Wasabi Salmon with Orange Glaze

It all started with my posting for Sriracha Salmon, when a old family friend told me about Wasabi Salmon.  
It was like TWO ingredients, I guess three if you add the salmon.
Really?  
How could it be that simple?
I questioned her... shouldn't you add sesame oil, or garlic, or ponzu vinegar?
Nope, she said, just soy sauce and wasabi paste.
She told me to try it the simple way first, and add stuff next time if I wanted to play around with it.
Ok.... So I Googled it, as I am wont to do, to see what else was out there.
And, lo and behold, Emeril (my buddy...) has a recipe that people like, but most complain as the sauce is "too complicated".
Have I mentioned that I hate complicated recipes?
Well, I do.
So here's my take on on simplifying the sauce.
The sauce was very easy and really good on broccoli too. 

As a side note, you do NOT need the sauce on this salmon because it is very yummy without it.  It's up to you.

Serves 2
Ingredients

3 Tbsp soy
2 Tbsp wasabi
2 pieces of salmon

Marinate salmon with the soy sauce and wasabi.  I added it all to a ziploc bag and let it sit about 20-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400, Bake (or grill) for about 10 minutes until done. 

Sauce (makes about 1/3 cup)
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup white wine
2 Tbsp cold butter, salted

Over medium heat, add orange juice and wine to a saucepan.  Simmer, stirring, until it is reduced by half.  Add the cold butter and stir.  The butter makes the sauce creamy and thickens it slightly.

Here's a couple photos of what I did:

It looks kind of ugly, but it's effective to marinate on all sides without having to turn it over.

Here's the sauce as I added the butter, keep stirring.

Here's the salmon, just out of the oven.  See? It's starting to sweat...

I had some mandarins that tasted good but kind of dry, so I squeezed them for their juice and the sauce.  Any kind of orange juice would work.

Refrigerated Pickled Green Beans

I love to buy those little french green beans at Costco.
However, a 2lb bag is quite a bit for two people to eat as they go bad so quickly.
I mean really, how many beans can two people eat?
Sometimes I throw half of them in a freezer ziploc and freeze them, other times I make a batch (or even a half batch) of these pickled green beans.

These are great to snack on, garnish a Bloody Mary or give as gifts too.
They must be kept chilled, so if you give them as a gift, be sure to write that on the lid, or the tag, so people don't forget.

Even if you have never canned anything before this is an easy way to start.  I do think that you could can these, but I wanted to keep the beans fresh and crunchy and I was concerned that cooking in a water bath canning kettle would cook the beans too much.

FYI- I made these once with all vinegar and no wine because I really like tangy, however it was too much, too strong, and it caused an acidic chemical reaction in the garlic turning it BLUE!!! Live and learn, just use the wine! Want to read more, find an explanation here.

Makes about 8 jars (I used 12oz tall jars)
Ingredients

2 lbs. of small French Green Beans

4 cups white vinegar
4 cups white wine (something cheap, I used a sauvignon blanc)

8 tsp salt

8 tsp sugar* (optional)

8 hot red peppers (or whole dried peppers or red pepper flakes)

8-16 fresh garlic cloves

4-8 tsp whole black peppercorns

4 tsp red pepper flakes

Add the beans to clean, sterilized jars. Add garlic, peppercorns, pepper flakes and dried or fresh peppers to each jar.
Over high heat, bring wine and vinegar to a boil.  Add salt and sugar and stir until dissolved.  Remove from heat and pour over beans in the jars. Add lids and screw tops.  Let cool for an hour.  Refridgerate until ready to use.  Ready to eat after 1 week.
Keeps for 2-3 months in the fridge.