It's cold.

So it's time to make food that reminds me of warm weather...

Salmon with Savory/Sweet Bulgur and Pineapple Mango Sauce

I told you I was returning to the tropics ;p

I still had some Coconut Lemongrass Sauce left so I figured I shouldn't let it go to waste, plus I really wanted to play with sauces.

Pineapple Mango Sauce

1/4 c onion, diced

1/4 tsp jalapeno, minced

1/4 tsp ginger, minced

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 c mango, diced

3 tbsp pineapple, diced

2 tbsp coconut lemongrass sauce

3 tbsp pineapple juice

1 tbsp white wine

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp lime juice

Heat olive oil in a pan and saute onion until softened. Add ginger and jalapeno and cook for 2 minutes. Add pineapple and mango and cook for another 2-3 minutes before stirring in coconut sauce. Add juice and wine and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.

Puree mixture with an immersion blender and run through a strainer to separate liquid from any solids. Heat in a pan and add lime juice. cook for 3 minutes.

Savory Sweet Bulgur

1/4 c onion, diced

1 tbsp chili powder

1/4 tsp chili garlic paste

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp pineapple, diced

3 tbsp mango, diced

1/4 c frozen corn

3/4 c bulgur

1 1/2 c chicken broth

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil and saute onion, chili powder and chili garlic paste for 1 minute. Stir in bulgur for a minute or two, coating it with onion mixture. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and cook for 10-12 minutes until all liquid has been absorbed.

Coconut lemongrass sauce is officially GONE! WOO! Of the three versions (see here for attempt 1 and attempt 2) I think this is by far my most successful. Yes, I did use way too many kitchen tools to get it done, but it was totally worth it in my opinion.

I kept the salmon super simple (salt, pepper, sear on both sides) and the sauce had just the right amount of sweetness, tartness and richness. I might consider upping the onion content a bit next time, but that's a big maybe. Am I weird for liking sauteed onions and pineapple together??

The bulgur was inspired by my absolute favorite box of couscous - Marrakesh Express Mango Salsa.

I did some crazy cabinet cleaning this afternoon so I really wanted to get rid of this box of bulgur I had. It was taking up space and when I opened it, there was barely a cup of bulgur. Hello, dinner. It seemed fitting to treat it like couscous, especially since I had the fruity flavors to possibly recreate my favorite side dish!

Obviously I knew onions and mangos were involved, but everything else was a guess. Good guesses :) I was psyched to put my new peeler to use:

Susan made fun of my bright yellow (and useless) Ikea peeler the last time she tried to use it and vowed she was going to get me a legit peeler. I totally forgot about this until I got a mystery package on Thursday with no return address and my name misspelled. Turns out the mailing folks made an oopsie with the spelling, but it was definitely from Susan. Yay!

It's like those pens with four colors that you can swap out at the touch of a button...it comes with a regular blade

a blade to julienne (haven't tested this out yet)

and a blade for softer items

I usually don't rock out with peelers, but I may start to since it has so many fun functions!