Olive oil and lemon marinated Salmon

Here in Portland, Oregon, the summer is mostly glorious! Although the temperature seldom reaches 100 degrees with minimum humidity, some evenings we opt out to make a no-heat, nice, light, A.K.A.appetizer for our dinner.

Not sure where I got the recipe…the marinated salmon on toasted French baguette we love, however, bread is optional, simply put it on the sliced cucumber for gluten free and less calorie version.

Ingredients and Instruction for marinating salmon (Print Recipe Here)

Medium size onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Salmon – sashimi grade thinly sliced (I used about 1/3 pound)
1 lemon, washed well, cut lengthwise fist then thinly sliced
1-2 fresh dill stems, chopped

Put thinly sliced onion in the bowl and sprinkle with salt and mix well, let sit for 5 minutes. Squeeze the juice out. Set aside.
Combine olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and sugar well in a small bowl. Set aside.
Place prepared onion evenly distributed in a shallow glass dish with rim,
Single layer the salmon on top of the onion, sliced lemon on top of salmon. Stir the olive oil mixture before pouring over the salmon. Scatter the dill on top. Cover with plastic wrap.Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Serve with sliced baguette, crackers or cucumber.

Gifts from friends – Home grown Kale is sheer beauty!

Then I received handmade cards by Jalna in the mail. I was touched. Too beautiful to let go…can I just keep them in a keepsake box?

The table my husband was working on was finally stained (antique red)!
The painting was done by moi, My son-in-law made the vase.

Miss-happening occurred playing basket ball the other day…seriously? My husband spent a few days in the horizontal position.

He must get better fast! We’re ready to go to Japan soon…

See you in a few weeks!

PS – I greatly appreciate you all for visiting my blog.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Coral pink

Spicy salmon salad

My husband brought home salmon the other day. He purchased it at Costco. Honey, I prefer red (Copper River salmon) and where is the skin? In my opinion, farm raised salmon is not the best but it is adequate for this dish. Even so, why does the store remove my favorite part of fish? Don’t they know that the natural collagen that it contains is super good for your body…. but he who does not like fish skin is not listening. Fine! It’s a waste of time trying to lecture to a person who has selective hearing anyway.

A husband of a friend of mine loves hunting and fishing. She gave me a half of a huge salmon he caught. Because he actually does not like fish (what?) and his wife doesn’t care for cleaning fish. I got the top half and somebody else received the bottom half. Wow, nice and heavy. It was good! I told her that I will be more than happy to solve her fish dilemma anytime.

My husband always orders salmon mayo at the merry go-round sushi place. A slice of fresh salmon on top of sushi rice mounded with purple onion and a squirt of mayonnaise stripes- the sushi chef puts extra onions just for him. He smiles wide. But darling not so close, oh I know! I have mints in my purse. Anyway, this dish is sort of like salmon mayo minus vinegar rice.

Ingredients for Salmon salad, for about 4 people

Salmon 2 pounds or more. Cut in big chunks or 2 inches x 4 inches.
Salt, pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil (optional).
Bean thread (春雨) 2 small bundles.
1 small red/ purple onion, thinly sliced and soaked in ice cold water for a few minutes.
Wonton skin 4-5 Cut in thin strips.*
Oil for frying
Spinach or other leafy green
1 lime, cut in wedges.

Instruction

Cover a cooking sheet with aluminum foil. Lay the salmon and salt and pepper lightly on both sides. Rub olive oil all over.
Broil fish. Be careful not to over cook. I like it in the under cooked state. Set it aside.
While fish is cooking, prepare the bean thread by soaking in hot water for 6-8 minutes. Drain the water well and cut in several places with kitchen scissors.
Heat oil in heavy skillet. Fry the wanton skin strips until crisp at medium high temperature. This process goes quickly, so keep an eye on it and be careful not to burn wonton. * If the salmon comes with skin, cut skin in about 1/2 inch square then fry them too. Drain on a paper towel to remove excess oil.
On a large platter, lay the salmon on top of a bed of leafy greens or spinach. The bean thread, onion and fried wanton skin and fried salmon skin is next. Put lime wedges on the side - optional but highly recommended.

Spicy dressing

Chili sauce 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon depending your preference. I used a very small amount.
Sweet chili sauce 3-5 tablespoon
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
Lemon juice 4 tablespoons
Sugar 2 teaspoons
Red pepper flakes (optional)

Mix everything in a bowl with folk or whisk. Drizzle over salmon. this dressing does not have to be exact, add more, subtract or omit some ingredients to your liking. my husband likes add bit of mayonnaise..in this case kewpie.

Moving back into the new kitchen is a slow process. We thought we would be completely done by last Saturday but the grass come to my knees. Lots of weeding to be done also.

Ahhh! Mother of weeds!