Mahi Mahi with Zesty Basil Sauce

I am a seafood purist. I still think there is nothing better than a good fillet of salmon with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Zesty basil sauce, however, is one of my favorites ways to spruce up a boring piece of fish. I use this for Mahi Mahi as well most other white fish like tilapia and flounder.

The recipe is from Paula Deen but I’m pretty sure I started making this sauce prior to her demise…but I’m not certain. So, this may be a politically incorrect fish, BUT in a whole new way.

Poached Salmon in the Slow Cooker

Instagram salmon: Salmongram! And no, it’s not raw….

My first slow cooker experiment! I’ve never made anything in a crock pot before, but since I received one as a gift, I have new reason to try out some recipes I’ve stumbled across. I wanted my first crack at slow cooking to be something more unusual. I didn’t want to go the predictable chili, brisket, soup route so when I found this idea for poached salmon on Epicurious, I was jonesing to make it right away!

In hindsight, I probably should have done something “safer” for my first crock pot attempt. Like, I thought slow cooking was supposed to be easy, a “set it and forget it” kind of thing. Well, I know I tend to stress out and make things 100x harder than they should be but this really did stress me out! Since I’ve never cooked this way, I was worried I was going to over/under cook the salmon.  Even though it looks raw in the picture, I cooked it a little over just to make sure it wasn’t.

The good news: the flavors were amazing. It was soooo tasty! I like my salmon cooked very simple usually: just some salt, pepper and lemon. This cooking method definitely wins out for making the tastiest salmon. But I’m gonna have to drink half of the bottle of wine next time I do this to relax!

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 yellow onion slice
• 1 lemon slice
• 1 sprig dill (I used a tsp of dill weed instead)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets

Directions:

Combine the water and wine in the slow cooker and heat on high for 20-30 minutes.

Add the onion, lemon, dill, salt and salmon.

Cover and cook on high for about 20 mins, until the salmon is opaque and cooked through.