Pan Seared Fillet of Salmon

With rice, cucumber pickled in seasoned rice vinegar, ginger-teriyaki and wasabi-mayonnaise sauce. That is pretty much whole recipe.

Cucumber:

Slice cucumber and marinate in 1 part rice vinegar and 1 part honey mixture. Sprinkle with white pepper and toss to coat all slices.

Wasabi and Mayonnaise sauce:

Mix 1 tsp. wasabi powder with 1 tsp. water to make paste. Add 2 Tbs. of mayonnaise and mix until smooth. It should have a consistency of pancake batter.

Teriyaki sauce (another post)

Salmon:

Marinate salmon in teriyaki sauce for at least half an hour but no more then 1 hour.

In a non-stick frying pan heat up 1 tsp. of peanut or grape seed oil and few drops of sesame oil on medium high heat. Remove salmon from marinade and wipe dry. Reserve the marinade. Place boneless and skinless salmon file belly side down into frying pan and sear till light golden brown color develops, about 3 minutes. Turn over to skin side and cook for another minute or so. When most of pink on side of fillet changes color, remove to preheated plate, cover with aluminum foil and keep warm.

Wipe off remaining oil and put in chopped ginger and remaining marinade. Cook on medium heat till sauce thickens a bit. Keep warm.

Assembly:

On preheated plate place steamed rice, salmon and drained cucumber slices. Drizzle reserved teriyaki sauce on one side if fillet and wasabi-mayo sauce on other side. Garnish with coriander (cilantro) leaves .

Note: In summer I serve this dish at near room temperature with cooked and cooled rice vermicelli instead of rice.

Teriyaki Sauce

This is most versatile of all Japanese sauces. Great with fish, meat, poultry and vegetables. Make larger amount and keep in refrigerator for later use. If you reduce it by half through slow simmer it will become a teriyaki glaze.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine) or 1/3 c. honey and 1/3 c. sake

1 cup soy sauce

4 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/3 cup white sugar

7 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1 dash red pepper flakes

Method:

Bring Mirin or honey-sake mixture to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar. Season with garlic, ginger, pepper flakes, and black pepper; simmer an additional 5 minutes. Strain and store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

Gravlax

(Updated)

Gravlax is one of the most enjoyable appetizers for all seasons ever! We just love it and I cure salmon just about every month. It takes no more then 15-20 minutes to prepare from start to finish. What takes most time is the de-boning of the fillet. You have to make sure that all the bones regardless of size are removed. Use needle-nosed pliers for this task. At fish market ask for same cut from opposing sides of salmon. I prefer the tail cut because there is no waste like in a center cut where you have to remove the flabby fat from belly.

Ingredients for each pound of fish (has to be scaled):

1 lb. salmon fillet, tail section

2 Tbs. kosher or sea salt

2 Tbs. granulated or brown sugar

2 tsp crushed black pepper corns

2 tsp crushed fennel seeds

2 tsp crushed coriander seeds

1 large bunch of fresh dill

1. Put the salt, sugar, crushed fennel, coriander and black pepper into a bowl and mix until evenly distributed.
2. Spread the mixture on salmon making sure to cover whole fish. There shouldn’t be pink flesh visible. If using two fillets (my preferred method), repeat.
3. Place some dill at bottom of glass or ceramic container that will hold the filet comfortably and then put one fillet skin side down on top of dill.
4. Cover the top of fillet with more dill (big but evenly spread bunch) and now place second fillet on top, this time flesh side down.
5. Cover with yet more dill and wrap container in plastic film.
6. Place heavy weight (brick or similar) on top and refrigerate for at lest 3 days, turning over both fillets once a day.
7. On 4^th day, remove from refrigerator, discard dill and briefly wash under cold running water. Dry with paper towel and remove all seeds that stuck to flesh.
8. Using very sharp knife, slice at shallow angle (just few degrees from parallel to cutting board) starting at the narrow (tail) end. Make the slices as thin as possible.

Gravlax is served same way as smoked salmon; on toasted baguette slice, crackers, mini latke or on top of slice of cucumber. You can top gravlax with squeeze of lemon, chopped capers or gravlax sauce.

Gravlax Sauce:

2 Tbs. grainy Dijon mustard

2 Tbs. Mayonnaise

1 Tbs. cider or red vinegar

2 Tbs sugar

1/3 cup chopped dill
Mix all ingredients in bowl till smooth and well combined.



 



 


 








Rice vermicelli with vegetables

 

This is another Chinese restaurant and shopping mall food court favorite and now you can even find it in a supermarket deli counter. And no wonder. It is fairly healthy, depending on amount of oil used, and quick and easy to prepare. As with most Chinese dishes the hardest and most tedious part is julienning all the vegetables. If you want a decent looking dish it just has to be done by hand. If you don’t care what the dish looks like a grater does a decent job. I use my trusty super sharp 40 year old Chinese clever and have it chopped in no time. Again, use any vegetable you have on hand but every version should have carrots, green and cooking onions, ginger, garlic and scrambled eggs.

Ingredients in today’s version:

Chopped: Ginger, garlic, coriander

Sliced: Cooking onion, green onions, Napa cabbage leafs

Julienned: Carrot

Egg, sesame oil, peanut oil, Hoi sin sauce, soy sauce, stock (few tablespoons) sugar, hot sauce (optional)

Rice vermicelli

Method:

Soak vermicelli in very hot salty water for 15 minutes, drain, separate strands and sprinkle with sesame oil and toss to coat.

