Fish Hater

I grew up camping and fishing. The only thing that bothers me about touching a fish is the fear of getting a hook in my hand. And yes, I gut my own fish, I feel ripped off if I don't get to gut my own fish. I grew up in the North, what can I say? BUT don't ask me to eat one of those things. Sick. No fish, no salmon, not smoked, dried, or canned. It all tastes like fish. Nasty. The only fish I eat on a "regular" basis is tuna and on a rare occasion breaded 'white' fish. That's it.

This past summer, my husbands parents bought some maple glazed salmon skewers from m&m's. And they were actually good. Like really good. I always have mommy guilt that I should feed my family salmon because it's 'good' for you but never end up making it to m&m's.

This last shopping trip I bought a cheap pack of salmon... ummm filets, maybe? steaks? chunks? Sorry, I wasn't paying that close of attention. I thought maybe I could try and make my own glaze to mimic the skewers we had. Now this was a big undertaking, as I had NEVER cooked fish before. I told my husband that we might be ordering pizza later...

To my surprise (I don't know why, I happen to be an amazing cook) it was fan-freaking-tastic! Sooo because this was such an epic dinner for me I'll share my stolen recipe (from allrecipes.com) with you!

I used this for 4 portions...

1/2 cup real maple syrup
3 tablespoons soy sauce (original recipe would be 4 tbsp)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

mix it all together in a bowl or dish
marinate your salmon in it for no longer than 30 minutes total (I flipped mine halfway in a casserole dish)
heat some oil in a pan
cook about 5 minutes each side (of course this depends on the thickness, mine were a good inch thick)

When I flipped mine in the pan I poured a bit more of the glaze on and let them cook in it, and when they were done I put the salmon in the oven (because my rice had 5 more minutes) and cooked the rest of the glaze in the pan until it thickened. I liked putting a bit of extra glaze on mine, my husband ate it as it was. But it was awesome, it tasted nothing like fish!