Salmon with shrimp sauce

At long last, I'm back in Vancouver, and after a day or two to settle in, my mother informed me that she had some salmon that needed to be used and that I should cook them dinner (they were very busy preparing for their big Alaskan trip). I consulted with my husband and got him to take a photo of a recipe in one of my cookbooks in Chicago. The nice thing about spontaneously coming up with a recipe in my mother's house is that her kitchen and fridge are always amazingly well-stocked. When I asked whether she had shrimp and green onions and cream cheese, she magically had all three on hand! And so, I decided to adapt a salmon recipe with a crab sauce, substituting in shrimp instead.

Recipe

adapted from Salmon CookbookServes 32 salmon filets, about 1/2" thick2 tbsp butter2 tbsp flour1 cup milk1/4 cup light cream cheese, cubed1/2 lemon, juice and peel only1 green onion, thinly sliced8 small shrimp, shelled and deveinedIn a skillet, melt a tbsp of butter and sauté shrimp until cooked. Remove and set aside. When cool, chop shrimp. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in flour and let cook, bubbling gently, for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until sauce has thickened, about 12 minutes. Remove sauce from heat. Whisk in cream cheese until melted. Stir in lemon juice, peel, green onions and chopped shrimp. Keep sauce warm over very low heat. Season salmon with salt and pepper, and broil or pan-fry for 3-5 minutes per side until salmon just flakes. Top with shrimp sauce.

Musings

I, and likely my parents as well (as I can count on my hand the number of times I've cooked for them), was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. The sauce was wonderfully creamy--that cream cheese really added a nice flavour-- and the shrimp were a fresh counterpoint to the sauce's creaminess. Drizzled over the salmon, and paired with a bit of mashed potato, and all in all it was a pretty good meal. Good to know I have learned a thing or two during my tenure in Chicago!