Saturday Dinner

Southwest Crusted Salmon with Mango Vinaigrette:



Cast iron pizza pan potatoes:



And Mango Banana Custard Tart:





Accompanied by a Dr. Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese (just picture the umlauds where they're supposed to go). Probably a bit sweet, but then it was a sweet meal. Rice or sweet potatoes would have been a more tropical side dish to match the spicy salmon and the tart. But the white potatoes were already planned before we saw the salmon recipe printed on the inside of the cute little plastic 6-pack mango container. And since the salmon was already purchased, and we didn't need all the mangoes for the dessert... The salmon was awesome. We have every other kind of vinegar in the house except champagne, so we substituted sherry vingegar.

Tim found these Champagne mangoes at Costco. He did all the peeling and slicing since mangoes are the one thing I don't get near, no matter what kind they are. I don't care for the blistery, oozy contact dermatitis I get when I touch them, so I stay away from them. I have no problem eating the fruit, it's getting past the skin that's the issue. These were delicious, and they claim to contain more vitamin C than other mangoes.

The tart recipe is badly written: part metric, part American measurements; when it was instructed to add brown sugar, it hadn't been mentioned anywhere previously; and it failed to mention that the crust portion makes an absolutely huge amount of dough--enough for about 3 or 4 tarts. That will get frozen for a later time. And I think I goofed and used cream of coconut, which is really sweet gooey stuff used for making pina coladas and other drinks. I don't think coconut cream has any sugar in it. Good thing I pulled up short and did NOT add the sugar called for in the filling. That would have been nasty, icky sweet. And if I make it again, I will back off the sugar in the crust. But once you get through all that, the tart is delicious, and Tim said it was just what he wanted when he was imagining another banana cream dessert (sorry Bryan, you didn't quite take care of the whole craving in the Outer Banks).