Happy Friday. I say that in earnest, but also as a reminder that it is, indeed, Friday. I’ve found myself, over the last year or so, saying “Happy [day of the week]” to start every call I’m on, just to make sure I’ve got my days right. Weird quirks of a weird year. Whatever.
Anyway, it’s almost the weekend so let’s talk about salmon. Not this kind, but this kind. At one point, Christine and I were eating salmon about 4x per week — and I’ve gotta say, that lasted for about a month before I got sick of it. So we took a hiatus for, oh, about three years — but now it’s back on the menu. Christine whipped this little dish up the other night, mostly inspired by a chicken teriyaki recipe from the NYT “No-Recipe Recipes.” Give it a shot, served over rice, and you’ve got your own salmon teriyaki bowl.
In a medium bowl, mix together some soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, and brown sugar — then drop in a few salmon fillets (hopefully wild-caught, since farm-raised salmon kinda sucks). You can adjust the ratios to taste, but you’ll want a decent amount, at least enough to cover your salmon. Let that sit for a bit while you roughly chop up whatever veggies you have on hand — broccoli, carrots, snap peas, onions, it’s all deadly.
In a decent sized pan, preferably a wok, add some sesame oil and toss in your veggies over a pretty high heat. Heat up another pan with some sesame oil while this is going on (or light up the grill). Stir or shake these occasionally, until the veggies are starting to char and soften. Once that happens, place the salmon on the pan (or grill) skin side down, and pour the remaining marinade over the veggies and shake/stir vigorously. Once the marinade is mostly reduce, turn off the heat, and flip the salmon. Cook until it’s to your desired doneness (I like my salmon closer to medium rare, just flaking). Serve over rice, add in the veggies and any remaining marinade in the veggies pan, and enjoy!
This recipe comes together in under 20 minutes and works well as a weeknight meal — but I think firing up the grill turns this into a nice weekend dish as well.
Christine also mentioned I should start adding photos of what these things look like finished… let me know if you’d like to see that and I’ll bust out the photography equipment next week.
Enjoy and read more.
The best outdoor photos of 2021 [Biographic]
“The biggest risk is we stop taking risks” [Purdue]
Exercise and a sense of purpose [Irish Times]
On Cold Showers [Lofi]