Broiled Teriyaki Salmon with Kale Fried Rice

I've been on a kale binge this week. Maybe my body is trying to counter-act the Halloween chocolate. I gave up on kale in my smoothies- do you have to sharpen blender blades or something? Mine isn't pureeing the kale any more. Chugging a drink rife with hearty leaves that have done battle with the blender and won is not pleasant first thing in the morning, believe me. So what to do with this giant bunch of kale? Kale salad. Kale fried rice. And maybe some kale chips if you please.

Raw kale + roasted sunflower seeds + dried cranberries + chopped apples + balsamic vinaigrette = addictive kale salad.

Parker enjoys all these things, aside from the kale, separately. But mix them together and call it a salad and it's a no go. I don't get kids. This must be how men feel their whole lives about women. Just can't figure them out.

The recipe for the fried rice is from Gwyneth Paltrow's first cookbook. Still one of my favorite cookbooks. The rice is dead simple. You don't need a recipe, really, but I'll provide you my modified recipe anyway of course. Paltrow calls for the kale to be cut small, "the smaller you cut the kale the more it becomes about the rice." I decided to chop it to oblivion in the food processor. Parker likes to help press the button. And then, being three, he asked me to wash the food processor so he could chop up his cars. Whaaa?

One Year Ago: Meatball Stuffed Peppers

Two Years Ago: Chinese Five Spice Powder Recipes, Chicken Stock

Three Years Ago: Korean-Style Pork Tenderloin, Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

Four Years Ago: Fresh Pea and Feta and Classic Bruschetta, Pulled Pork Broccoli Goat Cheese Pizza

TERIYAKI SALMON WITH KALE FRIED RICE

Serves 4

Adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow's My Father's Daughter 

Cook your rice the day before you plan to make this. Just let it bubble way on the back of the stove while you make whatever else you are having for dinner that day. Drain and stash it in the fridge until ready to use. Cooked rice can also be frozen flat in freezer bags for quick thawing.

• Teriyaki Salmon recipe
• 1/2 lb kale, stems discarded
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups cold cooked brown rice (I used a brown and wild rice blend)
• 1 cup peas, thawed if from frozen
• 2 green onions, chopped small
• 1 tbsp Ponzu-soy sauce or soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil

Chop kale finely in a food processor (or go nuts with a knife). Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat with the vegetable oil. Add kale and saute until crisp and bright green with a few browned pieces, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and saute 30 seconds. Add rice and stir to combine everything. Spread rice into a flat layer and fry a few minutes, stir and spread it out again. Repeat, stirring every few minutes, until rice is crisped and smells nutty. Add green onion and peas, stir to combine. Turn off heat, add Ponzu or soy and sesame oil, stir to combine.

Thai Feast

Last year for Christmas I gave my parents a meal cooked by a personal chef. The chef being... me! It turns out that I get the procrastination trait from my dad. I cooked this dinner last weekend. Yes. December 1st.

I told them to pick a menu or theme. They chose Thai. Not 10 days before that I had announced that I was never again making Pad Thai as it never turns out right. So I had a little panic attack and then got to work on figuring out what I was going to make that wasn't Pad Thai.

It turned out amazing (if I do say so myself)! I will make these recipes again and again. They are fairly easy and all gluten free, as it so happens. I spent an enjoyable hour in the Asian supermarket up the street from my office looking perusing the strange (to me) and wonderful foods. I found all of the authentic ingredients I needed, despite asking for help and the clerk not understanding a word I said. A lot of them were frozen, so I have lots of left over ingredients to use up. Excellent.

Here is the menu. I followed the recipe for all the dishes except the mango salad as I was pretty confident about that dish having eaten it lots of time before. The other recipes, not much. I've never eaten those dishes and didn't have time to do a test run so I went by the (Mac)book. 

Green Papaya and Mango Salad adapted from Canadian Living
I wanted to do just green papaya, and I even found a green papaya at the Asian market. But when chopped it up, I found that it was totally bland. Maybe it needed to ripen, but I thought the point was that it is green? So I used some papaya and some mango. It turned out perfectly. I could go for some right now, actually.

Red Curry Shrimp from Food and Wine
Totally easy and yummy. I didn't make the tartar sauce in the linked recipe- I just did the shrimp. Next time I'd like to find a recipe for homemade red curry paste. As I found out with the next dish, the jarred stuff vs. your own curry paste is like night and day.

Green Curry Chicken from Real Thai Recipes
This was unreal. So delicious. I forgot to take photos of the whole meal the night of, so I made this again on Sunday. The first time I pounded the ingredients for the curry paste in a pestle and mortar, the second time I did it in the food processor. Use a pestle and mortar if you have one. I wouldn't have believed it, but you can taste the difference. It's almost as if the flavors are coaxed (or threatened within an inch of their life) by being pounded and ground by hand. Be careful when adding the coconut milk at the end of the recipe- I added the whole cup the recipe calls for at once and the sauce ended up too thin- add a bit at a time. Also, be careful not to take a huge whiff of the shrimp paste. Gag city. Think fish sauce times five. Oh, and one more thing. I don't usually love eggplant but it really soaks up all the flavours in the sauce. The second time around I used red pepper and carrots as that's all I had and that was ok too though.

