This week has been a little crazy at work, which is why I haven’t posted until the weekend! I’m sorry guys, but I’m glad I even had a chance to work out what I was going to post about, it’s been that hectic!
Luckily, I was able to get into the kitchen on Thursday night and cooked up something that I normally wouldn’t try: Salmon. For those of you who know me, I am not really a fish eater. It all dates back to when I was four and caught a flathead down in Southern NSW. My dad decided it would be worth showing me how to skin and fillet this fish that I had caught, and when he placed this beautiful fish that he’d cooked on the table in front of me, I declared that I was going to be a vegetarian…except for McDonalds. Needless to say that didn’t last very long, but I didn’t eat fish again until high school, and by then I had lost the taste for it.
It’s only been in the past couple of years, thanks to my partner’s persistence, that I have started to eat fish again. I won’t really actively seek it out, but I’m always willing to try it, and I’m usually pleasantly surprised. So when I got the opportunity to cook salmon, I jumped at the chance to try something new.
Even Ruckus was excited about Salmon
This dish was meant to be a Japanese inspired miso salmon bowl, however we were out of miso. Actually, if I’m honest, the couple I am living with are on the I Quit Sugar diet, and at the supermarket Ben looked at the miso paste and saw it had sugar in it, so refused to buy it. So I had to come up with my own little recipe, and it actually turned out really well. I haven’t tried the original so I can’t compare, but I was pretty happy with the dish, and for me to actually enjoy eating fish, you know it has to be good!
Ingredients
- 1 eggplant cut into rounds about 1 cm thick
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- A pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons of tamari sauce
- 2 teaspoon of minced ginger, or 2 cm of fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons of water
- 2 teaspoons of coconut oil or olive oil
- 600 grams of salmon fillets, chopped into equal pieces
- 2 tablespoons of tamari sauce
- 4 teaspoons of tahini
- 4 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
- 4 teaspoons of warm water
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 250 grams of snow peas, trimmed
- 1 bag of baby spinach leaves, about 3-4 cups
- ½ of a large cucumber, chopped
- 2 teaspoons of sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a baking tray with baking paper for the eggplant.
- Toss chopped eggplant in the olive oil and salt, and lay out on the baking paper side by side. Cook for 35 minutes, turning once (I did the turning when I put the salmon in to bake, but you can do it whenever you want)
- To make the flavouring for the salmon, add 2 tablespoons of tamari, ginger, sesame oil and water to a small bowl and stir to combine.
- With 15 minutes to go in the eggplant cook, heat the coconut oil in an oven proof fry pan over a medium heat. Once the pan is hot add the salmon skin side down, and cook for 2 minutes on each side until the salmon is lightly golden.
- Pour the tamari mixture over the salmon, trying to get some sauce on each fillet, and transfer to the oven to cook for 5-10 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through and the eggplant is tender.
- While you are cooking the salmon and eggplant, steam your carrots and snow peas. I did this over a stovetop with a steamer, but you could just as easily do this in a microwave. Steam until completely cooked through but still a little crunchy, which should take about 2-3 minutes.
- To make the salad dressing, combine the tamari, tahini, apple cider vinegar and warm water (make sure the water is warm otherwise the tahini won’t melt). Stir until it is completely combined.
- Toss the salad ingredients and steamed vegetables together in a salad bowl, and pour the dressing over the top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and toss to combine.
- Pull the salmon and eggplant out of the oven once they are cooked, and serve. Divide eggplant between each plate and place salmon fillets beside this. Then add a generous helping of the salad to the side.
And that’s really all there is to it. It’s probably a little more complicated than something I would normally do for a weeknight meal, but sometimes its fun to try something new and step out of your comfort zone. And although there are a lot of ingredients, it wasn’t too difficult as long as you just followed the steps through. It actually didn’t take that long to make either, as you could do a lot of the prep while things were already cooking, so it meant as soon as the salmon was ready to go, everything else was too! It is one of those good recipes that once everything is in the oven you don’t need to really watch it, so if you already had the vegetables prepared you could do something else while you waited.
This dish was absolutely delicious, and really healthy! I loved the tahini dressing for the salad as it tasted like you were having a creamy dressing but it was actually quite good for you. And I am a sucker for tamari sauce, so it was a winner in my books!
The salmon had a delicious crispy skin thanks to its time in the frypan before going in the oven, and the tamari marinade for it was so delicious and full of flavour. As I said earlier, if someone who doesn’t like fish loves this dish, imagine if you actually enjoy fish!
Until next time, happy eating!
Ella xx
