Salmon

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The recipe in the newspaper calls for 6 – 8 ounces of salmon per person, a splash of dry white wine, some butter and a dab of honey.  Now, what ingredients might be worthy of adapting for me?  Well, if I’m avoiding dairy, then I’d better substitute another fat for the butter, and probably add more of whatever fat that is.  How about the honey?  It’ll be less than 2 teaspoons.  That’s probably okay.

In truth, my biggest concern about this recipe involves the amount of protein.  If I eat too much protein, the excess does a goofy tumble to my body’s ability to maintain and repair itself.  Plus the excess turns to sugar and ammonia waste products, driving up my blood sugars throughout the day and increasing the likelihood that I’ll have protein-produced bad breath in the morning.

So, let’s see how that protein stands with me.  Hmmm . . . . If a person has a lean body mass that’s similar to mine (you don’t count your fat mass when determining protein needs–just lean stuff, meaning mostly bone and muscles, and of course, the water), then my lean body mass is roughly 99 pounds, times .7 grams of protein per pound of lean body would be plenty and probably a bit more than I really need.  Anyway, by this conservative estimate, my maximum protein needs would be roughly 65 grams a day.  And let’s say that an evening meal should represent maybe 1/3 to 1/2 my daily protein.  Max.  Now, what would eating 6-8 ounces of salmon do to my protein goal for the day?

Let’s see:  7 ounces of salmon would give me 42 grams of protein, so well over 2/3rds of what I really need for this single meal.  However, hmm.  I generally eat 2 large eggs for breakfast, which adds only about 12 more grams of protein.  I often eat those eggs with half a bunch of kale, which adds a couple more protein grams.  That’s only 14 protein grams for breakfast.  So if I ate my normal breakfast, plus all the salmon they’re recommending, I would have a total of 56 grams of protein already.  So maybe a couple of eggs at lunch?  Or an appetizer with just 2 ounces of beef?

I might be better off eating more protein at lunch and HALF a serving of this special salmon at dinner time.  But Y’know, I think I could do this one now and then, I could eat a whole serving that they’ve shown here in this recipe:

Salmon Recipe from the Washington Post, via the Boulder Daily Camera, adapted from “The Country Cooking of Ireland . . . and adapted just a little more by me.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1200 grams boneless salmon (4 fillets, roughly 6 or 7 ounces each)
  • 45 grams Dry white wine (1/4 cup, or roughly 3 Tbs)
  • 30 grams Extra Virgin Olive Oil (2 Tb)
  • 15 grams Honey (1 Tb)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Put the broiler rack about 5 inches from the top of the oven.
  2. Place the salmon filets skin side down and sprinkle very lightly with salt
  3. Combine fresh lemon juice, wine, olive oil and honey in a saucepan and reduce the liquid by evaporating some of the water in the wine.
  4. Brush onto the salmon fillets, or if you don’t have a brush, kind of pour and spread with a spoon
  5. Broil the salmon roughly 7 minutes, until a little brown on top and “just done”
  6. Serve hot with greens that include a nice, rich, high fat dressing, so that you increase the fat content of this otherwise, too-lean entree.  We recommend either the basic green salad with and oil and lemon dressing, or the Ceasar Salad with homemade mayonaisse.

BROILED SALMON YIELDS 4 Servings

  • Fat – 39%; Protein – 49%; Carbs – 5%

  • Grams per serving:  Fat – 25 grams; Protein – 60 grams; Carbs – 6 grams

  • Calories per serving:  600

COMMENTS

Kind of fun to find something I could eat straight out of the newspaper recipe column.  And if I want to eat more protein at lunch, then I can eat half a standard portion of this salmon for dinner (let’s say 3 1/2 ounces) then save the other half to have for breakfast.  Yum!