Ever since I got rid of my bbq due to old age, (the bbq’s, not mine) salmon has been off the menu at my place. Not on purpose (and certainly not on porpoise), just because that was one of our bbq staples and I’ve never replaced it with another salmon dish.

Today that changes. Kid loves salmon. She was eating it raw off sushi trains when she was 1 yr old. She likes my bbq version, I’ll replace it one day and do a recipe for that one too.

Today we’ll make do with this –

Sesame Baked Salmon

Ingredients

Fresh pieces of salmon –  pin-boned, skin off.
Teriyaki sauce (sweet soy or miso paste will work also) check recipe below.
Sesame seeds – lightly toasted.

HOW

Rinse the fish gently under cold water. Pat dry. Brush lightly with the sauce. Sprinkle liberally with the sesame seeds.

Bake the salmon on 180 for 10-15 mins to cook through, depending on the size. These pieces were about 200gms. If you like your salmon more on the rare side than it’s best to use a bbq or fry pan.

We ate them with this –

Stir Fry Egg Noodles with Teriyaki Vegetables.

Ingredients 

Onions, garlic, your favourite stir fry vegetables cut into long, even size pieces – 1 red capsicum, 1 small broccoli and 1 bunch of spring onions for us, fresh egg noodles (or other), teriyaki sauce.

HOW

The Sauce – this is a cheats teriyaki sauce. Normally a teriyaki would be cooked on the stove and reduced to thicken it. I’m not doing that.
– 1/2 cup soy, 1/4  cup mirin, 1 teaspoon chopped pickled ginger,1 tablespoon sweet soy, 2 tablespoons honey

Put it all in a container and shake.

Noodles – Boil a pot of water, add a little salt and cook the noodles for 1.5 – 2 minutes. You can do this ahead of time by refreshing in cold water as soon as they come out of the pot. Drain well, add little oil and refrigerate until you’re ready. 100gm of noodles per person is ample. Most supermarkets sell fresh noodles of some description, change the quantity and cooking time for dried.

Noodles come clumped together. They will cook that way, or rather, Not cook  if you don’t separate them. Shake them as they go in and stir frequently whilst cooking and you won’t have this problem. You don’t have to use chopsticks. Tongs or a fork are good.

Everything

Heat a little oil in a wok or good sized fry pan. Add the onion and garlic, sauté until fragrant and soft. Add the capsicums and broccoli and stir until they soften a little. Add the sauce and then the noodles and spring onions and cook until the vegetables are cooked but still firm. It doesn’t take long with these vegetables and I’m working on electric. If the sauce dries up and your veges aren’t ready add a little water. Conversely, if the veges are cooked and the sauce is too runny, remove everything but the sauce from the pan, cook the sauce a bit longer and pour over the noodles.

Serve with salmon and enjoy 🙂
Or  you could whip this up by itself for a decent vegetarian option. Maybe some sesame tofu to go with? Or baked miso eggplant?

What Kid Did

Kid was around for a fair bit of the putting together, although considering there was mainly chopping then cooking to do she was left out a little. I must ‘fess up here, I did a good amount of this whilst she was at school so I could just throw it together when we got home from Ju-Jitsu. She certainly could have brushed the fish with sauce or scattered the sesame seeds or stirred the veges or even made the sauce. Sometimes there just isn’t the time in the day.

Kid said to me today ‘I heard that eating salmon makes your brain grow’.

I hope she is right, for my sake anyways. She has nothing to worry about in that department. Thumbs up on dinner though.

The Wash Up.  A lovely dish that I look forward to eating again soon. I highly recommend the bbq though, the natural oils in this fish really lend themselves to direct heat and add a particular flavour the oven won’t achieve. A little timing goes a long way here. I had my noodles pre-cooked. When the salmon went in the oven I began the stir fry and was ready just before the salmon came out.

I had enough stir fry for four meals. 1 each for me and kid and some leftovers for after work. 200gm is a decent sized portion. We could have shared one and filled up on more stir fry easily. But we are salmon gluttons so we didn’t.

When shopping, look for salmon with a shiny veneer, firm flesh and pleasant smell. It can be hard to tell from behind the counter. Buy it from a fish shop instead of a supermarket if possible. Ask the fishmonger about it’s freshness.

Pin bones are the long white needle-like bones that hold the outside of the fish onto the inside of the fish.You can ask the fish monger to remove them or use tweezers if you have to do it yourself. Dig in, grab the bone low and twist as you gently pull. There are so many first aid kits in commercial kitchens with the tweezers missing for this reason.

Happy Fishing.