Salmon Terriyaki & spring onions

This dish is super speedy and only takes as long as the rice takes to cook.  In order for this to be super speedy, I use shop bought Teriyaki sauce – luckily for me I have an Asian supermarket round the corner from me, and I would recommend that you use the best quality Teriyaki sauce that you can find.

Teriyaki chicken, salmon or beef are all firm favourites in my household.  I like to serve with steamed rice, greens and deep fried julienne spring onions.  The reason for the deep fried spring onions is to add another texture dimension.

For 2 people, you will need:-

2 salmon fillets, skin on

5 spring onions

½ a cup of rice

Good quality shop bought Teriyaki sauce

Fresh spinach

Vegetable oil

Sesame oil

Soy sauce

Marinade the salmon fillets in the sauce.

Put the rice on – remember whatever quantity of rice you use, you’ll need double the amount of water.  So for 1 cup of rice, you’ll need 2 cups of water.  Just make sure you use the same cup both times.  Remember to add a good pinch of salt to pot, cover, bring to the boil, and turn the gas down to low and simmer very gently until all the water has evaporated, and the rice is cooked.  This should only take around 20 minutes.

The salmon only takes 5 minutes to pan fry, and the spring onions take even less.

Heat a wok or non-stick frying pan, and add a few drops of sesame oil.

Heat a small pot of vegetable oil until hot enough to deep fry.

Take off excess sauce of the salmon fillets, and place in the pan, skin side down.

Julienne the spring onions – this means to cut into very thin strips – and plunge into the hot oil for about 10 seconds.  Then remove and drain on kitchen paper.  We want the onions to be crispy, but still retain their vibrant green colour.

When you can start to see the sides of the salmon turn opaque then you know it’s time to turn the fish.  Flip over and turn off the heat.  Spoon over a couple of tablespoons of the teriyaki sauce and leave to settle and warm up.

Stir fry the spinach in a few drops of sesame oil until soft and wilted.

Now you’re ready to plate up.  Start with rice, then spinach, then salmon then top with the deep fried spring onions.

Serve with love……xoxo

Flash Fried Turkey Stir Fry

Alex and I both have stinky colds, so tonight for supper, I really wanted to prepare something super quick, nutritious, and spicy to get the sinuses moving.

Here’s what I used:

1 Turkey breast (I like turkey as it’s even more lean than chicken)

2 tsp of sesame oil

2 red chillies, finely chopped

1 thumb sized piece of ginger, grated

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 tbsp of light soy

2 tbsp of Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 yellow pepper

1 small packet of baby sweetcorn

spring onions cut on a slant

broccoli florets

fresh coriander

1 tsp corn flour + 4 tsp of water

½ mug of Basmati rice

The stir-fry takes only a matter of minutes, but the rice will take approximately 25 minutes.

After living in Japan, my mother always liked to boil and steam rice, like the Japanese, and this is the only way that I ever cook rice.

I find that ½ a mug of rice is more than sufficient for 2 people.  It is important that you cover the rice with exactly double the amount of water, so in this instance 1 full cup.  Add a pinch of salt, cover the pot, and bring to the boil.  As soon as it boils, move the pot to the smallest hob ring, and turn down the heat as low as possible.

Now you can make a cup of tea, and go away and come back in 20 minutes.

Check the rice, and you will see it has expanded and the pockets of steam will be running from top to bottom.

Get all your vegetables ready now, and slice the turkey.

Heat your wok until it is smoking.  Add the sesame oil.  Then add the Chinese holy trinity that is chilli, ginger and garlic which is a prevalent combination of sautéed ingredients, typically used in the spicier regional cuisines of China.

Add the turkey, which will only take a minute as it is sliced thinly. 

Then add the vegetables which takes the longest time to cook, so the sweet corn and the broccoli.

Add the light soy, the Shaoxing wine, and the sweet chilli sauce.

After a minute add the spring onions and the sliced pepper.

Now mix the water and the corn flour to make corn starch, and drizzle a few teaspoons over the stir-fry and toss.  This will thicken the sauce and make it wonderfully glossy – without all the MSG that you would get in a ready made Chinese stir-fry sauce / meal.

Add some fresh coriander. 

Serve with the steamed rice and extra fresh coriander and extra freshly chopped chillies……….

………..and of course with love, especially when under the weather…….xoxo

Steamed Cod

For those of you watching the calories, this steamed cod is a great dish, delicious and low fat

You will need a steamer of some sort, any of these will do:

a bamboo steamer

or any regular household steamer

You will need:

3 large cod loins - preferably sustainable - or any other fish you fancy

shredded root ginger

splash of dark soy

splash of light soy

drizzle of sesame oil

shredded spring onions

fresh torn coriander

Arrange the fish on the steamer over boiling water

Scatter over the ginger

Cover and steam cook for 5-10 minutes depending on the size of the pieces of fish - the fish needs to turn opaque

When cooked remove and sprinkle over the soy and oil, and scatter over spring onions and coriander.

Serve with boiled rice, pak choi............

........and LOVE.....

xoxo