Monday, August 22, 2011

Salmon with Lemon-Dill Butter and Life This Week: August 22, 1938

Salmon with Lemon-Dill Butter, Perfect Steamed Broccoli, Carottes étuvées au beurre

Salmon with Lemon-Dill Butter is served on a bed of buttered rice with Perfect Steamed Broccoli and
Carottes étuvées au beurre.*


This salmon dish is quick, simple and tasty.  The only advanced preparation required is to make the lemon-dill butter, which comes together in no time and freezes firm in about 20 minutes.  You'll want to check your salmon a couple of minutes early, just to make sure it doesn't overcook.  Few things are worse than overcooked fish!  Serve salmon on a bed of buttered rice.

One last thing--this recipe makes enough butter for 8 people.  Just keep the leftovers in the freezer for a quick salmon dinner whenever you want!


Salmon With Lemon-Dill Butter

Salmon with Lemon-Dill Butter
Salmon with Lemon-Dill Butter on buttered rice with chilled Chardonnay and a green salad with Walnut Vinaigrette--it's best made with sea salt

TV Dinner (Salmon with Lemon-Dill Butter)
We ate this meal while watching Gunga Din last night on TCM!

Edited 8/25/11: This post is now linked to Fat Tuesday Forager Festival at Real Food Forager.

*****

Fred Astaire - Ginger Rogers - Life Magazine 1938
"Astaire and Rogers Do the Yam"

Since we really ate salmon while watching Gunga Din, I suppose that's the real movie tie-in, but the movie in Life this week is the Astaire-Rogers flick Carefree. I tried desperately to somehow connect my Scottish salmon to Carefree. Here goes: psychoanalyst Astaire gets his patient (Ginger Rogers) to eat an awful lot of seafood in an attempt to induce dreaming. And, Astaire dances and drives (golf balls, that is) to Irving Berlin's "Since They Turned 'Loch Lomond' Into Swing."


Carefree is the Astaire-Rogers film that doesn't really fit in with the others. First off, it's the only one that doesn't take place in the realm of showbiz. Yes, Ginger Rogers plays Amanda Cooper, a radio personality, but Fred Astaire plays a doctor, Tony Flagg. Secondly, it's Amanda who chases Tony in this film. Thirdly, Carefree comes off more as a screwball comedy (it even co-stars Ralph Bellamy) than a musical. It's rather an oddball in the Astaire-Rogers canon, but it's fun to watch nevertheless. Plus, it has a lot of scenes in a very "1930s Connecticut"-style country club. I love all the stone walls and big fireplaces.  Lower your expectations slightly: Carefree doesn't quite stand up to the earlier Astaire-Rogers films (although I definitely prefer it to The Barkleys of Broadway) or to the other RKO screwball comedies (like Bringing Up Baby, released earlier the same year).  However, it's better than most of the films that have come out in the last few years (in my humble opinion!) and you should be able to rent it, which is cheaper than going out to see a movie.  Win-win!

Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers in "Carefree", 1938
Dancing the Yam at the country club

Carefree-The Yam-Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers
More Yam-dancing



*I've used the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

12 comments:

  1. Well done...I like your connection between the salmon and Carefree! Both sound terrific.

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  2. Love the new blog title and heading! Ginger Rogers is amazing! I watched a bio on her not too long ago - I just didn't realize what a wonderful actress she was...

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  3. Wow. I love this. I have a few pieces of salmon left and I've been thinking about incorporating dill in them.

    seven-percentsolution.blogspot.com

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  4. I'm not a big fan of CAREFREE though I love most of the Fred and Ginger movies. The salmon dish sounds wonderful. I wish I were more clever about cooking fish. It is still VERY intimidating.

    GUNGA DIN. Love it. Great movie.

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  5. Very nice blog name. For a while there, I was wondering what "The Past on a Plate" was doing on my reading list. Will update blogroll.

    Overcooked fish is an unforgivable sin, I'm glad you mentioned it. The salad with walnut vinaigrette goes really well with the salmon.

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  6. I just love this movie! And that picture of Fred and Ginger dancing the Yam is wonderful.
    And what a coincidence that you just featured salmon, I tried it for the first time this week! It was much better than I expected (I thought I hated fish) so I may recommend this recipe to my dad next time he brings some more fish home!
    - Emily

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  7. Your salmon looks so simple and delicious! And I LOVE the Fred Astaire dancing photos...he was marvelous~

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  8. Don't hate me but I never got into Fred and Ginger movies. However, I'm a big fan of Salmon :D. Looking forward to trying out the lemon-dill butter. The plate looks delicious!

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  9. Mmm, that salmon looks delicious! I haven't watched Carefree yet, it looks interesting! Their movies always cheer me up :).

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  10. Lemon dill butter sauce is the ultimate yummy sauce to eat with fish!

    Hehe, it's definitely not a good thing that I am reading this entry after my dinner cos I am feeling so hungry now. :(


    xoxo,
    Addie
    The Cat Hag

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  11. One word, my friend: "yum." Good job. :)

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  12. this recipe seems refined and simple at the same time. fred and ginger are just wow ;)

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