Spicy Glass Noodles with Crispy Pork from The Kitchn
This was the sleeper hit of the night. The recipe is easy and sounds unassuming, but the result is fantastic. I like that it is to be served cold or at room temp. That's part of the reason I chose this recipe, actually. I figured I'd make it and let it sit while the green curry finished cooking. It all went according to plan. I wouldn't recommend serving this hot, in fact, as the noodles need some time to absorb the sauce. I poured in all the sauce the recipe called for and it looked soupy and I was really disappointed, but by the time it was served it was perfect.  

Sticky Rice with Sweet and Spicy Dipping Sauce from i eat food
I have made sticky rice many, many times. Tyler's cousin used to work at a Thai restaurant and gave me a steamer contraption for making steamed sticky rice as I love it every time he makes it. It pretty much looks like the one in the link, but bigger because it's the Vietnamese version or something. Same idea though. I cook mine differently than she does. I just dump the soaked rice in the basket and stick a sauce pot lid on top to cover it. It doesn't seem to take as long to cook this way. You do, however, have to pick dried bits of rice of the bamboo after though. You've been warned.

Coconut and Lime Creme Brulee (recipe below)
This is my own recipe. I adapted a no-bake pumpkin creme brulee recipe that I made the other week. This was originally going to be a tropical fruit creme brulee- mango, banana, lime- but that one didn't set and it tasted more like banana pudding. That went down the drain (told you it didn't set). The second version came out much better. Use a kitchen torch or a blow torch (seriously- careful!) to brulee though. I stuck them under the broiler to save some time and the custard got heated through and wasn't as nice. Lesson learned: always go with the blow torch option. Always.

THAI GREEN PAPAYA AND MANGO SALAD
Adapted from Canadian Living

Serves 4

If you can't find green papaya, use some slightly under ripe mango. I used my handy OXO julienne peeler for the papaya and carrot which makes it really easy.

Salad:

• 1/2 small green papaya, julienned
• 1 ripe mango, sliced into thin strips
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced into thin strips
• 1 small carrot, julienned
• 1/4 cup shredded red cabbage
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced into rounds
• 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp julienned mint leaves
• 1/2 cup salted roasted cashews, finely chopped

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• zest of 1 lime (use a Microplane or small grater)
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1-2 finely chopped thai chilis, depending on how hot you want it

Mix the dressing ingredients in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Add the salad ingredients except 1 tbsp mint and the cashews and toss to combine. Let rest 15 to 20 minutes. Serve topped with reserved mint and cashews.

COCONUT AND LIME CREME BRULEE

Serves 4

• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 large egg yolks
• zest of 1 lime, zested on Microplane or small grater
• 1 1/2 cups lite coconut milk
• 2 sprigs mint leaves
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 8 tsp fine sugar, for bruleeing

Heat coconut milk in a saucepan over medium heat with mint leaves (don't bother stripping from stem- just throw the whole thing in) until bubbles form around the outside and milk is steaming.

Meanwhile, mix cornstarch, sugar, salt, egg yolks, lime zest in a medium bowl. Slowly add heated coconut milk while whisking yolk mixture. Add mixture back to pot. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until very thick. Pour into four ramekins, cover with plastic wrap directly on surface of custard, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

To serve, sprinkle each custard with 1 tsp sugar. Brulee with a kitchen torch or bring out the big guns and (carefully!) use a full on blow torch. Sprinkle with another tsp of sugar and brulee again. Serve with 5 minutes so that the sugar topping doesn't soften.

Fried Udon Noodles

These noodles are my favourite. Udon noodles are thick, slightly chewy noodles. I think they hail from Korea, but correct me if I'm wrong. When I was in backpacking in Australia at 18 I stayed in Melbourne for a couple of months and there was a small Asian restaurant down the street from our hostel. My friend Liz and I would go there once in a while when we were feeling flush (which was not often when backpacking, to be honest) and I would always order the udon noodle dish with chicken. Liz would order vegetarian. Either way it was delicious. This is my attempt to recreate it. It's close. I think. It's been 10 years.

I've had a hard time finding udon noodles here. They finally carry them at Zehrs (aka Loblaws for other folks) and they were on sale a few weeks ago for $1.00 each. Score! One package will serve one of me, perhaps two of you if you don't eat as much as I do, which is entirely possible since I eat a lot.

