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

1. Cover a cooking sheet with aluminum foil. Lay the salmon and salt and pepper lightly on both sides. Rub olive oil all over.
2. Broil fish. Be careful not to over cook.  I like it in the under cooked state. Set it aside.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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!

Strawberry

I think this is rosemary.

This is type of strawberry but doesn’t bear fruits. Pretty flower is just for showBurdock (ごぼう) root is doing great.

Peas

Tomato

fig

Gumi  When I was little my neighbor had gumi tree. I sneaked in and took some fruits.