In a hot wok or non-stick frying pan heat 1 tsp of peanut and few drops of sesame oil. Pour in egg beaten with little salt and scramble. When egg is still moist remove to large preheated bowl and reserve.

Add another scant tsp. of oil into wok and stir fry carrots for 2 minutes then add cabbage or bean sprouts, cooking onions, half of coriander and half of green onions. Add Tbs. of Hoi Sin sauce, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 Tbs. soy sauce and 1 Tbs. stock or water.

When hot, add vermicelli and combine all ingredients. Stir fry till vermicelli are soft but still with a lot of bite. Add stock or water as required. Remove to bowl with egg and combine.

Serve and sprinkle with remaining coriander and green onions.

Seared Duck Breast, Red Cabbage & Dumplings

Kachní Prsa s Červeným Zelím

This is West Europe/East Europe fusion food. If there is such a thing, of course. I do not think that seared duck breast was on East European grandparent’s menu and dumplings on West Europe’s menu but to me it was so logical to combine the two. And it does work! The breasts were done by a cold pan method that is so effective. I don’t know what culinary genius was first to use this fool proof method but I know that this is the best way to cook a duck breast. The dumplings were already done and red cabbage was just heated so it was relatively fast and pain free meal.

Now it goes in 400 °F oven for another 5 minutes.

Oh, so good! And of course, Pilsner Urquell, the true and only original pilsner is perfect with this meal!

Singapore Noodles

Singapore Noodles are without doubt one of the most popular dishes in Chinese restaurants, take-outs or food courts and they vary widely in quality and taste. Most of them are oily, some taste powdery, some are totally bland…

Same can be said about home versions as well. Been there, done that. I have no problem with taste, heat or oiliness, my problem is the vermicelli. It took some serious Googling and testing to come up with technique that works and that is repeatable. The secret is the soaking time in hot water. Less then 10 minutes and vermicelli will fragment into little pieces, longer then 15 and they will be mushy. Overcooking is another no-no. One can’t forget that food keeps cooking even when removed from heat.

Ingredients are as varied as there are cooks that prepare it. Besides vermicelli, curry and oil there are only 2 other ingredients that appear in all recipes: egg and garlic. Everything else is optional be it vegetarian or with meat and/or seafood. Give it a try.

6 oz rice vermicelli

12 shrimps peeled

6 oz pork, shredded (chicken will do as well)

1 fl oz rice wine

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp corn starch

2 fl oz vegetable oil

1/2 onion sliced

1 small carrot, shredded

1 handful bean sprouts or shredded Napa cabbage

1/2 red pepper sliced

1 spring onion sliced

2 cloves garlic minced

1 tsp grated ginger

2 eggs whisked

1 1/2 tbsp Madras curry powder

salt and white pepper

Optional:

Shitake mushrooms, soaked and julienned, sliced water chestnuts, shredded celery and few sprigs of coriander for garnish

§         Soak vermicelli in hot water for 15 minutes prior to cooking. Drain, separate strands, sprinkle with sesame oil, toss and set aside.

§         Combine the pork and shrimp in the same bowl and add the soy sauce, fish sauce, rice wine, and the corn starch. Mix together thoroughly and let it marinade for at least 10 minutes.

§         Add little vegetable oil to the already hot wok. Add the pork and shrimp with as little of the marinade as possible and cook for a minute or two. When everything is more or less cooked, add the marinade, continue to cook for a few seconds more and then remove the pork and shrimp from the wok. Remove to bowl and wipe the wok clean.

§         Add a little bit more oil to the wok and drop in the onions, cooking them for a half minute or so. Next, add the red pepper, garlic, ginger, spring onions, bean sprouts or Napa cabbage and any other vegetable you are using, and stir. Stir fry together briefly and remove from the heat. Remove vegetables to the bowl with pork and shrimps and keep warm.

§         Separate the strands of vermicelli once more. Again, add a smidge of oil to the hot wok. Add the eggs, let them set and stir briskly to scramble them. Add the noodles and stir. Next, combine the curry powder, sugar and season with salt and pepper and combine with eggs and vermicelli. Toss till well combined.

§         Finally, add the vegetables, the shrimps and pork to the wok. Toss everything together, cooking just enough to blend the flavors and heat everything through. If vermicelli are still hard add a little bit of stock or water and toss.

§         Place on individual preheated plates, garnish and serve.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

This is excellent way to serve leftover mushroom soup. Actually, it is so good that it is well worth it to make it from scratch. Since I have already posted recipe for mushroom soup I’ll just describe process of turning it into a cream.

If you are using leftover soup, warm it up in a deeper pot for easier no-mess blending. If you prefer cream of mushroom soup with some texture remove with slotted spoon (wider the slots the better) as much solids as you like and keep warm for serving. With immersion blender liquefy the soup for minute or two. Add cream, again as much as you like but no more then 1:4 ratio of cream/soup. Liquefy for another few minutes till smooth. Return to heat and when warm, serve in preheated bowl. Creamed soups are great with addition of little bit of curry. I use Malaysian (seafood) curry that is perfect match for these soups.