Parchment-Baked Salmon with Orzo or Brown Rice

An invitation to Marilyn Woody's (my friend, mentor and author) lovely home means gourmet meals--breakfast, lunch and dinner. She has a wonderful knack of making gourmet, simple.

On my last visit I was treated to an amazing baked salmon dinner and I even got to help.

This baked-salmon recipe was published in the Detroit Free Press by Susan M. Selasky. She gently warns us that the parchment paper cannot be replaced with aluminum foil. But I will also tell you that when Marilyn and I went shopping for the ingredients we could not find Orzo, so we used brown rice. I'm not sure what orzo is or what it tastes like but the brown rice was delicious.

Here's the recipe for

Parchment-Baked Salmon with Orzo or Brown Rice

Ingredients:

1⅓ Cups uncooked Orzo or Brown Rice

4 Salmon Filets (about 6 oz. each), skinned, de-boned and fat trimmed

1 small red onion, peeled and cut into strips

2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

16 Asparagus spears, washed, tough ends removed, cut in half diagonally

Salt and pepper to taste

Paprika to taste

2 Tbsp. dried dill

1 lemon cut in widges

Olive oil for drizzling

Directions:

Cook Orzo or brown rice according to directions on package. Drain and stir to keep from sticking. Divide into four mounds and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Tear off four 16-by-12 inch sheets of parchment. Fold the first sheet in half, then reopen. Place a mound of cooked Orzo or brown rice in the center on one-half of sheet. Top with a salmon fillet. Put ¼ of the onion, tomato and asparagus on the salmon. Season with salt, pepper and paprika. Sprinkle with dill.

Fold the parchment in half and seal the edges by folding and crimping. Once the edges are crimped, the packet will have almost have a half-moon shape. Repeat the procedure with the remaining three parchment sheets.

Place the packets on baking sheets and bake on the bottom rack until parchment is puffed and brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Place on plates and serve with lemon wedges and olive oil to drizzle on the salmon.