Caramella Cooks Is 4

Well, what do you know, it's 4 years since I started recording my recipes. In a way it feels a lot longer.



I've also neglected my Ye Olde Recipe Collection project and went through my cards the other day and decided on a couple of recipes that looked easy and quick enough to do. You see, I'm rather busy during the days this week, so quick ad easy is crucial.

The one I did last night was Waitrose's Oriental salmon with salad onions. However this recipe calls for a griddle pan, something I do not possess (yet). The recipe card is for 2 portions, but the salmon fillets in the shop looked so nice, I bought two packs, which amounted to 4 portions and that's what I adjusted to. Well, I tripled the marinade as I always find the given amounts are not enough.

Ingredients
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 dl grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp olive oil
4 salmon fillets with skin still on, about 600 g
2 bunches of salad onions
600 g potatoes
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sweet paprika
salt

Method

1. Mix together the soy sauce, ginger and olive oil, then marinade the salmon in it for about 10 minutes. A good way to do this is to put the fillets in a food bag together with the marinade, tie the bag well, then shake around to get the fillets covered.


2. Clean and trim the salad onions, clean and dice the potatoes, then steam them until completely cooked.


3. Pre-heat the oven on the slow cook setting, just over 100 degrees C. Heat up a frying pan on medium heat.


4. When the marinating time is up, fry the salmon with the skins down for a few minutes, then turn around once and fry for another couple of minutes.

Transfer the salmon to an oven safe dish and put in the oven to finish cooking and keep warm.

5. When the potatoes are done, transfer to an oven safe bowl, drizzle some olive oil, sprinkle paprika and salt and stir around, then also place in the oven to keep warm.


6. Pour any left over marinade into the frying pan again and add the onions and fry for a couple of minutes just so they start to soften a bit, but not so that they begin to wilt.


7. Distribute the onions on four plate, place a piece of salmon on top of each, then add the potatoes and serve.

When I fried the salmon, it went opaque very quickly and I panicked a bit thinking that I'd overcooked it and took it out and served it, but it wasn't quite ready in the middle. Thus, finishing it off in the oven would get it cooked through, without burning the surfaces completely.

Despite the simple marinade, the flavour was very good. The original recipe recommended crushed potatoes, I added the paprika and it blended in quite nicely. The salad onions had lost the oniony edge and had developed a sweetness that combined nicely with everything else as well.

Alas, these were the last few of our own homegrown potatoes. I guess the compost that we grew them in, our very own, wasn't strong enough for the hungry plants and we got 3 portions in total. I think I'll buy something stronger for next year, as it's definitely worth growing them.