Wild Salmon: Impress on a Budget

I recently had some friends out for dinner and served wild salmon. They seemed impressed, but it really was an economical meal. After reading this article, we've sworn off farm raised salmon. Besides, farm raised salmon is $.8.88 a pound at Sam's Club this week, and wild salmon is $3.99 a pound at Kroger. Now I don't know my salmon and which types are superior to others, but our family has enjoyed this salmon at a great price. When we cook salmon, we cook it once and make three meals out of two pounds of fish.

The first is quite simple. We marinate it in a store bought Teriyaki marinade (usually on sale for a buck) and grill it. It pairs nicely with wild rice or pasta and something green like broccoli, asparagus, or spinach. A couple of nights later, I flake the leftover salmon into a pasta dish with veggies--whatever I have on hand.

Tonight I tried this recipe and really liked it. It uses ingredients I've been able to get for very little lately (ketsup, pasta, and sour cream); fresh chives and tomatoes came from our garden. I would suggest cutting the ketsup way back (by 1/3) or adding more sour cream so that it's not too sweet. I added steamed spinach into the dish because we had it. I also topped it with fresh grated parmesan cheese because everything is better with parmesan! I doubled it and had enough for dinner and leftover lunches tomorrow.

One final note: when I posted about "the new dirty dozen"--the foods you should try to buy organic--a local reader suggested I buy salmon from her brother, a fisherman in Alaska. I'm still considering it, but the cheapest variety was $7.99 a pound, and I'd need to buy a lot of it. I'm sure it's superior in taste and quality, but I'm having trouble justifying the cost.

What do you think? How do you prepare salmon?