Salmon en Papillote with Sweet Potato Chaat (And 2X Wedgies)

I only made one envelope for the salmon, knowing the girls object to additions as subtle as a squirt of lemon on the fish. Plus, I had a very limited amount of tomato chutney left, and that's the magic for the 'en papillote' version. Which basically gets some chutney under and over it, sealed up in the packet.



For the Wedgies, I did the trick I've seen on Food Network and in cookbooks, but never tried before, double-frying. Fry them until they're done, drain them on paper towels, then give them two or three minutes right before serving. According to Em, it's worth the extra step.





I made a sweet potato chaat as well, using a better variety of sweet potato for the purpose this time. I improved the recipe, too, by omitting salt. Because the Chaat Masala has salt as its first ingredient, and if there was a fault besides a sweet potato with scant sugar content in the last batch,it was that the stuff was over-salted.





I thought I had a bright idea to try frying some turnip while I was at it. I was already doing the sweet potato chaat and double-fried potato wedges for the girls.





Back before I had the heart attack, I fantasized about having a FryDaddy in the kitchen. Way before the attack, actually, before kids even. I remember one evening the artist formerly known as Frau Lobster was making fried zucchini, a favorite of hers, and I took a bite and realized what she'd fried was a cucumber. She was mortified, but it was really good.



At the time, I took it as another piece of evidence that any food can be improved by frying. But aside from the fact that I generally don't eat like that anymore*, it turns out turnips are not in that category. Maybe if you breaded them first, but I doubt it. They just turned mushy and bland.



I garnished things, as you can see, with alfalfa sprouts and bell peppers left over from Saturday's stir fry. I convinced Mo to take tepid trial bites of her peppers, though she ate the alfalfa sprouts like crazy. Em was freaked out by the idea of eating 'grass' or 'horse food,' but I got her to eat a whole sliver of pepper. Small victories, you settle for them.



Em didn't eat much of her salmon, later confessing she had filled up on the potato wedgies, which she thought were awesome. I'm glad the trick of double-frying them worked so well, and I'll enjoy her leftover salmon for lunch this week, but maybe I shouldn't fry stuff even for the kids...



*I seldom eat fast food these days, both for health and budget reasons. And while I make fried chicken for the girls, I content myself with a bite or two of it while I make stuff like Pad Thai or a Thai Basil Chicken Stir Fry. And when I do make something like the Sweet Potato Chaat, I feel thoroughly guilty...