Oriental salmon with salad

Yesterday was hot! Well it was for us (having had an abysmal summer so far, anything above 20C is hot). This was a perfect meal for a warms sumemrs evening, particularly after having leftover curry for lunch which was quite filling. As it is a fish dish with very little fat other than that naturally in the fish it is a superhealthy meal and also light but still satisfying. To turn it into a more filling meal (you know, for when its pouring with rain and you just need those carbs), serve with some rice with lime juice and pine nuts stirred through. We were quite happy with just the light version though. I added some kohl rabi to my salad as we have some in and it is slightly sharp providing a nice contrast to the sweet salmon. So basically I'd advocate doing whatever you want with the salad!

Sadly this meal is limited by what you can do with your salmon fillets, so although it is easily halved and doubled it isn’t so good for leftovers (my favourite form of cheating on weekday lunches).

As with all my recipes (particularly of the fish variety), this will work with many types of fish so don’t feel constrained to salmon. Pick and chose. Go on, try something different!

I did adapt this from somewhere, but I have no idea where. So please forgive me for not linking up correctly!

Summer deliciousness

Oriental salmon with orange salad

Serves 4

Preparation:  10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Cost: £8.08 (£2.02 per serving)

4 tbsp soy sauce

3 tsp+1 tsp honey

4 oranges, zested and segmented (see below)

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

4 salmon fillets, or equivalent fish of your choice

Salad leaves or watercress (the bitterness of the watercress is a perfect accompaniment to the sweet glaze on the fish), washed and drained

1 kohl rabi, peeled and sliced (optional)

Zest the oranges and set the zest aside. Then segment the orange, removing the skin on each segment. If you have never done this before, have a look at this tutorial.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/techniques/segmenting_citrus_fruit

The basic concept is to slice off all the peel, rather than peeling it, thus exposing the flesh. Then cut the segments out of the skin rather than splitting the segments with their skin in the normal manner.

Once you have done this, set the segments to one side and squeeze the juice out of the remaining flesh.

Make the glaze for the fish by mixing 3 teaspoons of the honey (reserving the final teaspoon for the salad dressing), the orange juice squeezed out of the orange remains, zest and soy sauce. You shouldn’t need to add any salt as the soy sauce contains plenty, but you may wish to. Remove 1 tbsp of the glaze and set aside. Rub the rest of the glaze into the fish.

I left the fish to marinade for about an hour because I was doing other things, and I think it improved the flavour, but it isn't strictly necessary.

Turn on the grill (broiler in other countries I think). Place a piece of foil on a baking sheet, drain the excess liquid off the fish and place the fish on the baking sheet and then under the grill. Grill for about 10 minutes, turning every few minutes, until cooked through. If it gets crispy in places don't worry, this is absolutely delicious! 

While the fish is grilling finish the salad. Make the salad dressing: in a separate bowl mix the 1 tbsp of glaze that you kept to one size, the remaining 1 tsp honey, rice vinegar and oil. Mix the salad leaves, kohl rabi (if using) and orange segments in a bowl and drizzle with the salad dressing.

Once the fish is cooked through, serve immediately with the salad. 

N.B. The cost of the meal is calculated on the day that this blog entry was published, using Sainsbury's online groceries as a reference for pricing. Each item is costed by weight used not by the total cost of a bottle/packet of that product.

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Rose

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