One Year Ago: Broccoli Salad 
Pasta with Pea Pesto

FRIED UDON NOODLES

Serves 1

Adding some chicken, shrimp, tofu, beef or pork would be delicious and make this a more filling meal for dinner- I made it for a quick lunch here so I didn't use any of that. The vegetables can be whatever you have available.

• 200 g udon noodles
• 1 tsp canola oil
• 2 cremini mushrooms, sliced
• handful shredded cabbage (I shredded 2 brussels sprouts which I had in the fridge)
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 green onion, sliced
• sesame seeds, for serving

Pour boiling water over noodles, let sit for 1 minute, then drain and set aside. This is to loosen them from being vacuum packaged.

Mix together soy sauces, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil in a small bowl. Set aside.

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Add vegetables, stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add noodles, fry a couple more minutes. Add sauce, fry 1 minutes until sauce thickens slightly and is bubbling. Serve sprinkled with green onion and sesame seeds.

Korean Style Pork Tenderloin with Vegetable Stir-Fry

I used to be scared of cuts of meat that I hadn't cooked before. I think Tyler and I had been living in our own place for a year before I cooked a pork tenderloin. Don't make the same mistake I did! There is nothing to fear. Pork tenderloin cooks quickly and is a great alternative if you find you're always making chicken. One tenderloin is enough for Tyler and I for dinner with a bit leftover even.

The only kind of tricky part, for me anyway, the first time you cook with this cut of meat is removing the silver skin. Check out this video demo. You can probably ask the butcher at the grocery store to do it as well, even if you get it in a package in the meat case- they'll just package it up again for you after they deal with it.

This Korean Style Pork Tenderloin from For the Love of Cooking is so delicious. You have to try it. It tastes like Asian barbecued pork with all the good crisp browned bits, only it's done in the oven. I only marinated the pork for a few hours as I didn't realize the recipe called for 8 to 24 hours of marinading (is that a word? It sounds wrong), but it was still really flavorful and moist. I can't wait to make this again and marinate it for the full time period.

For the vegetable stir-fry: start canola oil, minced garlic, and minced ginger in a cold pan. Heat over med-high until sizzling and fragrant but not browned. Add your choice of veggies*, fry for a few minutes, tossing frequently, until veggies are tender-crisp. Add some soy sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil to finish. Simple, delicious, and healthy.

*I used some bok choy along with peppers, onion, mushrooms, broccoli- if using bok choy don't add the leaves until the veg is almost finished cooking

One Year Ago: Hawai'i

Green Curry Chicken Summer Roll Salad

Photo from Food and Drink Magazine

As promised, here is the recipe for last Wednesday's dinner. Clearly the photo above is a summer roll, not a summer roll salad. I didn't take a photo of the salad when I made it as I assumed the recipe with a photo would be on their website and I was going to just link to it in the previous post, but alas, it didn't work out that way.

This salad is perfect for a summer lunch or dinner. In the note preceding the recipe in Food and Drink magazine they describe it as "deconstructed summer rolls". It's very refreshing light. And delicious of course.

As I mentioned in the the previous post, the flavor of the green curry paste didn't come through in the salad as it was only in the marinade for the chicken. I have adapted the recipe to include some green curry paste in the dressing for the salad as well.

GREEN CURRY CHICKEN SUMMER ROLL SALAD

Adapted from Food and Drink

Serves 4 for lunch or 2 for dinner

*All of the components of salad can be made up to 24 hours in advance, refrigerated, and and tossed together when ready to serve. 

*To change up the salad, you could also use shrimp in place of chicken, shortening the marinating time to just an hour.

Marinade

• 1/2 cup coconut milk from a 398 ml can
• 1 tsp packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp green curry paste
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 4 large)

Salad

• 8 oz rice vermicelli
• 2 large carrots, julienned
• 1 seedless cucumber, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
• 1 large red pepper, thinly sliced
• chopped fresh cilantro or mint, to garnish

Dressing

• remaining coconut milk from can
• 3 tsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tbsp green curry paste
• 1 tsp lime zest
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

Combine marinade ingredients in a large freezer bag and add chicken. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 48 hours.

Preheat grill to medium or preheat broiler. Remove chicken from marinade, discarding marinade, and season with salt and pepper. Place on oiled grill or on baking sheet under broiler for about 20 minutes, turning once, or until no longer pink inside. Remove from heat and let cool.

Place rice noodles in a large, heatproof bowl or baking dish and cover with enough boiling water to cover. Let soak for about 2 minutes, or until tender. Drain water and rinse under cold water. Drain well.

For dressing, combine coconut milk, brown sugar, fish sauce, and curry paste in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring often, until reduced by about one third. Remove from heat and stir in lime zest and lime juice. Pour into salad bowl that you will be using to serve salad and cool slightly. Add drained noodles, toss, and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

To serve, slice chicken, add chicken and vegetables noodles and garnish with cilantro or mint.