushi rice, smoked…I’ll take it!

Aside from baking salmon ‘sandwiches’, I like making salmon in pockets. Why? It’s the simplest thing to prepare and you get a great tasting salmon that’s cooked to perfection. You can eat with grains, veggies, or if you’re like me who likes quick cooking, enjoy it with whole grain spaghetti.

I love that you just put everything in each ‘pocket’, leave it to bake and it’s done. See?

Have a go at it sometime and you’ll love that you don’t have to put too much effort to be rewarded with a great little dish that could (win your heart).

BAKED SALMON POCKET

Ingredients (Serves 1)

• 1 salmon fillet, about an inch thick
• 1 roma tomato, cut in chunks
• 1/4 cup white onion, sliced
• lemon juice (quarter a lemon and have one for each fillet)
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• pepper

You’ll need parchment paper or aluminum foil to make your ‘pocket’.

Preparation

1. Preheat over to 375ºF with the rack in the middle.
2. Cut a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil big enough to fold over and tent (i.e. enough space at the top) an individual fillet. Place it on a baking dish or baking sheet.
3. At the center, put half of the onion, creating a ‘bed’ for the salmon.
4. Put the salmon on top of it and sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper.
5. Place the rest of the onion and the tomato chunks on top of the salmon, and lightly drizzle with olive oil.
6. Fold the lengthwise ends together, and fold and tuck in at the sides. Make sure to leave a tent/balloon at the top.
7. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, then keep the salmon in the oven for an extra 10 minutes.
8. Take out of the oven and serve immediately. You can use a spatula to take it out of the wrapping or place the pocket on individual plates to serve.
9. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice on the salmon before devouring. Delish!

Dan and I dream about food and plan party menus way ahead of time. When we hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our place, rest assured everything was thoughtfully put together. Isn’t that crazy? Lately, all I can think about and keep feeding Dan is chocolate (can you tell?), thanks to this contest.

Anyway, back to what I was saying, I couldn’t help it. I’m a victim of autosuggestion — all those repetitive thoughts about chocolate, from all your beautiful websites and the Food Network chocolate specials, and now I feel like it flows through my veins and it’s haunting me! I have three chocolate projects coming up, just because I lose sleep thinking about making them — does that every happen to you? But I’ll save them for Valentine’s week.

For now, we’ll take a chocolate break today to give you something healthy. [I laughed when I read Arnold's comment yesterday that his doctor does not recommend visiting this site. Funny.]

I absolutely LOVE seafood, but Dan doesn’t. On the few occasions that he is willing to eat them, you bet I’m all over it. Last week we bought fresh shrimps and I asked if he wanted them for lunch and he said yes. What’s a seafood-deprived girl left to do? Scramble to find out what she can cook, make it as fast as possible, and feed it to him before he changes his mind! We both loved this Shrimp Stir-Fry experiment I cooked and I had to jot down what I did right after we ate so I’ll remember how I made it and what I made it with. All this hard work…haha.

Here’s a visual step-by-step cooking guide:

The recipe is behind the cut. Read the full story