Spring Dinner

It's spring, so the chinook are running in the Columbia. We've eaten it twice this week--Tuesday (joined by my parents, who are visiting) simply roasted with a little olive oil and fresh thyme, with a side of saffron orzo, spinach, basil, peas and pine nuts; tonight (joined by MWR) cooked en papillote with asparagus, scallion, lemon and dill with roast fingerling potatoes on the side (recipe adapted from Real Simple).



For each packet, tear a piece of parchment paper about 10 inches wide or so off the roll. Put on the parchment, just off center, a piece of salmon, some two-inch pieces of asparagus, and a good five-finger pinch of minced dill and scallions. Drizzle with EVOO, squirt with a quarter-lemon, sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper, and, starting at one side, twist the paper to make a tight packet around the food. Roast at 400 for 20 minutes and the above picture is what you get. Next time I'll do it for only 15 and see how it turns out. The potatoes were tossed with a little olive oil and roasted separately for about twice as long. Optimally I would have two ovens and be able to roast the potatoes at a higher temp for more browning/crisping.

For dessert, rhubarb cupcakes with whipped cream, chopped crystallized ginger and diced roasted hazelnuts. For the cake, I used a recipe from The Moosewood Book of Desserts, but I think any buttery cake would work fine. Put about 3/4 of the batter into the tin, sprinkle with diced rhubarb (being careful not to press it down, which will make it sink during baking), then top with the last bits of batter. You don't need to worry about spreading the batter to cover the rhubarb; the heat of the oven will do that job quite handily.