A long time ago, when my boyfriend  (now husband), Hamy and I started living together, I barely knew how to cook. I think I could make some eggs and maybe some pasta (and that is still debatable), but that was about it. I for sure did not know how to cook rice, which is a staple in the Malagasy (from Madagascar) cuisine. We were students and did not have a lot of money then; so either we invited ourselves at our parents’ tables, or we ate street food or my husband cooked. My role in the kitchen was more to help him cut, wash etc. However, I loved to eat and soon, I was facing a dilemma of wanting to eat a dish and not knowing how to cook it.

At first, I called my mom and asked her how to make my favorite dishes then I would ask my husband to cook it with me. Then I started to watch  and observe when other people cooked and learned the basics. A friend of mine taught me how to cook rice perfectly, a la malagasy, when I was in graduate school. But even though  I got better at cooking over the years, I can still say that my husband is still the more creative one in the kitchen. He is one of those people who can just whip up a dish and it would turn out awesome. Or maybe I am just biased because I am his number one fan.

His big specialty is the makeover of left-overs. He will take a left-over dish and turn into something completely different. A sauteed dish will become a soup; a veggie asian style dish will end up a curry dish with kitchen. Unfortunately, as surprising and delicious as they are, these types of dishes are practically impossible to reproduce…and impossible to blog about. But fortunately for this blog, he can also make dishes from scratch , and this recipe here is one of those.

The quantities here are not precise, it will depend on how big your piece of fish is and your taste.

For the spices he used 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe’s. Other herbs  I like to pair with salmon are dill, thyme and tarragon. But basically, the spirit is that you can use whatever you have, or whatever you like. I don’t think you can really go wrong.

Baked salmon with greens onions

• A salmon tail fillet (the one used here was a frozen fillet of about 2lbs)
• 4-5 green onions, cut about 3 inch long
• Spices fresh or dried (Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic , crushed
• Salt
• Olive oil

Heat the oven at 415°C.

Line a oven proof dish with aluminum foil, with excess going off the edges. Place the fish on the foil, rub it with the crushed garlic. sprinkle with the spices.
Line the green onions on the salmon sideways. Drizzle the fish and onions with olive oil.
Place another sheet of aluminum foil on the top and fold the edges with the bottom foil to basically form a pocket with the fish inside.

Bake in the oven. For a frozen piece bake for 20-25min. If using a fresh cut, bake for 12-15 min

Serve with a drizzle of lemon juice and the sides of your choice.

Serving suggestion: Steamed green peas, brown rice spaghetti with pesto.