Salmon Chermoula with Nutty Brown Rice

I discovered "Chermoula" in my South Beach Cookbook. Its a primarily Moroccan marinade, but if I didn't know better, I would say mexican or southwest due to the cilantro. If you love cilantro, you'll DIE when you try this sauce. (***If you HATE cilantro, you can make this same recipe with Parsley instead). You can pair it with any fish, though the recipe suggests Sea Bass, Trout or Salmon. I also make extra (double the chermoula recipe below) so I can dip my starch in it. Its zesty, tangy, zippy and YUM!

The nutty brown rice is also a South Beach Cookbook recipe, Phase 2. Toasted almonds, onion and brown rice. Seriously, what else could you ask for?? And guiltless carbs? Be still my belly!

Salmon Chermoula

Here's what I used:

2 6 oz salmon filets
S&P

1 bunch fresh cilantro (stems and leaves)
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp cumin
4 cloves (peeled) garlic
1/4 tsp red pepper flake
1/2 cup olive oil

Here's what I did:

Preheated oven to 450 F. Rinsed and patted salmon filets dry. Sprinkled both filets (both sides) with S&P and set aside. Set aside. In a food processor (or blender - both work fine) add cilantro, lemon juice, garlic, cumin and red pepper flake. Begin to pulse mixture, and slowly add olive oil until the ingredients bind into a liquid. Continue until chermoula reaches consistency of a thick salad dressing. It smells FANTASTIC. I think I could wear it as a perfume. I digress....

Place small amount of chermoula in bottom of a glass baking dish, and add salmon on top, skinside down. Cover salmon with remaining chermoula.

Bake 12-15 minutes, until fish is opaque and tender.

~

Nutty Brown Rice

Here's what I used:

3/4 cup slivered almonds
2 cups med-grain brown rice
4 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp dried onion flakes
2 tsp butter
S&P

Here's what I did:

Heated oven (you could also use a toaster oven) to 350 F and toasted almonds for 5 minutes. Brought chicken broth, onion flakes, butter and S&P to a boil in a medium stock pot, and added brown rice. Reduced heat to a simmer and cooked 50 minutes (check instructions for your rice, cook times can vary due to grain types). Once cooked, added in toasted almonds and served immediately.

***The original recipe called for sauteed onions and quick-cook brown rice. So I cheated on the onions, but opted for better rice. You can easily substitute those two out.

On to the reviews. I discovered the Chermoula recipe a few weeks ago, and it was a major hit then...and its still one now. We mixed it up this time by placing the salmon on a soaked cedar plank and putting it on the grill. I like it either way. The nutty brown rice was also very good, and the quantity that I posted above could really feed 6 easily. I'm having some for lunch today, as a matter of fact.