Stuffed Salmon After 9 Mile Hike

Last Saturday I went for a wonderful hike with two friends, Pam and Amy. The hike was in the Black Rock Forest and it was a 9 mile loop that went up and over three summits. Here is a picture from the summit of Rattlesnake Hill where we had lunch, it's not everyday we get a view this lovely for lunch:

Here are the three of us by a resevoir we passed on the way up to the summit:

After the hike, we were dropped off near Fairway's on the Upper West Side. Being the endorphin pumped foodie that I am after a 9 mile hike, I called a couple of friends to come over for dinner and it quickly snowballed into a spontaneous dinner party for 6 people. Not sure of what to make I decided to keep it simple and healthy and filling. Four courses would be suitable. This is the first and main course of the dinner and the other dishes will be featured later. As an appetizer we had a fancy cheese plate with fresh warmed bread, chutneys, and fresh fruit and honey. We also had couscous cakes with corn salsa. We had two vegetable dishes: fancy sauteed string beans and roasted root vegetables. For the main course we had stuffed salmon and lots of white wine. Even though it can be a bit pricey, I love buying fresh wild salmon. Fairway's is wonderful for anything fresh. I decided to stuff the thick salmon fillets with a spinach, sun dried tomato, and pine nut combo. Broiled with some herbs, it was perfect, flaky and yummy and I've been eating leftovers with my lunch all week! This dish literally takes 15 minutes.

Stuffed Salmon
(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:
6 large salmon fillets, no bones
1 10 ounce bag baby spinach
Sun dried tomatoes
Pine nuts
Oregano
Kosher salt
Pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Finely chop the spinach and sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts and mix them all together in a small bowl so that you have an even amount of each ingredient in the bowl.
3. Slice a pocket in the thick part of each fillet and stuff the spinach mixture inside so it is almost over flowing. Spinkle each fillet generoulsy with salt, pepper and oregano. Place them on a broiler pan.

4. Turn the oven onto a high broil and broil the fillets for 8-10 minutes until they are just cooked through. A little trick I have learned is that if you remove the fillets from the oven when they are still pink and just barely uncooked on the inside, they will cook the rest of the way outside the oven so that they will be perfectly flaky and lovely.