Swiss Days
As you know the beautiful wife is half-Swiss, so we can’t miss that great celebration in tiny Midway, Utah, known as Swiss Days. I’ve never seen anything quite like it—a small town of perhaps 3000 people stands up on its tiptoes and puts on a two-day celebration that attracts 100,000. In addition to a vast display of crafts for sale, there is music (lots of yodeling), food (traditional foods like Swiss tacos, which look a lot like Navajo tacos), and a parade with kids, horses, ballet or martial arts students, old tractors and farm trucks, the high school marching band plus cheerleaders, and a few barking dogs.
So many come that the fields outside of town are harvested of alfalfa and turned into parking lots; buses provide transportation into town. Mothers come from distant parts with daughters and granddaughters, and they get an early start on Holiday shopping. For many, walking through rows of booths is an end-of-summer tradition.
Our congregation here is responsible for the pie and ice cream booth. You get a souvenir cap if you volunteer and we have a stack from years past. The last three years of studying nutrition, plus 20 months of writing this blog, have caused a sea change in our food tastes. In the beginning I would enjoy several kinds of pie. Now, after cutting and serving a thousand or more servings, we didn’t feel like eating any.
That’s what the food revolution does—it slowly changes your tastes from the sugary, salty, processed stuff of the modern American diet to food that is more natural, healthful, and minimally processed. Thinking of the pie we skipped, the beautiful wife pouted, “One more food I used to love that I don’t want anymore.” It’s not the first time she’s said this but the BW is really cute when she pouts. Which, of course, brings us to this week’s recipe.
Skip’s Poached Salmon Recipe
Salmon is a rich source of the long-chain omega-3 fats. There are lots of ways to prepare it but here's one that adds to the flavor, retains moisture, and makes a nice presentation. We served it with Swiss chard (we're big on anything Swiss this weekend) and cantaloupe.
Ingredients:
2 T butter
1 scallion or green onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp dill
½ C stock (chicken)
½ C water
½ lemon, quartered
Parsley, chopped
Sauce
¼ C Skip’s Homemade Mayo (or store-bought)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 squeeze lemon juice
½ tsp dill
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- In a frying pan that can be covered, or a Dutch kettle, sauté scallion lightly in butter, adding garlic and dill near the end.
- Maintaining heat, add stock and water to sauté, bring to a boil. Add salmon fillet, skin side down. Salmon should be just covered with liquid. Cover pan and poach salmon 6-10 minutes (depending on thickness) until flaky.
- While salmon is cooking combine sauce ingredients and season to taste.
- Garnish salmon with sauce, chopped parsley, juice from lemon, and serve.