Grilled salmon, eggplant dish

At our house we love grilled salmon. Our griller is Dad and he usually keeps it simple by just adding olive oil, salt and freshly-ground black pepper. He grills it low and slow with the grill top down. It’s so good that way.

Here’s another recipe for it with a lime butter sauce that sounds delicious to me. But either way, enjoy your grilled salmon. You can use Dad’s low-and-slow method, which I recommend, or the method in this recipe which sounds much faster.

Grilled Salmon with Lime Butter Sauce

6 (six-oz) pieces center-cut salmon fillet (about 1 inch thick) with skin

1-1/2 teaspoons finely-grated fresh lime zest

1 large garlic clove, chopped

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted

Prepare grill for cooking over medium-hot charcoal (moderate heat for gas).

Season salmon all over with salt and pepper, then grill, flesh side down, on lightly-oiled grill rack (covered only if using gas grill) 4 minutes. Turn fillets over and grill (covered only if using gas grill) until just cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes more. Sprinkle fillets 1 tablespoon lime butter sauce.

Purée garlic with lime zest, lime juice, salt and pepper in a blender until smooth. With motor running, add melted butter and blend until emulsified, about 30 seconds.

—kwc—

I love any kind of cooked Parmesan dish whether it be chicken or eggplant, but a lot of recipes are time consuming to make. This one sounds very easy without too many ingredients.

You could also freeze this and have a taste of summer on a cold January or February day.

Easy Eggplant Parmesan

4 medium or 6 small eggplants

Heavy drizzle extra-virgin olive oil

Dash salt, plus more as needed

2 pounds mozzarella (Buffalo preferred)

32 ounces marinara sauce

1 cup basil

2 cups grated Parmesan cheese, plus more as needed

Make sure the top rack of your oven is approximately 4 inches from the top. Turn on your oven’s broiler. Slice your eggplants crosswise into 1/2 inch discs. Place them on a sheet pan with a healthy drizzle of olive oil on both sides. Add a generous dash of salt and place them under the broiler for 4 minutes, or until the eggplants have softened. You will want to do this in batches so that the eggplants don’t overlap.

While the eggplant cooks, slice or dice the mozzarella as thin as you can.

In a 9x13 dish, build the eggplant Parmesan. Start with a layer of marinara sauce on the bottom. Add a layer of eggplant. Add a thin layer of mozzarella, a dash of salt, then roughly tear some basil on top. Cover with a thin layer of the Parmesan, then start the same process again. Layer until you have almost reached the top of the dish, then sprinkle a heavier layer of Parmesan on top.

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Place the dish in the oven for 30 minutes. You can broil at the last minute if you would like a bit of browning on the cheese. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes before serving.